View of the Acropolis and Parthenon from the rooftop bar of our hotel

After consult with a local travel agent and a quick look at the white caps on the Agean Sea, we elected to go with a 35 minute plane ride to Athens in lieu of a 9 hour ferry ride on choppy sees.  It was a hard (NOT) decision but it was definitely the way to go.  We arrived in Athens in the evening and taxied to the hotel in the central Plaka district of the city.  Jean found the hotel in the Rick Steves travel guide and it exceeded our expectations.  The photo above is the view from the rooftop bar.  Aside from the location and view, the staff was so friendly and helpful, it really made us feel welcome and want to return.

I had my trepidations about going to Athens.  While I have wanted to see the ancient ruins since childhood,  I am not big lover of the traffic and the cheesy tourist traps that surround the sites.  That said, how can you go to Greece and not go to Athens?  My fears were groundless.  We were here in March so two of the offenders were absent.  Large cruise ship crowds and heat.  While we needed a light jacket for comfort, we couldn’t have asked for better weather.

After a great night’s rest, we bought tickets for one of the Hop-On, Hop-Off bus tours.  The stop was close to our hotel and it stopped at the sites we wanted to see.  It saved a lot of walking.  You get plenty of walking when you get to the sites.  Our first stop was at the new Acropolis Museum.  It is a beautiful facility and very well designed and built specifically to house relics from the Acropolis.  We thought a trip there would give us more insight into what we would see when we got to the Acropolis itself.  While it’s worthy of a visit, I’m not sure it helped that much.  Everything at the Acropolis/Parthenon site is very well documented in both Greek and English.  The Greeks speak English quite well.  A cab driver told us they teach it in school and everyone learns it.

The climb to the top of the Acropolis made us thankful for the sixty something temperatures and the lack of summer crowds.  The view from the top was certainly worth it.  It’s easy to see why this site has been so revered for thousands of years.  It is a natural fortress with a view to eternity.  It was humbling to walk in the steps and kick the same cobbles as the likes of Plato and Aristotle.  Probably one of the greatest blessings is that the Romans, who later occupied the site, recognized the beauty and sophistication of the architecture and the culture.  In fact, for the most part, they just renamed it and took it for their own.  The Roman emperor Hadrian loved the place and expanded and put his own mark on the city.  Hadrian’s Arch  led from the old part of the city to the newly built addition that he created.  It’s inscribed (paraphrasing here), on this side of the arch is the old city, on this side it’s Hadrianville (or whatever)……you get the point. Seeing this world heritage site is truly a travel dream come true for me.  It did not disappoint.  We wandered through the old Plaka district of the city, had a fantastic meal of stuffed tomatoes and gyros before heading back to our room.  We had to go back up to the rooftop bar for a glass of wine and a nighttime view of the beauty we had witnessed earlier.

The next day started with another fantastic breakfast at the hotel.  Since we were checking out, we stowed our backpacks at reception and headed for the  National Archeological Musem.  As museums go, this is among the best in the world. Room after room of the most spectacular artifacts from the ancient world that you can imagine.  My greatest joy was to find the Antikythera Mechanism.  Found in an ancient shipwreck about 1901, it’s a very sophisticated gear driven mechanism that can predict astrological positions and dates.  Built around 200 – 150bc, the technology was lost and wasn’t rediscovered until the 14th century.  Absolutely mind blowing.

Back of Mechanism (circa 200bc)

Antikythera Mechanism

Obviously, I think this thing is amazing

Bronze statue of horse and jockey

On the way back to the hotel to pick up our bags, we enjoyed a quick lunch of traditional Greek stuffed tomatoes and gyros.  It’s off to the airport for our ride back to Crete.