Melting in Athens

It was travel day. We drove to the airport, dropped off the Jumpy (good riddance!) and flew to Athens. We took the subway to the closest stop to our hotel and followed the random directions to the Ava. It was a very nice boutique hotel right in the heart of the Plaka, walking distance from the Acropolis, and well many other things.

We arrived around 2pm and it was HOT. So to kill time before our ticket time at the Acropolis museum, we chose to wander through the gardens and make our way to see the changing of the guard and the tomb of the unknown soldier.







The gardens were lush and green, though absent of many flowers. We did see some turtles, oddly all stacked on top of each other...




The changing of the guard was so oppressively hot, the building was giving off so much heat. I couldn't imagine how those poor soldiers stood there, straight faced and sweating to death. They stood like statues and people went up to take their pictures with them. Then the "performance" began. They start by lifting their legs up high bending at the knee and moving a step forward. I think they must do this to get the circulation flowing again...or maybe there is some real historical significance, I like my rationale better.











After we went back to the gardens to cool off and found Steve and Kelly who had arrived to Athens a day earlier. They too were melting in the heat so it makes sense we'd run into each other. We all had tickets for the Acropolis museum at 6pm so we made our way there. On the way seeing more cool buildings and ruins.






The museum is cool because it has the actual artifacts, what is on the hill is all replica. The views from the museum were great and big bonus, it was air conditioned!!













We ended the evening at Daphne's restaurant eating more traditional greek fare. It was good, but slow service was a bit much to bear after such a long day. It was nice though to see the city light up at night.



The next day bright and early we headed over to the acropolis. We wanted to get there early enough so it wouldn't be too hot or too crowded. We failed on both counts, but it was still very enjoyable.














Just below the Acropolis is Mars Hill where Peter preached in the bible. We walked up the very slippery stairs to the top and took the time to read a few scriptures from Acts and take in the view.






From there we wondered down to the flea market, which was a major letdown. It was so touristy and crazy. We did see one little outfit for our bun in the oven and a painting that apparently Dan's Grandma had hanging in her house.







We did see some nicer neighborhoods, with fancy doors and gates with some interesting shops. I found a very cool necklace and we saw some owls we kind of liked, but not enough to buy.






We saw the ruins of Zeus' temple.





Then Dan and I hiked to the top of this mountain.



There was a lot of walking and stair climbing involved to get to the base. Then you take an underground funicular to the very top. There is a white church perched on top and a restaurant and a lovely view. We unfortunately were going to the top with a wedding party so it was majorly crowded.






That evening we found a place for hamburgers. We were Greeked out! As we wondered back to our hotel we saw tons of police and protesters in one of their main squares. We think it was probably the end of the Taxi strike, but we didn't hang around long enough to find out. Next stop, Naxos!