Athens - EASTER - Day 3

Our morning began with breakfast and even a clearer view of the Acropolis and Aegean Sea due to less fog/smog. Our group was scheduled to leave by 9:30a but it actually left a few minutes later than that. This was fine as we were not "rushed" during the day's activities at all. Our schedule slightly changed due to the Easter holiday. However, we actually saw and did more than was planned. Alexandra, our wonderful guide, and Andie our local guide said, in a way we are fortunate because so many from the city center go out to the country for their 2-week break and it is much quicker to get around the town and see more due to this fact. Before starting out we were given our listening device with an earphone. Alexandra had already briefed us on the program for today. 

John is ready to go! 

We got on our large and comfortable bus with Dimitri our driver and drove around the city center seeing the following sites: The Old Royal Palace, home of the Hellenic Parliament, Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, the Guards and Syntagma Square. We drove on for a glimpse of Temple of Zeus (the 16 remaining columns), Hadrian's Arch, US Embassy, Opera House, Zappeion Megaron Building, a park I didn't get the name of on Queen Sofia Avenue, the Academy of Art Building, one building of Athens University, National Library, the first Parliament building, which is now the Historical Athens City Museum (it's the one with the statue of Theodore Kolokotronis on a horse - A hero of the Greek Revolution against the Turks, and lastly we stopped at the Panathenaic Stadium.  This stadium holds 70K people and was used for Olympic games last in 2004. We saw a few homeless people and a lot of graffiti on blocks of buildings. Andie told us that this is because the stores are closed because of the terrible economy here in Greece. A few years ago she said this area was flourishing but now it is bankrupt. Of note, the guards wear navy blue in the winter, beige in the summer, and white on holidays!

The Guards

The Runner Dromeas 

Hadrian's Arch

Temple of Zeus

From there we drove on to Philopappos Hill and got off the bus to go up the path. This was an addition to our tour because the Acropolis is closed today for Easter Sunday. We will visit the Acropolis tomorrow after our trip to Delphi. There are three main hills in Athens, 1) Lycabettus Hill, which our hotel is on, 2) the Acropolis, which was the center of the city for religion and gov't, and 3) Philopappos Hill, which we slowly walked up and had some tremendous views of the Acropolis. Another interesting stop on the path was the tomb of Socrates, after his trial. This path we are on used to be dirt and stones were place here by some famous architect in the 1950's. We are so blessed there is a breeze and not too hot today, as it is we are parched. 

Our Path

Tomb of Socrates

Our Group & Acropolis

Beautiful Flowers on the Path

Coming down the hill we stopped at a jewelry store where you can buy a personalized column pendant with your name engraved in Greek on the front and English on the back. It is a special souvenir and will be delivered to our hotel just before we head out to Mykonos. This was also our cold water and WC stop. We continued down the hill past the Acropolis from here and then our group did different things. We had options. 1) We could stay with the guide, have lunch (on our own) and walk through the Plaka shopping area. 2) you could have lunch with the guide or not then catch the bus back to the hotel at 1:30p. 3) You can do whatever you want. We chose 3! The reason we did that is because in the spot to decide what to do there was a restaurant called Α0ήναι Bistrot and they had a whole lamb on a spit. When we sat down we spoke with a woman next to us ... She has cousins who live in Clovis ... It is a small world. She said the prices here for the lamb dinner are really good. We have not compared but when I saw it on the spit I knew I wanted it! It was a fabulous meal - the best lamb ever! We enjoyed watching the young men grilling as they had beers and toasted the Easter Holiday repeatedly, it reminded me of my sons (Jeff, Sam, Steven) as these fine young men are universal! We enjoyed a leisurely lunch and headed back to the hotel by taxi around 2:30p. 

Our Easter Lunch

Greek Salad - So Fresh & Delicious

Ice Cold Carafe of House Wine 

 The Scrumptious Roasted Lamb & Potatoes

Our late afternoon brought a nap, I hope we can still sleep tonight. We leave for Delphi at 7:20a! We had the deli sandwich for a snack tonight but we were pretty full and even splitting it, we could not eat it all. What a wonderful day with wonderful memories this Easter Day 2017!

About Andie: She was born in Greece and educated here but was also educated in the US. She lives in Orange County , CA with her husband but comes to Greece for the tourist season. She is a tiny woman who may look older than she is with a lot of wrinkles but she has abundant energy. She is loud and has very little accent so John can understand her quite well.