The hill in the background is called Lycabettus Hill. We had plans to get to the top but never did. One reason we wanted to venture up the hill was that there was a funicular railway there, and twice our attempts to use a funicular in Barcelona were prevented due to them being non-operational.
An entrance to Tower of London that you would not have wanted to used.
We didn't get a photo of us eating our Thanksgiving meal, but I did snap this shot of our drinks. Mine is the beer.
I was so engrossed in my task of setting up my camera to take a group photo that I didn't realize that someone was taking a photo of me.
The "hidden" zoo in the National Park, where cats and chickens co-exist peacefully.
First, I want to point out that for some reason photos uploaded to blogger don't open withing IE. I assume this is something done by Blogger, since it is happening to multiple blogs on several computers.
As you can see, the sites in Athens sit right in the middle of the modern city. This is part of Hadrian's Library with the Acropolis in the background.
A photo of me standing at the Temple of Apollo, I believe, on Aegina.
Tower of London, another site in London that I didn't get a chance to visit. Sounded like a worthwhile stop, but no time on this trip.
The hydrofoil we took to the island of Aegina. Fast and smooth ride.
Every so often the sun shown through the clouds making the columns glow for a good photograph.
A view of the Acropolis taken a few blogs from our hotel on our first day in Athens. The Acropolis can be seen from almost anywhere in the city, which made for a good landmark to use so we knew where we were in reference to our hotel.
I'm not sure what we're cheering, but it must be exciting. In fact, I'm not sure what events took place in this theatre. Unlike Peru, we had no private guided tours. I'm sure we would have learned much more about the Greek culture, but we relied instead on a tourist guide book.
Like I said before, we beat the tour bus crowds to the major sites. This was taken by one of the cats we befriended.
It almost appears that the people are ice skating, but there are just going about their business. Like Barcelona, there were Christmas decorations all along the street, but we never saw them turned on except on the last night, but only down by the port.
A view of Athens taken from high atop the Acropolis. You can see the Ancient Agora building sitting below among the green trees.
Another great view of the city of Athens in the background, we me in the foreground looking very old, for some reason.
This is the closest we came to finding an Antoni Gaudi inspired bench. And it just happened to be a cow!
It was time to say goodbye to Athens. Like I said, we had to get up early so we could take the Metro to the airport. I was surprised how crowded the Metro was at 5:45 in the morning. It was dark most of the way, as it was during our arrival, so I still didn't get a good look at the country side near the airport, which is located pretty far from Athens. It took no time at all to check in and get through security. We had time to shop and I bought a last minute souvenir - a magnet, to keep the tradition alive. I now have three magnets from my three Thanksgiving international vacations.
The flight to London went by quick. We traveled on British Airways between London and Athens, and I must say, their service is way better than any American airline. The employees are courteous, helpful and seem to enjoy their job, unlike the ones that work for American Airlines, who seem to resent the fact that they have to talk or assist a customer.
Finally I was in London. In fact, England is the first English speaking country I've visited, as Greece was the first non-Spanish country for me to see.
It was still long walk to the museum, but it gave me a chance to observe some of the London culture as we walked down the streets. The museum is free, and unlike most, they allow photography, including flash photos. The first picture I took was of the Rosetta Stone. It was just sitting there, right near the entrance, as if its importance wasn't significant. In fact, I plan to examine the photo I took and check the accuracy of their interpretation of the hieroglyphics. Just kidding.
As the evening progressed, we agreed our last stop would be Piccadilly Circus. Once we found the closest subway station (by accident since we were lost and didn't realize it), we zipped to the Piccadilly Circus stop. It was dark now, and the bright lights were almost overwhelming. There were big advertisements like you would see in Time Square, and there were these globs of colorful glowing balls hanging above the street. I took a movie of this scene which I'll post later.
By now we were starving for food. You would think that there would be plenty of places to eat here, and there were, but none of them were what we were looking for. I wanted a place where I could have fish and chips and drink an English beer. There were plenty of taverns, but they were very crowded on this Friday night and didn't have many tables for eating. We even tried to get a table at Planet Hollywood (I thought this chain had gone out of business) but there was a 40 minute wait. So, we ended up eating fish and chips at a small Lebanese cafe. I wanted a beer, but they didn't serve beer, most likely because the owners were Muslim. However, there was Christmas tree inside, so that didn't make much since. The food was nothing special, but we were so hungry anything would have tasted good.
