Day 4 Athens

We had the “ working day” to ourselves, our tour today starts at 5:30pm.
We set off a little after 9am and walked down to the Temple of Olympian Zeus. It was begun in the 6th century BC and finished almost 640 years later. At the time it was the largest temple in Greece, displaying over 104 massive columns. Like all old monuments in Greece it is under restoration. It was pillaged from 267 AD on and off until recent times, only 16 of the original columns survived to today. It remains a very significant archaeological site in Greece.

From there we crossed the road and walked through the Athens National Gardens, the gardens have so much potential to be world class, they just lack money being spent on them. I guess the priorities lay else where in crumbling antiquities.

Walking just a little north, we arrived at the Greek Parliament building in time to witness the hourly changing of the guard. It was a really interesting ceremony to watch. The guards are changed every hour, on the hour. The march step they use could have come direct from Monty Python’s School of Funny Walks. Grand gestures in slow motion, legs raised almost to shoulder height with arms and/or rifle being used for counter balance. Once at their post, the soldiers remain almost motionless except for what looked like very deliberate blinking and a very slow sway. The officer in charge of the guard periodically reviewed their condition, wiping sweat from their necks and straightening their uniforms. Impressive and well worth seeing.

Further down the road we came to the Numismatics Museum of Athens, which displays coins and medals of the antiquities. We didn’t go in but took a few pics of the Statue in the front entrance area, possibly of Aphrodite Liti.

Next we went to and inside Catholic Cathedral of St Denis, a large ornate church with high ceilings but no buttresses. We sat for a few minutes sending out good thoughts to those that need them.

Still further along we found the Athens Trilogy. A series of 3 buildings in the ancient Greek Neoclassical style that sit side by side. The three, The Academy of Athens, the University of Athens and the National Library, were once the intellectual centre of Athens. All three buildings were erected between 1839 and 1891, the classicism was strictly adhered to in their construction. The Trilogy was a symbol for the projection of the intellectual status of the civilisation that is Greece.

We then headed down to the square near our hotel for lunch. We shared a Seafood mezze plate and zucchini fritters. It was all very tasty and enough for us.
After lunch we strolled over to the Holy Metropolitan Church of the Annunciation to the Virgin Mary and the very small Holy Church of the Virgin Mary Gorgoepikoos and Saint Eleutherius that sit next to it. The Metro church was very ornate in a Greek style with lots of gold and silver, the tiny Holy Church next door was very plain by comparison with bare stone and minimal ornation.

After we finished there we headed back to our room. Deb got a few hours sleep (catching up on a bit) and I took to the streets to play a bit of Ingress and take in the street life of Athens.

At 5:30pm we were picked up by our driver/guide John for a sunset tour of the archaeological site of Sounion on the southern most tip of Attica. It is the site of The Sanctuary of Poseidon (aka the Temple of Poseidon). It is a remarkable structure that commands the view from all places and the sea around it. The timing of our visit was to allow us to see the site at sunset, when it is said it takes on a mystical character. The Temple was built around 444BC from local marble. There only about 19 of the original columns remaining. The columns all have graffiti carved i to them, including an entry by Lord Byron, it was very overcast and the sunset thing never happen. Still it was well worth the drive down along the Aegeon Sea. The trip down took about 1.5hrs, while the trip home took about 1 hr, using the inland freeway. It was nice to get home earlier than expected.

Finally, when we got back to our hotel we went to the roof top bar to get some pictures of the lit up night time views of the Acropolis. It’s an impressive site, day or night.

We then went back to our room to pack ready for our 5:45am pick up for our ride to the Port and our ferry to Naxos. All was going well until then!!!! I thought we should get the ferry tickets out ready for the morning. They weren’t in our travel wallet, not in the safe, not in either backpack (I emptied both out to check) and Deb checked our main luggage. No tickets anywhere. The tickets had come inside a gift box from our travel company, and we assume they were thrown out with the box. We were told before we left for the holiday that the ferry tickets could not be replaced, they were as good as cash, and if we lost them we would have to buy new ones. Deb got onto a very helpful woman, Kalliopi, from our tour company and after a short time we had tickets to Naxos. Tomorrow we have to buy the tickets for the remaining ferry rides, Naxos – Milos, and Milos – Santorini. Good that we have travel insurance!!
We eventually turned the lights out a bit before midnight, so many adventures!!!!