Athens Day 4

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Tuesday 5th July, 2011

All the usual happened breakfast, readied and left the hotel about 1120 hours.

It was our plan for today to visit the New Acropolis Museum, a few stops away on the Metro. We were familiar with the journey and arrived with no problem.

There were a number of people outside, but mainly groups gathering together before entering. We were security scanned and bags x-rayed before we were allowed to enter the building which is a first in Greece. A small queue for tickets, which are priced at €5 each.

The museum has only been open a couple of years and when they were building it they found all sorts of history in the ground. In order not to lose this they have incorporated it in the new building and put see through floors all over the place. It is a wonderful idea seeing through to all the excavations under the ground, except if you are like Pat and I, who both don't like this sort of thing and we were walking around the edges on the bits you can't see through. As the saying goes "you can please some of the people......".

Anyway the museum is a great building and dedicated to the Acropolis and immediate surroundings. Lots of information about the site going way back, not just the current Parthenon and temples, but all the other stuff over time that has been up there.

Of course Lord Elgin gets a mention because of him taking some of the marbles and that they should be returned.

We had a coffee, very good value at €1.80 each with a glass of iced water and small biscuits and served to your table. Then we had a look round the museum shops.

By the way we won £25 on the Premium bonds today.

Then it was my turn to choose a museum so off we went to the War Museum. More Metro to the Evangelismos station. I had seen that the museum was opposite the UK Embassy and we were sadly disappointed to see a concrete monstrosity and not some wonderful neo classical building, but never mind.

Unfortunately the War Museum had shut at two o'clock so we just looked at the stuff lying around outside and then discussed what to do next?

We both decided that were actually museumed out. So any other options of which there were a few we gave up on. Lunch was next and we decided to head back up to the mall we were at yesterday for some lunch.

So another hop on the Metro and up to Aghios Dimitrios. Pat spotted a TGI Friday and we had a Chicken Caesar salad, BBQ Taco burger, small beer, Coke lite - automatically refilled twice - and some water. We even got a free dessert and the bill was €31.20. An enjoyable meal and something slightly different for us.

In one of the guides we had acquired was mention of a big Mall and it was a little way out of the centre on the Metro, but wasn't going to cost anything to give it a look so we went for it.

So back on the Metro again and a journey to Neratziotissa. We passed the Olympic stadium on the way so even got in some sightseeing.

We arrived and found the Mall, much larger this time. We ambled around the various shops and bought a couple of things then I had had enough so we headed back to the hotel returning at 1900.

A very full day for us and made very good use of our Metro tickets.

We have booked a flight home for tomorrow with Aegean Airlines Flight number 906 departing Athens 1415 hours arriving Larnaca 1555 hours.

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