Our flight didn't depart until 11 AM the next morning, so there was no need to wake up too early. It took a little longer to check in at Heathrow, but we still had plenty of time before boarding our long flight back to Chicago, where we had a five hour layover before the last leg home. We got lucky in San Diego, as we found our baggage had arrive before we did. So a walk back to the car, where the air still smelled like smoke from the recent fires, and soon I was home again. Now it is one week later and I'm almost over my jet lag.
After just two days in Athens, we had already seen most of the major sites. Our only plan for the day was to visit the National Archaeological Museum. So we rode the Metro and then after a short walk we found the rather plain-looking building. Now, I must admit, that I don't remember much about what was in this museum. After a while, all museums begin to look the same. During this trip, we saw, I think, four or five museums, and all had displays of the same artifacts. So we wandered around for two hours just to get our monies worth.
Then we decided to take the Metro down to the port city of Piraeus to see what was there and to get information on traveling to the island of Aegina the next day. The Metro ride took us past areas of the city we had not seen, including what looked like slums, and closer to the ocean one of the stadiums built for the 2004 Olympics, which we did not stop at. Once at the port, we walked to the docks and found out we could just buy tickets for the boat at any time, since it was off-season. With not much else to see, we took the Metro back to the heart of Athens.
We were now just killing time. I suggested we walk through the National Gardens, since they were close by. The gardens were very green, thick with a variety of exotic vegetation and trees. Then we stumbled upon a "zoo", which was nothing much more than some caged goats, birds and other small animals. You couldn't go inside, and there didn't seem to be anybody attending to the animals. I took some photos, but they didn't turn out very well. Since we hadn't eaten lunch, we decided on an early dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe. The food and service wasn't the best, but it was still a meal. We turned in early with the plan of taking a boat to the island, which would be our Thanksgiving adventure.
So we woke up early Thursday and made it to the port in time to buy a ticket for the hydrofoil that departed at 9AM. The smooth ride to the island only took 45 minutes and was rather relaxing. Once on the island, we expected to be overrun with tour guides trying to get our business. We in fact had the opposite problem. We couldn't figure out what to do or how to get around. There was an archaeological site within walking distance, so we ventured over there. It too had a museum. The ruins included structures from six different cities built over the centuries.
This temple was is relatively good shape. Much of the structure was still standing, and since it was sunny, it made for great photos. We wandered around for about one hour and then walked back to the entrance. The temple is very isolated. The only other building nearby was a snack and gift shop that had a very low roof. It was only 1:30, and from what we were told, the bus wouldn't be back until 3. We hoped that there might be a 2pm bus, but there wasn't. So we sat in the street for 90 minutes waiting, as did another family. However, we did meet a family from San Francisco that arrived on scooters. Being the small world that we live in, the father was a firefighter who had been called down to fight the fires in San Diego. He and spent a few days stationed at a fire station not far from my brother's house.
Right on time, the bus showed up at 3PM. So once back at the city, we bought our return boat tickets, and still had time to eat a Thanksgiving meal. We ended up eating at a cafe near the main street. The menu had a variety of items, and I opted for pizza with peperoni. When the food arrived, my pizza had just cheese and green peppers. I guess the order was lost in translation, but the pizza was very good with lots of cheese and freshly made crust. It tasted even better with a local beer.
Since this was our last night in Athens, we attempted to buy some souvenirs. But many of the shops were closed and we didn't feel like walking too far from the hotel, so we concluded our eventful and fun-filled adventures in Athens. We had an early wake up call the next morning so we could get to the airport for the flight to London.
