ATHENS : Day 3

Day 3 : WEDNESDAY : 12th October.  After our hop on hop off bus ride yesterday, and seeing the crowds at the Acropolis, we decided that we'd take a taxi ride there this morning to arrive shortly after opening time at 8.00am and by so doing, avoid the hordes.  We achieved this, there were people there ahead of us but we were able to walk around for almost our entire visit without bumping into others.  There are ongoing restorations under way, and will be for many years to come but the site is amazing, it is hard to comprehend that it has been there for so long.   As it is so high up, we were not sure that we'd be able to negotiate the path and steps to reach the top, but found the path not too steep and the steps not too many, so were very happy and proud of ourselves for doing so....there's life in the old folks yet!

As we were about to leave, the Presidential Guards came marching in 

followed by these lovely young ladies in traditioal dress

We had a short wait for the hop on hop off bus and by using our 2 day tickets bought yesterday, made the Parliament Building our next stop. 

Here we discovered that the reason for the guards, band, dancers and choir who were all gathering at the Acropolis, was that they were all part of the celebrations for the 78th anniversary of the liberation of Athens from the nazis during WWII.  We grabbed our spot at Parliament Place in front of the Building to watch the changing of the guards but we, and the rest of the crowd which was gathering, was moved back, and back, and back some more by the police in attendance, until we were on the other side of the road so after waiting a while with nothing happening, crossed back over the road and walked through  

the Athens National Gardens 

to the Olympic Stadium

with the ever present Acropolis never far from sight

We hopped on the next hop on hop off bus that came along and returned to our neighbourhood in search of sustenance, which we found here.

There is no shortage of places to eat and drink in Athens which is one of its many attractions, we've had some excellent meals and the cafe/restaurant staff have been friendly and welcoming.  It's a huge city with narrow, one way streets, heavy traffic, loads of graffiti but otherwise clean and we were surprised by how much we like it here, seeing we're not big city people!

There was a hiccup this morning when Mike discovered that he'd left his phone in the taxi which took us to the Acropolis.  After phone calls, texts and emails, he was contacted by our driver Thomas, who told him that he'd found the phone and would return it tomorrow morning on his way to take a fare to the airport.  He'd tried to reply to Mike's messages but couldn't get through because of  the phone pin number lock, he'd even charged the phone battery, what a champion.  A happy ending to a happy visit to this ancient city.