Athens Greece

Travelled:184km tolls €12.40

Stay: Athens/Piraeus Port - secure mixed parking €13/24hrs 37.947701,23.646000   5mins walk to Metro, 20min to Centre of Athens €1.40 ticket.

Once again rain accompanied us on our drive from Delphi to Athens, but thankfully clearing as we approached the city. The motorway was good and we encountered no traffic jams as we took the E75 practically all the way to Piraeus, arriving there just before 11am after a 3 hour journey, having stopped for fuel, dumping the toilet and some shopping at Lidl. 

With instructions on how to get to the metro station from the friendly owner of the parking, we bought a 5 trip ticket each and headed into town. We decided that we would get acquainted with the city by following a Rick Steve’s walking tour downloaded on our phones. We began at Syntagma Square where the Greek Parliament Building stands above the steps.

 Below is the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and every hour the unique Changing of The Guards takes place by the Evzones who wear traditional Greek costumes. 

From here we walked along the pedestrian mall of Ermou Street passing retail shops typically found in most European cities.

  A little further down we came across the small medieval Eastern Orthodox Church of Kapnikarea built in the 12thC with Byzantine features. 

We then entered the Plaka area with its narrow cobblestone streets lined with souvenir shops and cafe/restaurants, all in the shadow of the Acropolis. 

Rick took us to the Athens’ Cathedral or Mitropolis which is the home of the archbishop, the head of the Greek Orthodox faith. 

The interior was beautifully decorated. 

Next door was the little 13thC church of Agios Eleftherios which was the “old cathedral” when the archbishops had been evicted from the Parthenon(became a mosque) by the Ottomans in the 15thC. 

The little street nearby had many shops selling religious objects and some arcades had workshops of local artisans making these. 

We continued on to The Arch of Hadrian commissioned by the man himself in 132AD to mark the line between Greek Athens and the new Roman city and stands 18m high by 12.5m wide.

 We then went and visited the Temple of Olympiad Zeus. (We decided to buy the combined ticket for €30ea which included 7 sites and valid for 5 days. It includes the Acropolis which is €20 on its own and now we can skip the queue tomorrow.) This temple was the largest in Ancient Greece and although construction began in 515BC it wasn’t completed until the 2nd C during the Roman era by Hadrian. The original building would have been 96m by 40m with 104 columns at 17m high (only 15 remain). It was quite impressive and there were great views of the Acropolis. 

Not far from here was the Panathenaic Stadium originally built in 330BC for the games held here every 4 years. It had a speckled past and eventually fell into disrepair until the 19th C when it was restored for the 1896 Olympic Games. It is the only stadium in the world built entirely with marble. It is now a multi purpose sports venue and was used during the 2004 Olympic Games. It can accommodate 45,000 spectators. 

We returned to the Plaka district and climbed up the stairs taking us along the foot of the Acropolis. We took little alleyways in a maze of tiny whitewashed houses and where rewarded with a view over the rooftops of Athens towards Lykavittos Hill. 

We then wound our way back down coming to Roman Agora (entrance incl.on combi ticket). This was the commercial centre of Athens and among the buildings there were law courts, stores, Temples and even a public toilet with 68 seats! 

The Tower of the Winds was a 1stC BC time piece comprising of a water powered clock and sundials.

 There was also a small exhibition about Hadrian. We then continued through the tourist streets were we eventually spilled out on to Monastiraki Square.

 There was a fair bit of action around here too and we decided it was time to try out a Greek Gyros. 

We ended up sharing a mixed plate which was delicious and then after a digestive stroll around some other streets we took the train back to Bluey calling it a day.