Our second day in Greece was beautiful and sunny. This automatically put is in a giddy mood. I can't even explain how amazing it is to have the sun shining down on you when you are used to rainy England.
I made sure everyone was coated in SPF 50. There was no way I was going to allow us to get sunburned and have the rest of the vacation miserable.
We drove into downtown Athens and found a parking garage, and went walking to find the bus stop for the Hop On/Hop Off bus tour. We stumbled onto Embassy Row and then the Parliament building where we got to see the Guards or Evzones at the Tomb of the Unknown Solider.
We passed the Parliament building and walked on to the bus stop located close to the National Gardens, but as we walked, we noticed a lot of what appeared to be riot buses. We naturally asked questions and apparently there was a scheduled protest that afternoon. Something involving doctors - which the tour guide assured us were harmless. It was weird seeing the police with their gear walking towards Syntagma Square though.
We are pretty boring people when it comes to tour buses. We like to get onto the bus, ride the whole route taking horrible, crooked pictures before we get off to see things. That's just what we did this time. There are some really amazing things to see in the city and I strongly recommend the buses as part of any tourist experience. Not only do you get o see a ton of the city, you can get you bearings as well.
Our first stop was the Acropolis and Parthenon. Ok, not the first stop....That was the Dionysus restaurant for some chow because we were some hungry, but as soon as we ate.....off we went. It was only a 10 minute walk to the entrance where you purchase tickets to get into the historical site. There are people hanging around offering their services of tour guide, but we opted to go it on our own. Walking uphill, the first major site you see is Odeon of Herodes Atticus on the southern slope. It was built in 161 AD by Herodes Atticus in memory of his wife.
We wound our way around, up quite a few marble stairs, through several school groups to a pillared path way.....
....and up to the Erechtheion. This was built between 421 and 406 BC in honor of the Greek hero Erichthonius.
All we had to do was turn around and we were standing looking at the Parthenon. The Parthenon was dedicated to the maiden goddess Athena, who was considered the patron deity of Athens.Construction began in 447 BC and was mostly complete in 438 BC though decoration continued until 432 BC.
The Parthenon was used in many ways over the years, as well as damaged over the years, then was severely damaged in 1657. Restoration began in 1975, to bring as much of the Parthenon back to its glory. They are using as much of the original material as possible, but marble from the original quarry is being cut and used as well as titanium pins to help secure the blocks and pillars in place. If you look closely, you can see the crane in our picture.
We wandered around the Parthenon and other structures for quite some time, then decided to head down to what was reported to be Socrates prison cell. Even if it wasn't his cell, it was used to house artifacts during World War II. This was a memorable place for Josh because he loves standing where "Great Thinkers" stood. It was memorable for me/Skye because it is the place we dropped by Nikkon D3000 and cracked the view screen. It was an accident, and a little painful, but the camera still works - no harm no foul.
We decided to head back into town, stopping at some souvenir shops along the way. We also stopped for some fresh squeezed orange juice along the way.
We continued on down to the main thoroughfare to check out the Temple of Zeus. Unfortunately, we didn't get to go in because the ground close at 3:00PM, but we did take some pictures.
We headed back to the hotel after this long, exciting tourist-y day. We knew we were going to have a slow day on Friday so we weren't to bothered by our second night of telling kids to be quiet and complaining to the management about rowdy kids at 1AM. (Yes, this is a recurring theme)
Stay tuned for more on our Greek Adventures......
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