Blogs from Pláka, Athens, Attica, Greece, Europe

Day 21 - The Acropolis and Filopappou Hill (and points in between) Our plan was to get to the gates of the Acropolis early to avoid the worst of both the heat and the crowds. We also entered from the eastern gate, the one not used by all the tour companies. This took us past many of the sites lower on the hill such as the Theatre of Dionysus, several temples, caves that had been turned into churches, the work sites of various craftsmen, and a roman era theater that is still used today. We finally made it to the gates of the Acropolis and walked up the marble steps to the summit. We were able to see the Parthenon, the temple to Athena Nike, and many other smaller temples on the summit. The whole area ... read more

Apologies for taking so long to write this. It is now Tuesday night (actually, now Thursday night), the first part of my flights home left Athens at 4.20pm on Thursday, after a wait of around four hours at Dubai we left at about 2am Friday morning, landing at Kuala Lumpar at about 1pm and landing at Melbourne at 1am Saturday (local times used). Having an awesome daughter who insisted on picking me up from the airport regardless of the time of my landing, I decided to book a room at the Parkroyal at Tullamarine Airport (with super comfy beds). Last Thursday turned out quite interesting. Another Greek breaky of ham and cheese on buttered bread, this time with full confidence (all the awkward peering under lids to inspect the contends having been done the morning before). ... read more

Day 178 Thursday 14th July 2016 – Larnaca to Athens We have a 1.00pm flight today so it is a nice easy start to the day, we had breakfast in the apartment and then packed and got a taxi at 10.30am to the airport. As we arrived we saw three dogs entering the airport and at first glance we thought sniffer dogs then looked at the people with them and they were tourist. It turned out they were dogs from the Nicosia Dog Shelter going to new homes, they were being put into cages in the terminal for their flights, first time we have seen dogs lining up for a flight. This is a quick flight to Athens only 1.5 hours making sure we got stamped in, we have been to Athens twice before ... read more

The flight from Copenhagen went smoothly - I was surprised there was no passport control on arrival. The wonders of the EU! I was driven to the hotel by a very chatty young Greek who told me of his adventures visiting Istanbul. Several good tips. The group met in the bar - there are 14 of us including the leader - and we boarded an enormous bus to drive out to Cape Sounion, the southernmost tip of Attica. There is a temple to Poseidon on the hilltop. Scenic as all get out. We stopped at a seafood restaurant on the way back. Huge quantities of fried calamari, shrimp and small fish, then a grilled whole fish. Back to the hotel, and I went straight to bed.... read more

Dag 10 - Athene Om half negen staan we allemaal weer klaar in de lobby, gereed voor nog een dagje Athene. We stappen na een kort ritje in een enorm drukke metro, uit in Plaka, en vinden daar snel weer een gezellig stekkie om te ontbijten. Na het ontbijt lopen we via de boog van Adrianus (niet te verwarren met onze frauduleuze Adrianos van gisteren!) naar de tempel van Zeus. Een enorme tempel waarvan nog een aantal zuilen statig overeind staan en tevens diverse gedeeltes nog goed zichtbaar zijn. Na het bezichtigen van deze tempel lopen we naar het Kallimarmaro stadion en bezichtigen deze vanaf het plein ervoor. Het rondje dat Kevin er hard gelopen heeft, besluiten we maar over te slaan in deze enorme hitte😉. Vervolgens besluiten we de bus te nemen naar de voet ... read more