Day 9 - Hanging in Athens

 Friday we slept in and had a leisurely breakfast. We also had to move to another hotel, so we goofed off until around 11AM and then made the short walk with our bags to the Royal Olympic Hotel. Check in was not until 3PM so we left our bags and set out to explore a bit of Athens. 

The hotel is within sight of the Arch of Hadrian, so it makes a great navigational crutch. Also called Hadrian's Gate, it spanned an ancient road from the center of Athens, Greece to the complex of structures on the eastern side of the city that included the Temple of Olympian Zeus. The area on one side of the gate has many ruins that can be toured, it seems this city has ruins at every turn. 

Athens is actually pretty easy to navigate on foot since you can almost always see the Acropolis from wherever you are in the city. 

We walked around the Plaka neighborhood and the labyrinth of streets.  We were fascinated by the ruins under the Acropolis Museum so we eventually made our way back there and viewed what we could without purchasing another museum ticket. It is quite amazing. 

It was time for lunch so we found a nice place, Tabepna Ta, to get a good Gyro. I asked the waiter to take our picture, he said "that is my second job". The people are all very friendly. We had a great meal. 

After lunch we walked some more and watched a street vendor bend silver wire into June and Jean's name in Greek to make a necklace. He was fun and it was cool to watch. 

We worked our way back to the hotel to check into our rooms and took a short nap.  As we left the hotel for another stroll we checked out their rooftop bar, what a view.

In the afternoon we walked Athens, there really is much to see. We worked our way around the base of the Acropolis, stopping and sitting on ancient stones from time to time. 

We saw people on a large rock so we climbed it too.  It offers another view of the Acropolis and the city, simply beautiful.

We walked our way around the sacred stone clockwise, we really did not know if we could make it around but we kept following the narrow streets and making right turns. On one vary narrow, steep street a couple of tow truck drivers were looking at an overturned Sprinter Van and pondering what to do. Oops. 

We did make it back around and into the Plaka. Purely by luck we came down the stairs into the same restaurant that we had dinner  the night before, it was just pure coincidence. 

It is a great place to eat with seating on the stairs with small tables and table seating on the sides.  

After our long stroll we did some light shopping and returned to the hotel. It was after 8PM and with an early start in the morning, we decided to stop at a close by pizza place for dinner. It was OK pizza and we have left overs for snacks tomorrow on our three island boat tour. 

It was a very nice day with good weather, lots of walking but relaxing.