Athens, Greece

On Tuesday August 4th we left Dubrovnik, Croatia at 10:00 AM to fly to Athens, Greece. The flight was about 1.5 hours on a small prop plane.  

As we flew in we had great views of the city and the coast...

When we arrived in Athens we took a train to our hotel,  Athens Gate Hotel which was in a great location near the Acropolis and had fantastic views (more on that later). We started out the afternoon by going to the Acropolis Museum.  We were really glad we chose to do the museum before going up to view the Acropolis & Parthenon itself. In the museum we got to see some of the actual sculptures close up that are now there to be preserved.  We even saw the Caryatid statues which were original sculptures that were also support columns at one of the buildings at the Acropolis.  

There also were some great models that helped to visualize what the Parthenon looked like when it was fully in tact.

Here was the view from inside the museum looking out at the actual Acropolis & Parthenon...

After the museum we walked around the city center and found a market street to look at lots of shops.  Then we had found a street corner restaurant to sit and have a drink.  Since it was 6:00 pm we ordered beer then we noticed after that we were the only people drinking and everyone else was having Freddo Cappuccinos (delicious version of iced coffee).  In Greece it is common for locals to stay up late so I guess an early evening coffee is their secret!  We joined this habit later in the trip :)

Hadrian's Gate near our hotel...

Temple of Olympian Zeus...

Here was the incredible view from our rooftop hotel bar. The Acropolis is the entire rocky cliff area that was once an ancient city.  The main structure remaining is the Parthenon which was the temple of the goddess Athena.  It was believed to have built around 447 BC!   

Opposite direction overlooking Temple of Olympian Zeus...

We enjoyed some champagne while watching the sunset and the entire Acropolis light up...

The next morning we had breakfast with a view as well...

We woke up early in order to start our trek up the Acropolis after breakfast before it got too hot and crowded.  Below is the view on the way up, didn't look to bad but it was pretty steep and a lot of stairs to get to the top.  We were very thankful to be going early since we were sweaty enough as it was by 9:00 AM!  The temps were in the upper 90's the whole time we were in Athens.  With all the stone buildings that city is made of you could feel extra heat radiating from the walls all around making it feel even hotter, whew!

View from the Acropolis looking back over Athens...

Close up of the Parthenon...

Amazing to think about the history there and even harder to fathom 400-500 BC!

 

In the picture below are the Caryatid statues which are the replicas of the ones we saw in the Acropolis Museum. The originals were removed to be protected from the outside elements and are now preserved in the museum. 

Here we are next to the columns in order to show their size!

Odean of Herodes Atticus (ancient stone theater)

After we were done looking around we went back to our hotel and showered before setting out for more exploring for the day (wasn't long before we were sweating again!)  Here we are walking near the Temple of Olympian Zeus, dedicated to Zeus the king of Olympian gods. 

Not far away was the Panathenaic stadium which dates back to 500 BC and is where the first modern Olympic Games were held in 1896 after being renovated in 1869. 

One of Brian's coworkers is from Athens and she gave us a list of recommendations on things to see and do.  Since it was so hot we decided to take one of her ideas which was off the beaten tourist path and head to the area of Microlimano.  This is a port/marina where there are a lot of great fresh seafood restaurants.   

We had a delicious, huge fresh sea bass caught that morning.  Our very nice Greek waiter filleted it right in front of us... 

After lunch we wandered to the other side of the marina, looked at the boats and then found a restaurant/bar on the water where we enjoyed freddo cappuccinos like the locals.

Later that night back in the city center near our hotel we found a bar called Brettos which was a very unique and pretty place inside.  They distill their own spirits and we tried ouzo and Rakomelo Greek spirit.  The dark one tasted like cinnamon and honey and the clear one like licorice.

The next day we decided to take another one of Brian's coworkers recommendations and head to the beach.  This sounded like a great idea since we had already covered the major sites we wanted to see in Athens.  Plus it was unbearably hot just walking around.  So we took the tram to the beach which felt like it took forever but here was the beach once we arrived...

Later that night we actually went back to one of the restaurants we had already eaten at a previous night because it was so good.  We both had the chicken and pork souvlaki which is a pita with shaved meat from a large kebab with vegetable garnishes and sauces topped with fried potatoes.  They were so good!

The next morning we flew to Santorini...We couldn't wait to get to islands! (Separate post on that part to follow)