Getting there
A long, roundabout way to get to Athens.
Long story about the booking, but we got to Athens via Abu Dhabi and Amsterdam.
Food on the Etihad legs was absolutely amazing.
The killer was the 6 hour layover in Amsterdam. After nearly 40 hours traveling, finally got to our hotel round 2:30 am local time, but absolutely no idea what day it was, let alone Sydney time.
Nevertheless, we are up bright and early on a sunny Greek morning. (Some advantage to a screwed-up body clock).
Wandering up the hill from our hotel, what else can you expect, but a view of the Acropolis.
Even though it is a rather warm day, many of the streets are shaded by trees.
Several things strike me about the traffic in Athens.
- There is not a huge amount of it
- The streets are narrow, and go at all angles.
- The cars are predominately small
- There are very, very few 4WD and SUVs
- Parking habits are ‘interesting’, especially the small smart cars which park rear to curb.
- The drivers are polite and cautious
Not withstanding that, our taxi driver from the airport commented on the crazy driver who cut across the front of him. (Mind you, he was running a red light at the time)
Our first stop is the Acropolis Museum situated within a few hundred metres of the Acropolis.
This is a museum dedicated to finds from the area and includes on-going archeological activities. In fact, it is actually built on top of an active archeological dig and glass panels in the approaches and in the floor of the building let visitors see the excavations.
The black dots are there to stop people slipping when the glass is wet.
Inside the museum, there are vast amounts of items on display, unfortunately photography is limited to a few select areas. Despite the popularity, the meager 5Euro entry, and a bit of a line to get in, there was plenty of space to approach items, and people were polite. There were museum attendants everywhere, and my entry ticket was checked at at least 3 points.
Looking back to the entry foyer:
These are recreations of statues at entries to the Acropolis, which have since been destroyed or looted. They are based on drawings done in 1896.
This either a funeral or sacrificial table:
I have, in fact, decided Athens is a very dangerous city.
Every second shop is either a bakery or a coffee shop or a restaurant.
The rest seem to be jewellery shops – for heaven’s sake they even have Jewellery Museum.
On our second wander, the clouds gathered, the humidity rose, and we even had a small rain shower.
Hoping my doctors are reading this, we ventured out again for dinner, where we stuffed ourselves, but avoided desert.
Unfortunately, on the way back to the hotel, spied a bakery and stocked up on baklava and a rich, moist chocolate cake piece.