Sunday 8th May – Time to explore Athens
We woke to a beautiful day, a real feel of summer. A nice English breakfast before setting off. We thought we had better start with a trip to the Police Station to report my unfortunate lose of the night before. The Omonia Police station almost looked like a temporary set up in an old office building. Windows in doors had been replaced by hardwood, dark hallways, no signage, door kept locked etc. We only knew it was a Police Station because of the cars outside and few people that sort of looked like cops, One carrying what looked like an AK47. The ones we spoke to were all very nice, even has a sense of humour and we got our report filed reasonably quickly. One guy told me an older fellow like me should be giving the younger ones the advice of being careful of pickpockets and not the other way around.
We decided to grab one of these open top double deck sightseeing buses and do the round before deciding what to do. For E20 each we had a two day pass on the hop on hop off bus and two routes to explore. The main city loop was an hour and a half the port loop one hour. We sat on the top deck and soaked in the sun and the sights. Went past old buildings, statues, parks, historic sites and the flea market listening on earphones to a pretty tame commentary with Greek music reasonably loud in the background. The Acropolis was always on our list to see so that was our first hop off. This must have been some special day because we got in for free, there was an orchestra playing and being seriously recorded for supposedly TV and people all over the place. With the beautiful day the atmosphere was great and the Acropolis and surrounding buildings really fantastic, it made all the other ones we had seen pale into insignificance. We spent a few hour wandering around the sight which gave you an amazing view over Athens. What a huge white city it was spreading at 360 degrees for miles.
We wandered down into town and just walked. We ended up going through markets and shopping and all sorts. We found a little bakery type place for lunch before doing some more walking. We then hopped on our bus and got off at Hadrian’s gate which supposedly marked the line between the old and new cities, walked up to the National Gardens where the most interesting thing was a couple of turtles walking around on the track and the lawns, wandered up to the Panathenai before hopping on a bus which would take us close to our hotel.
A really interesting city, lacking in decent footpaths where cars parked anywhere they could. But certainly a lively place.
Dinner was at Alexander the Great’s not far from our hotel. Doug and I ate pork chops, Margaret a Moussaka and Noddy a spaghetti Bolognaise. Very ordinary really, probably a disappointment.
Back to the hotel as being a tourist does wear you out.
Monday 9th May – More time to explore Athens
A leisurely lie in today, down to breakfast at 8.45 and then off to catch our bus. We had to go to Syntagma Square to catch the bus for the Piraeus tour. We discovered we would probably have to wait there an hour and a half four that bus so hop off our bus in Athinas Street early to hoof it to the square rather than be hanging around. As it was Monday all the shops were open and it was an interesting stroll. We went through this fantastic meat market. Meats of all sorts being cut up or hanging around. There were chocolate shops (which we had to sample) and all sorts.
We were shortly on the bus to Piraeus, sitting on the top deck as the bus sped at what seemed like 80km/h as we got blown to bits. The commentary was even lamer. Piraeus was the port but a city in its own right. It was also large and was claimed to be the biggest port in Europe and the third biggest in the world for passenger numbers. It was very pretty and there were a few rich boys toys but we didn’t get off the bus and came back into Athens.
Back in Athens we just walked brought some nibbles for drinks. For E3 we had olives, salami and peanuts such that we didn’t eat them all and discussed only having an Ice cream for tea.
In fact that that is what we did, went for a reasonable walk, had an ice cream and wandered home to read out books.
Even though it was a very enjoyable relaxed day we were tired. We have to be up early tomorrow as we are being picked up at 7.45 for our 3 day Classical Greek Tour.
