Day 11 - Walking About

 Sunday was our last day in Greece. We debated doing another tour but elected to just walk around the city of Athens.

This is what google recorded; it is not entirely accurate since we don't walk in straight lines but it does give an idea of the areas we covered. It was close to 10 miles per Ed's watch. 

In the morning we found ourselves in the Agora which was the central gathering place in Ancient Greece (13th–4th centuries BC).

There are archeological sites everywhere you turn. 

The ancient structures are interspersed with the modern day city. 

Of course the views of the Acropolis are always present. From this view you can see the rock on the right that we climbed on Friday. We have since learned that the name of the rock is Mars Hill or Areopagus. There is a story about the hill in Greek mythology, it was used as a place for a famous trial...look it up. 

Ed refers to it as Bruno Mars Hill. 

The Agora is a very busy place, it has all the shops and restaurants that the Plaka does but feels a bit less touristy. 

We continued to walk and started back in the direction of the Plaka, on our way we found Alice in Wonderland. We had passed this with our tour group a few nights ago but it was closed at that time.  It would be a great place to bring your kids or grand kids. 

We stopped for lunch, more Gyros...yum. 

We came to a large square, the Athens Flea Market. The place was hopping, it was very busy. It looked like everyone was having a great time on such a nice Sunday. 

It seemed everywhere we went there were more digs underway. Athens will be digging for centuries and will probably never uncover all the ancient cities. Everything it seems is always in the shadow of the Sacred Rock. 

The girls love sitting on the ancient rocks. 

We came by The Church of Ayois Demetrios Loubardiairs. I had to snap a picture and send it to my Greek friend Demetrios who has for years encouraged me to visit Greece. He was right, we should have done it sooner. 

This little church is also a popular venue for local weddings. Apparently this was one of those days; as we walked by a second time, the bride arrived. Cool. 

We continued our walkabout to the Hill of Pnyx, of course it was another spectacular view of the Acropolis. 

We meandered our way back to the Plaka where Ed purchased a dapper hat, he is ready for Saratoga.

 

We had our last drinks on the Plaka and of course the café had a nice view of the Acropolis. 

On our last evening in Athens we wanted to have dinner at the fancy roof top restaurant at our hotel, The Royal Olympic Hotel. To be honest it was a bit of a disappointment. It is a beautiful setting but the menu was just a bit weird. None the less we had a nice dinner and moved to the bar for a night cap.  I had a really good martini, the girls had a Mastika Lemon Drop and Ed a Jim Beam Black on ice. I think Ed is now a whiskey drinker, hanging with me has been a bad influence. 

Our visit to Athens was over, we have a 12:25 flight to Newark and then on to Burlington on Monday...we will get home on Tuesday morning.