We began our second day in Athens, after a good nights rest, by walking to the near by Temple of Olympian Zeus. We encountered a sprinkles, but other than that it was a fine morning. We were the first visitors to this site, and spent some time walking around the main area, plus the "hidden", less popular section below. This photograph is of two columns. There was a third one that was toppled by a fierce storm in the 1800s. I wondered how old the "new" buildings in Athens were, and found out later when I saw a painting of this temple from the early 1800's that showed no modern buildings between it and the Acropolis. A painting from the late 1800's showed some buildings at the base of the Acropolis. So I's assume that most of the structures in the valley are not that old.
From the Zeus temple, we walked to the Panathinaikon Stadium, the site of the first modern Olympics. You cannot go inside, so this is the best picture I could take.
Our next stop was Keramikos, the place that was closed the day before. This is basically a big cemetery. We spent some time in the museum and then wandered the grounds. It was then that I realized that the entire city of Athens was built on the ancient city. I figured that if you dug underneath any modern building, you would find artifacts from 2000 years ago. In fact, there were pictures of pottery and other stuff that was dug up during the construction of the Metro for the 2004 Olympics.
Lunch was soon to be eaten, and shortly after we wandered into Hadrian's Library. We were happy to find out that this site is now included with our ticket we bought for the Acropolis, so we saved three euros! This is another site located in the middle of the city, surrounded by houses and businesses. It was also in the process of being renovated, with reconstructed columns, decorative mosaic floors covered with protective sheets and structures obstructed by building platforms. And, like all places in Athens, an assortment of cats roaming the grounds.
Another rest break at the hotel and we were ready for dinner. We wandered the shopping quarter again, where we discovered a shop that sold interesting, yet useless, items, such as hand painted cows. I don't know why, but I was fascinated by these cows. There were regular, standing cows, and cows sitting on a bench reading a newspaper with articles that would interest cows, such as how to handle mad cow disease. In fact, downstairs, there was an entire section of cows, big and small. However, I couldn't get myself to buy anything here, so a photo was the best I could do.
After a second day of walking for miles and miles, we returned to our hotel for the night, as jet lag was starting to set in.
Our trip to Athens started in San Diego on a Saturday morning, and we arrived in Athens Sunday evening after flying through Chicago and London. Upon arrival, we decided to take the Metro instead of a taxi so we could learn how to use the mass-transit system. There was a Metro stop within a block of our hotel, but since we arrived at night, and we were all very tired, it took a look at a map to realize we had just walked past the hotel. After checking in, we turned in for the night to get some rest for our first full day.
Our hotel included a free breakfast buffet, which was actually quite good. After eating, we set out for our first stop, the Acropolis, which was just a ten minute walk from the hotel. We bought our tickets, which included access to five other sites. Luckily we beat the tour-bus crowds, and treated ourselves to a leisurely self-guided tour of the ancient Greek ruins. It was interesting to see the restoration work going on, which seems to be non-stop. They are actually repairing previous restorations that were not done correctly.
We wandered next to the Theatre Of Dionysos, which sits just below the Acropolis. You can walk down the steps, but there are still areas that are off-limits, blocked by ropes. We found out that there are people watching the tourists, and if anyone ventures beyond the ropes they'll blow a whistle. We heard a few people get the whistle warning during the week.
By this time we were getting hungry for lunch. All the restaurants in the area had the same basic menus. So when a man invited us to eat at his restaurant, we obliged. That became the theme of eating in Athens. The most aggressive hosts got our business. I ate a plate of mixed grilled meat which was very good and very filling.
After a short break at the hotel, we headed back out to see the city at night. All the ancient ruins are quite impressively lit up at night. However, it is difficult capturing that scene using a small digital camera.
We also found out that some restaurants give you some food "on the house". This place gave us a desert and a "small" glass of Ouzo, the traditional Greek drink. I ended up drinking most of it, as I'd had it before and liked the taste. However, dinner was not a cheap as you might think, since a 60 Euro meal costs almost 120 dollars these days.
After dinner, we continued to explore the back streets of Athens, and somehow ended up walking straight to the hotel by shear luck. Enough walking for one day. We were all tired and ready for bed, for there were three more days left in this city. Speeking of bed, the beds in hour hotel were very hard, which seems to be common in Greece. They were alow barly long enough for someone like me. However, if you're tired enough it makes no difference.
