Athens

We arrived fairly late in Athens from Munich. We had an awesome flight on Lufthansa and definitely recommend if the price is right. We found the hotel easily and went for a long walk in the city at night. Jay was impressed by Hadrians Gate at the temples of Olympian Zeus. The gate stands right adjacent to a major thoroughfare in the city and doesn’t require admission to see it – you can definitely tell that the city has built itself around its extensive history. Athens is a definitely more gritty than places we visited Germany and not to mention much hotter!!

After a walk through the winding streets of the Plaka neighborhood, we enjoyed a nice dinner at a restaurant we found on the street. Pat had been on about having a cold pitcher of house wine with a chunk of feta cheese for weeks – Jay had to admit it was pretty awesome.

After dinner we walked back to the hotel and enjoyed a glass of cold Greek wine on the rooftop terrace restaurant. The view of the city and the Acropolis was stunning. The Acropolis is beautiful at night when it is all lit up. Jay fell in love with Greek wine and how it has a very dry leafy-character to it and likened it to eating Dolma.

The hotel we stayed at was in a fantastic location and featured the rooftop terrace restaurant and outdoor pool. The rooms are a bit dated and what you’d expect to see in a 1990’s Greek hotel.. Lots of brass, oak and marble… The word we came to describe it was – glamorous.

The next day we were up early and had buffet breakfast at the rooftop terrace restaurant. Pat finally gorged himself on Greek yoghurt and honey.

It’s best to start any sightseeing day at the Acropolis. They sell a archeological site ticket pack here for 20euro and it covers just about everything else you’d want to see in the city. Also you can get the hike up the mountain done early before it gets too hot.

Up at the Acropolis we took in the various temples that dot the mountain, including the Parthenon and the theatre to Dionysus. After getting some great views of the city we headed down the mountain. 

The next place we visited was the Agora. They’ve rebuilt the Stoa of Attalos which served as a public office and featured an awesome exhibit upstairs showing models of how the city might have looked 3500 years ago. We got some good photos of the temple to Hephastian which is in excellent condition.

From here we went to Monastriaki – a cool, artsy neighborhood with lots of good knock-off street shopping. Here had a 2euro gyros at a great restaurant and kept going to the Kerameikios. The Kerameikios is an ancient graveyard. The stuff here is REALLY old – some of it dates back as far at the 3^rd millennium BC. The museum there really showcases how much can be learned about a civilization from its graveyards. Tiny ceramics, jewelry, perfumes, pottery, writing can all be seen dating back thousands of years. We guess since it’s graveyard the remains were fortunately left untouched.

From here we took a long, hot, walk down the Ermou street which features most of Athen’s big shopping stores. The street ends in Syntagma Square which is right in front of the Greek parliament. Was good for Jay to see the place where all of the demonstrations against Eurozone austerity measures are being felt. There’s a lot of bullet holes in buildings facades in the area that weren’t there back in 2009 when Pat was last there..

From here we visited the temple of Olympian Zeus which used to be the largest in Athens in it’s prime. Today only a few columns are standing whereas back then over 100 columns would have made up a massive complex.

Later that night we went out for another tasty dinner in Plaka. Late and tired we headed back to the hotel to get ready for the cruise and pack.

At the duty free shop at port, Jay bought some Vin Doux – Vin de liquer white wine. We soon discovered that this will be Jay’s favorite wine likely for the rest of his lifetime. (Jay absolutely could not stop raving about it) We spent the rest of the trip looking for this when we passed stores and found it in the most unlikely place…. We are not likely to get this outside of Greece. It is romantic knowing that it can only be drank if we return. J