Day 3 19 May 2023. Athens

You know your in Athens when the view out the window from your breakfast table is the Parthenon sitting on top of The Acropolis.

After breakfast we met our guide, Anastasia, in the hotel foyer. After brief introductions we headed out. Today was all about The Acropolis. Deb and me both thought we were walking to Anastasia’s car, but we both cottoned on fairly quickly, today, we walk!
It was an interesting walk from our hotel through the Plaka district (the old historical neighbourhood of Athens)

to the entrance of the Acropolis. There we were met by a very long queue of people trying to get in to see the Acropolis. Anastasia said it was an unusually big crowd for so early in the day and that the tourist season this year had started in bigger numbers since April which was unusual. Luckily we had tickets and she saw a friend, fellow guide with a group at the head of the queue, we joined them and were in pretty quickly.
The crowds at the gate were similar to what was inside, all lining up for the walk up the trails to the top of The Acropolis. She asked us to be patient as it was going to be a slow morning. Her plan was to stop at various points along the trail to give us a rundown on the history and mythology of The Acropolis and Athens more broadly.
The buildings of the various structures on and around the Acropolis date from as far back as 450bc. They were built as a show piece to the city of Athens. They were funded by the people of Athens in the form of their democratically elected representatives.
Most of the significant damage to the Acropolis occurred in the 1700’s during the wars between the Athenians and the Venetians.
We hadn’t gone far when had our first stop The Theatre of Dionysus Eleuthereus. Dionysu was originally the Greek God of Fertility and later became known as The God of Wine, Ecstasy and Pleasure. He was a son of Zeus. There is a strange tale of his birth that’s a bit too long for here. He was famous for his partying. He was said to have been accompanied by a Satyre wherever he went. This is said to be the site at which Theatrical performances as we know them began. It was built around the late 5th century BC with a capacity of 17,000. It was later modified by the Romans, who among other things got rid of its circular orchestra pit and made other modifications so it was suitable for gladiator fights. To this day you can still see names of important political, community and commerce leaders (the positions, not the actual people) engraved in the seats of the front rows.

We passed by the Stoa of Eumenes, an Hellenistic colonnade that served as a refuge from the weather for theatre spectators and for storing theatre props. It is located between the The Theatre of Dionysus and the Odean of Herodes Atticus.
The Odean of Herodes Atticus is a stone theatre built by the Roman, completed in 161AD (and renovated in 1950) It is still used today and seats about 5000 on stone benches, hint, take a cushion! In ancient times it had a wooden roof, today it is open air.

From there we climbed further to the entrance of the plateau at the top, the Propylaea. It serves as an entrance, here it was built wide enough to allow chariots through. An impressive entrance by any measure with tall columns either side of the entrance pathway, and Temple rooms either side. Did I mention how crowded it was!

Once through the Propylaea, you are greeted by two main structures, the Old Temple of Athena on the left and The Parthenon on the right, the most recognised feature of the Acropolis.
The Old Temple of Athena is a Doric style structure dedicated to both Athena and Poseidon. It was built in the second half of the 6th century BC. The Temple housed the Xoanon of Athena.

The Parthenon is an impressive structure by any measure. The Parthenon is said to have been built using the Golden Ratio (9/4). It is said that this was used to avoid visual distortions to it when viewed from a distance. Basically this means that from any perspective it’s lines always look straight. Its outside columns are huge, around 2m in diameter and 10m+ high. The Parthenon is a very impressive building that has seen the ravages of time and hostile cultures.

We then headed back down from The Acropolis to the Acropolis Museum. The building was built over an Archeological site, and has many areas of glass floors to allow you to look at what was found beneath it. The building is a showcase of the artistry of the workmanship that went into decorating the building on and around the Acropolis. Within it you can see side by side the original stone carvings or sculptures and their facsimile re recreations, and the stories behind them and the significance of them to their times. Very worthwhile to visit.
From there we walked back into Athens, and Anastasia took us to an authentic taverna, Klimataria in the Psiri area, here we had lunch. The food was rustic in appearance but full of flavour and very generous servings. As we sat down our server put some rustic bread and a dip on our table. We had a Greek Salad, (it seemed strange that it would be called that here) , a traditionally slow cooked Lamb and Potato dish and a Mussaka, I ordered a beer to go with it. ( I finished up with a 500ml handle of local lager, very tasty) We had a great time there soaking up the atmosphere, music, eating good food and relaxing.

We walked back to our hotel through the local fruit and vegetable, and the wet meat markets. Both were very quiet but had lots of interesting types of produce. I was impressed with the cleaver skills of some of the butchers who were breaking down carcasses in and outside their shops.
We got back to our hotel around 3pm and had time to rest up a bit. Deb got a few hours of much needed sleep. I did this blog and went for a 30 min walk and played a bit of Ingress.
Sunset tonight was at 830.pm. We were up at the rooftop bar ready for it, in expectation of the Acropolis at sunset. The sun actually set at almost 90 degrees from the Acropolis, over the hills. It was a pretty sunset with a very orange sky and few clouds. The Acropolis got a bit of the orange tint fro the skies near it. We left before it got dark.

And that ended our day. Tomorrow we have all day free to ourselves until 5pm when we go out for another tour, but that’s for tomorrow’s post. We will not be back from our tour until past 10pm, so the blog may have to wait for the ferry trip to Naxos on Sunday.