Athens is unjustly overlooked by many when travelling to Greece. Often seen as merely a springboard to the Greek Islands, I wasn’t sure what to expect from our visit to this ancient city.
Our Hotel in Athens
We stayed in good hotel in a nice part of town, because I was a little worried about how safe Athens was for tourists. The Electra Palace hotel has its own restaurant, so we didn’t have to wander the streets at night if we didn’t want to. The view from the rooftop restaurant was spectacular, with views of the Acropolis, and the food was pretty amazing too.
The Acropolis
We had organized a few day tours to some ancient Greek sites. The first day was a tour of the Acropolis and the Acropolis Museum. We made our way up the marble steps towards the Propylea, the entrance of the Acropolis, trying to understand why some tourists were wearing high heel shoes! We noticed the darkening sky above the city, which didn’t take long to start turning a menacing shade of green. The wind to started to pick up and we soon realized that we were going to be caught in a cracking thunderstorm whilst standing at the highest point in the city!
Time was of the essence! Photos needed to be taken! Personally, I loved the foreboding skies as a backdrop to the Parthenon, instead of the clear blue sky often seen in photographs.
As the rain began to fall amid swirling wind and flashes of lightning, the crowds began to descend those marble stairs in double-quick time. Hard enough to do in flat shoes when the marble is wet and slippery, near impossible to do in those silly heels! Drenched, but laughing with the thrill of it all, we made it back to the waiting tour bus. Several of the passengers didn’t though…. I wonder if they were wearing heels??
Onto our next stop…. the Acropolis Museum, via Athen’s modern Olympic Stadium.
The Acropolis Museum is fascinating…. so much to see! Even before you enter the museum, you can see ancient foundations under the museum building. The museum itself has a lot of the original statues and items from the Acropolis and we spent hours exploring it all.
Cape Sounion
After a morning exploring the Acropolis, we spent the afternoon traveling along the coastline to see the Temple of Poseidon. Once again, the clouds started to gather, but we managed to stay dry this time. Of course, Poseidon being the Greek God of the Sea, his white marble temple is perched on a cliff top at Cape Sounion, with views across the bay.
Delphi
That was the end of a very full day in Athens. Early to bed that night as we had an early start the next morning…. we were off to visit the ancient site of Delphi. I hadn’t done a lot of research about Delphi before we left…. not like me, I know. Therefore, when we got there, I was blown away with how big and how well preserved it all was.
I highly recommend a visit to Delphi if you are staying in Athens or nearby. For those that aren’t familiar, Delphi is located on Mount Parnassus, and was the sanctuary of Apollo. It was said to be the centre of the world according to the ancient Greeks. Pilgrims would come to the site to receive an oracle from the Pythia or high priestess of Apollo. Before the temple of Apollo was built, she would sit atop the rock of Sybil and give cryptic answers to pilgrim’s questions. Some puzzle today whether her cryptic answers had something to do with her inhaling leaking gas from below the rock?? Who knows, but I like the idea of an Empire’s fortunes resting on the interpretations of gibberish ramblings, from someone high as a kite.
Inside the Delphi Museum is a treasure trove of ancient artifacts found at the Delphi site. We could have spent a lot longer here learning so much about ancient Greece and their Gods.
Streets of Athens
Our short stay in Athens was coming to an end. On our last morning, we felt brave enough to venture away from our hotel on foot and explore the city a little. I’m so glad we did because not unlike Rome, ancient ruins are dotted around the city, and you can stumble across them quite randomly. The buildings are lovely too, with grand columns and white marble aplenty.
Athens is a city that I feel I need to explore the heart of a bit further. Perhaps this means it will be on a future itinerary….. we have stayed on Naxos, Mykonos, Paros, Santorini and Corfu…. a stint on a few different, lovely little Greek Islands perhaps??
