Day Three -- A Day in Athens

I awoke at 6:30 a.m. to find that Matt had been awake for while, eager for adventure. When I returned from my shower I found a Mother's Day card  waiting on my pillow. I was touched. Breakfast in the hotel was a nice array of food. Everything is marked with a card in Greek and English and if it is a local it is marked with its location. For example, on my Greek yogurt I had honey from Skyros. We were done and ready for the day by 8. It was Sunday morning and we made our way through the deserted plaka to Hadrian's Library. For 4E a piece we walked through the ruins. 

 

When Bryan and I went to Greece in 2010 we didn't have time to see the Temple of Hephaestus, so it was on my bucket list. We entered the Roman Agora for 8E a piece. We started with the stoa, the ancient Roman version of a shopping mall. John D. Rockefeller paid to have it rebuilt so you can have a sense of what it must have looked like. Today it displays lots of artifacts recovered from excavations of the Roman Agora.

 

Next we entered the Church of the Holy Apostle, built much later in the 10th century A.D. We wandered past the remains of the Senate and tribunal buildings and up the hill to the Temple of Hephaestus, the god of metalworkers.

 

Back down the hill, past the Altar of Zeus and the Odeon of Agrippa.  We waved good-bye to the magpies and headed out in search of more old things. Matt is a large advocate of not worrying about getting lost. We headed down little alleyways and found ourselves in the Monastiraki flea market where we saw modern "old treasures" of a different variety. It was delightful.

 

By then we were ready to sit down. We found an outdoor cafe in Syntagma Square and enjoyed Greek coffee and people watching.

 

Every hour there is a changing of the guards (evzones) in front of the Parliament building at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. However on Sundays it becomes more elaborate. A whole platoon of evzones, led by a military band playing the Greek national anthem. 

 

After lunch we headed up the hill. Matt climbed up on Areopagus Hill where Paul had spoken to leaders of Athens about "the unknown God." I had climbed that slick rock before and so I sat in the shade.

 

We bypassed the Acropolis. We are saving that experience when our family of five is all together. We meandered down the south side of the Acropolis towards the Acropolis Museum. Matt always notices the graffiti.

 

Under the museum is an excavation of the ancient city on that location. It makes you realize that as you around Athens, underneath you are the remains of ages past.

 

Matt loved this museum, filled with treasures (and replications of treasures) recovered from the Acropolis. Matt looked at every item, read every description and watched every movie.

 

We didn't leave the the museum until 7 p.m. We walked the rest of the hill to see the Temple of Olympian Zeus

 

and Hadrian's arch before sunset.

 

We headed back to our hotel which boasts a rooftop terrace with an amazing view of the Acropolis. We had some small bites and watched the sunset.

 

Our first day in Greece was brimming with activities. We took our jet-lagged bodies to bed. Tomorrow is another day.