Exploring Athens

 Friday May 26th - Getting to know Athens. 

Today we did an all day self guided tour of the historical and touristy parts of Athens.  We started with ancient ruins, moved to the parliament building, walked through trendy shopping areas as well as streets and streets of tourist traps.  Christine took lots of pictures of cats!  We also stopped in a few churches, saw random and planned ancient ruins and statues, climbed some steep stairs, drank and ate at a couple of cafes and finished by having dinner in the shadow of the Acropolis hill. Come with us on the photo journey of this beautiful, fun and sunny day!  

In our hotel room ready to head out on adventures. 

There is a lot of pretty cool graffiti in town.  

And sweet random art work! 

Christine headed in to explore the Temple if Zeus.  

Rule of the tourist - get water when you can!  And not shown - use the bathroom when you find it! 

We are holding up one of the columns at the Temple of Olympian Zeus.  Behind Christine’s head is a column that we didn’t make it in time to hold up.  

Random statue on our walk. 

Christine and I in front of the Arch of Hadrian with the Acropolis Hill in the background.

I’m glad a lot of signs are in Greek and English. 

Here is a random ruin we saw!  The pictures above and below are of a Roman bath house.  This archeological site was found when they were trying to sink air shafts down to their metro station.  

Christine is in Syntagma Square, with the Greek parliament building in the background.  This Square is central in the modern Athens downtown and right off of the trendy shopping district.   

Changing of the guards at the parliament building. 

Christine is getting her shopping face on! A lot of stores in this area are the main chain stores.   In the picture below, there are random street musicians - which you see pretty much everywhere in the shopping and eating areas.  

Above and below is the Church of Kapnikarea, a classic Orthodox Church in the Byzantine style, built around the year 1000AD.  The inside was painted beautifully.  We were asked not to take pictures inside, but one thing that threw us off (especially after a pandemic), was that the faithful that were visiting did the sign of the cross at every icon (4-10 of them) and kissed the glass covering it.  

Emperor Constantine XI - final ruler of the great Byzantine Empire. 

The big Cathedral on the left is the “Greek Vatican”, home church of the arch bishop who presides over the 10 million Orthodox Christians.   We accidentally went around the backside of his actual residence and were escorted out by a very muscular policeman.  Ooops.  The little church is the Church of Agios Eleftherios, built in the 12th century and is also where the arch bishop presided over the faithful.  

Lots of steps headed up the hill

Anafiotika (Αναφιώτικα)

Neighborhood in Athens. The picture above and the 3 below are from this super cute neighborhood at the base of the Acropolis.  

Our fun Rick Steves recommended cafe in the shadows of the acropolis.  

The building in the background in the pictures above and below is called the Tower of the Winds.  It functioned as a time piece and is considered the worlds first meteorological station.  It was designed about 50BC. 

Dinner at the base of the Acropolis 

Christine took this and several dozen other pictures of cats.