11/22/19-11/24/19 Athens Greece

Our last night in Tolo we had a huge thunderstorm with huge volumes of rain. We were staying in an isolated area, on gravel roads, and we worried about washed out Roads (we are in Greece). Fortunately, the morning broke clear and the roads were passable👍

Quick two hour trip to the Athens airport to return the car and meet our driver who will transfer us to our hotel in Athens. Everything is quick and easy and we are settled in our room by 14:30.

We are staying in a hotel in downtown Athens, right next to all the sights with 24 hour security👍 Ok, tour director Cindy makes an appearance and says “downtown location right next to everything, I see walking tours for the next three days”. And away we go!

The first afternoon, we walk the sight to put together our game plan. We tour the Temple of Olympian Zeus, walk around the Acropolis and checkout the shopping districts. Fun and busy, but not crazy

We decide to visit the Acropolis Museum first and spent the entire morning there, excellent. It’s built above a neighborhood from 300 BC that has been excavated.✔️

After lunch another walking tour, beautiful city, hilly, but so much history

Ok, now the main event, climbing to the top of the Acropolis. Man, it’s steep and long, and unbelievably beautiful

Theater of Dionysus

Odeon of Herodes Atticus

On the top of the Acropolis, the Propylaea

The majority of the walls on the Acropolis were built in 500 BC and the area has been sacred to the Greeks from the beginnings of mankind.

Views from the top of the Acropolis, staggering.

The showstopper, the Parthenon

The Erechtheion

The Acropolis as a whole survived until the 400’s AD when Christians sacked the Parthenon and it was later a christian church, then a mosque. It was shelled and almost destroyed in the 1600’s and sacked more times than a Safeway checker. The Greeks are slowly trying to rebuild it correctly, but that won’t happen in any of our lifetimes. Still a wonderful place to visit and understand history

Athens itself is a wonderful place, traffic is incredibly busy, the city is reasonably clean and safe, and boy do the Greeks love to eat and party. We enjoyed out two days here very much. The changing of the guards at the tomb of the unknown soldier.

A quick note on the food of Greece. Greeks are great cooks, they love rustic foods, seafood, lamb and our favorites, gyros with tzatziki sauce,

As always, we did our best to help the local economy 😎

Great weather in Athens, mostly sunny and mid 60’s. We are flying to the Greek island of Crete tomorrow for a nice long stay of 10 days. Hopefully, some sunny weather and some swimming 😜

P.S. Tour Director Cindy says we got in 28 miles of walking in two and a half days. 😎

Ciao! Ciao!