Athens Day 4, July 30

Well, today is the lost day but as I'm gradually getting a head and chest cold to go with my very sore throat it is just as well.

We had breakfast a little later than usual and Betty went out to explore.  I went back to the breakfast room to finish catching up on the blog.

Now I am writing today's blog today!

One thing I learned on this trip is that cruising and blogging are not compatible.

When I finally finished I went out to get some ice cream to sooth my throat and look, there goes the green tourist train.

I walked around a bit thinking it was cooler today and then found out it was 42 degrees.  Ha, I must have a fever.

I took one last stroll through the flea market near us.

We sure lucked out with this hotel, The Plaka,is in the old historical district of the same name. We get a fantastic breakfast here each morning, we are close by all the historical attractions and lots of eateries.  There is a bank across the street, the flea market as I mentioned and the big shopping street is just a couple of blocks away.  We have close connections to the Metro, tram and trolley which can take you around the city and to the airport and harbor as well.

This little church is also a landmark to our place from a different direction.

Here comes the white tourist train.

We had a rest in the heat of the day and then walked out for supper.

Tomorrow morning we head for the airport to fly to London and then Calgary.
The end of a great holiday has come and so has the end of this blog for now, until I go somewhere else.

See ya on the flip side..

Athens - Day 3 - Poseidon Beach

All we had to do to get to the beach was walk a few blocks to the terminal end of number 5 Tram and get on.  It took a little over half an hour to ride to the shore and we got of at the first beach we came to.  It was called Poseidon.

We were in the water a few times and sat in the sun as long as we could stand.  The shore was more small stones than sand and a bit hard to walk on.

People got there early and by the time we left at 11:30 AM it was filling up.

The beach is narrow and right beside the city.

The sand back from the water was pretty good.

We got on the tram going further down the beach so we could see the other beaches.  It was impossible to tell if the sand was better from the train so we headed home.  That little jaunt added a half hour to the trip.

We were walking past restaurants so stopped for a bite of lunch at an air conditioned one and headed home.

2:00 in the afternoon and done already.  Just can't take the heat.  The air even feels hot when you breath it.

Second day in Athens

We got up early so we could walk up the hill to the Acropolis before it got too hot.

There was a large area being excavated near our hotel.

It looked like various excavation projects were going on in this area.

There are lots of open air restaurants but we liked to get inside tables by the air conditioner.

This could be the Temple of Hephaestus we could see on the way up.

Because the streets are not ever straight it is hard to locate things at some distance or to know what they are.

Its funny that sometimes there are large signs , in English, pointing the way to something but when you arrive at "something" there is nothing there to tell you what it is.

We are now up on the hill where the Acropolis is looking down on the theater of Dionysus.

The large columns of the Acropolis.

Not sure what this is.  We were up there without a guide.

It is nice to see the buildings more complete than at other ruins.

Back of the Acropolis.

The building beside it.

Some lions watching the gate.

We walked out another direction and came upon this nearly perfect tile floor.

This time we find ourselves walking through a nice district.

We crossed paths with one of the little tourist trains which circles round the old city and we had seen it go past our hotel so we hopped on board for a tour and a ride home.

We stopped at the Acropolis Museum and found the whole thing was over a current excavation.  They had plexiglas panels as part of the floor so you could see it.

You can see the floor panels here in the museum store but it is hard to take a picture through them.

Still on the tourist train we are passing a huge stadium called the Panathinaikon.

This is the Temple of Zeus.

This is Hadrian's Arch.

This is a Mosque and pottery gallery we walked past near our hotel.

Well, I think I am burnt out on ruins, Betty is too.  Tomorrow we have a plan to go to the beach.

First day in Athens

We were getting off the boat at sunrise.
While waiting for the taxi we were watching the guy with the squeegee with the long handle wash the boat again.

They have already made a pile of hundreds of suitcases that they collected from the rooms last night at midnight.

My first impression that Athens is a mix of the old and new continued to be true.  The people of Athens are just cool about stuff.  They don't make a big fuss about anything and especially not all their glorious history.  With ruins interspersed amongst the buildings of today they take the attitude that it is there...go see it if you like.

A street view as we head to our hotel.

 We dropped our bags at the hotel and went out to explore the neighbourhood.

We are quite near the Acropolis.
You can see a bit of it on the hill.

As we were heading to the flea market we passed this fruit vendor.

He had these big figs.  A box for 3 Euro.

The meat market stall.  The meat looked pretty good and the locals do shop here.

Next the vegetables.

Now the grains, nuts, flours and beans.

The sausage shop.

There was a flea market too but I was more fascinated by how the locals do their groceries.

We saw lots of  Graffiti.

It looks like the current city was built right on top of the ancient one.  There are digs taking place wherever an existing building is removed.

Funny that even the existing ones are older than ours.

You can come across tiny little churches here and there which are still being used.

The caretaker of this one was very helpful in showing us around.

He put on the lights and let us take pictures.

Here is something you don't see every day.  A lawn and a garden on the front of a building.

Another tiny old church in the center of a roundabout.

This one was decorated in a similar fashion as the last one.

Here Betty is standing on the roof patio of our hotel with the Acropolis behind her.

It is a blazing 36 degrees today so we decided to duck into the hotel for a while to cool off.

Later we went out again to walk around and discovered this park.
Boy, it sure seems dry.

There is a variety of stuff here including this children's library.

I just liked this tree towering over its tiny bridge.

We saw them changing the guard so thought this was the parliament.

Our friend here doesn't look happy.

We came out of the park on another side and lost our orientation for a while.
We think this is the Academy of Athens.

And this is probably a University.

We were walking for a while in a poor looking area.  It was suppertime so we stopped at a little restaurant.  The food was good and really cheap there.

When we saw this church we were happy because we recognized it as being near our hotel.

Our hotel has a beautiful breakfast room that is open for use during the rest of the day.  They supply tea, coffee and water until 5:00 PM and piped in music all the time.  I have been spending a lot of time in here catching up on this blog.