We arrived in Athens this morning. We actually docked in a city called Piraeus the seaside town about 10 miles outside of Athens. We don’t have a tour scheduled, just a bus transfer into Athens. We boarded our bus and we had a tour guide on the bus who was friendly and knowledgeable about his country and his town of Athens. He explained that is was Europeans who call them Greeks, they call themselves Hellas. On the way into town, he explained that he would be dropping us at Hadrian’s Gate near the Acropolis. He said that Acropolis means the top of the city, so that is why is all the other Greek towns we have been in, they also had a place called Acropolis. He pointed out the Acropolis from far off. You could see it sitting high on hilltop. It looks impossible to get to without climbing a long way. So along the way he has the bus stop at a huge marble sports stadium. The Panathenaic stadium is the only stadium in the world made completely of white marble. It is built on the site where since 6B.C. they have been holding sports contests as a tribute to Athena. The stadium as it stands today was reconstructed in the mid-1800’s. It was the site of the first modern Olympic Games in 1896. From there we drove by universities and government buildings that were incredibly beautiful. I have included them in the photo site. We ended up at Hadrian’s Gate it was built in 131 A.D. as part of a wall separating the old city from the new city. The new National Gardens are built there as well now. The Temple of Zeus is just a little further at the end of the gardens. A temple was being built on this same site in 515 B.C. but it wasn’t until 129A.D. that the current temple was finished.
We walked with the guide into the Plaka – the old town of Athens and then up toward the new Museum of the Acropolis. Our guide told us not to fear the climb up the Acropolis to the Parthenon. He said it was very doable. So up we started. He said he would take us to the gate that would be more accessible. He said the people we saw standing in line for tickets would find out after they bought them that they would have to climb to where we were going. So we headed up a gradual incline. We reached a place where he told us it was the mountain of Mars or Mars Hill. This is one of the places St. Paul preached. It is right at the start of the climb to the Acropolis. Our guide left us there to go buy our tickets to go up the Acropolis. The line looked daunting but the guide said no more than 15 minutes. So we got in line and bought our tickets, and now it was time to climb. I didn’t know that the Parthenon was at the Acropolis but it is. The ancient Greeks asked the Gods to favor them with a gift and if they did, they would build a temple. The god Poseidon gave them a great salt lake. The Greeks didn’t much care for it. But Athena gave them olive trees. They liked that a lot more so they built her a huge Temple on top of the Acropolis – the Parthenon. They also built a temple to Poseidon up there too but Athena’s temple is bigger. The walk up is some marble steps and some just rocky ground. The crowds were big and it was very crowded as you can see by the pictures. Going up was slow and that was good. We took lots of pictures up there. They are doing lots of reconstruction to rebuild parts of the monuments that have deteriorated. The walk down was really difficult because of how slippery the marble steps are. At one point a lady a ways behind us, slipped and fell down the steps. I am happy to tell you that I did not fall!!
When we got down from the acropolis, we went into the old town – Plaka to eat lunch at a cute little café outside on the square. We ate traditional Greek appetizers and olive pesto and bread. And of course wine!! Then we met the bus and headed back to the ship.
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