Blue Lagoon Traveler

Monday, May 29 Day 3 of the Tour Athens to Delphi Part   One: Arachova - On the road to Delphi Scenic viewpoint over Arachova, our lunch stop. Notice Mary telling everyone that Christine always stands too close to the edges of cliffs. We were only in Arachova long enough to grab some lunch, stretch our legs, take some breathtaking photos, and race back to the bus in the first drenching downpour of this trip. 🌧️ Climb the stairs to the church and report back on how many steps there are? Challenge accepted! Mary was ready to skip lunch so we'd have time to hike, but I got a quick sandwich called a chiapata to eat along the way. Yum 😋 So many beautiful flowers pop out of the stones everywhere we've been in Greece. I love how they hang from the walls. Made it! Only 265 steps. Each way. At the top, we found the church plaza armed to fight off the Nazis. Mary is doing her part....

Sunday May 28th - the Acropolis and The Acropolis museum  We started early at  745 to beat the cruise ships (you will see that we didn’t).  We learned the history on the way up the hill and also at the top on the plateau of the Acropolis from our guide.  Our guide was Mama Faye, she was quite a character and is 72 years old. She has been guiding for 51 years - and everyone in Athens seemed to know her.  We then had 75 minutes to look around.  I liked the Parthenon (500BC) and the Temple of Athena Nike (426-421BC) the best! Then we went to the museum at the base of the Acropolis hill for 2 hours.  This was open 12 years ago and has a beautiful view of the Parthenon.  We continued to hear the history of how many of the artifacts are in the British museums (our guide was not happy about that!). We continued a great day with dinner in a Greek neighborhood away from the tourist areas.  It had a lot of fun eateries and fabulous bakeries. Last but n...

Saturday, May 27:  Day 3 in Athens As we've quickly learned to do in Athens, we headed off this morning more or less in the direction of the ever-present Acropolis, but circled its base opposite our usual direction, heading counterclockwise (west) to find the site of Ancient Agora. Passing through some lovely neighborhoods, eventually we started to see more street vendors and sidewalk cafes.  Here's one of my favorite artisans with his wares (unlike the usual Athens tourist stuff like evil eyes, Greek gods and goddesses, and white dresses).  Mary - our tour planner - consulting Rick's guide for the next point of interest. From the upper level of the Stoa, a re-constructed version of an ancient shopping and office arcade, we could see the Temple of Hephaestus (in the way back). There's a story about Hephaestus (the god of fire and metalworking) and Athena (my personal fave) that our tour guide at the Parthenon (stay tuned for M...