Athens for the weekend, yippee

Having returned to work for only a week (it seemed longer to be honest) I was told by my hubby to pack a case for somewhere fairly warm and to bring some euros.  How excited was I  🙂

I bundle wrap packed our clothes (of course) and we drove to Stansted Airport where we checked into an airport hotel for the night.  By that time I’d been given a guide book so I knew we were off to Athens.  Fantastic. We were on a 9am flight in the morning.  So time to stop off for a glass of fizz at the champagne bar before we took off.

Getting around

When we arrived in Athens airport we decided that we’d use the Metro rather than take a taxi, our travels in Guatemala had made us braver.  So we stood on the platform along with all the young backpackers and locals and waited for the train. It did eventually arrive and, having successfully changed in central Athens, we reached our destination in only one and a half hours!

Our hotel, The Acropolis Museum Boutique Hotel was just a short 5 minute walk away from the Acropolis (yes I know the name gives it away but I really didn’t expect it to be that close).  The decor was really something else. (click on the web link and look at the photo gallery)

The Acropolis

As soon as we had unpacked we were off to find the Acropolis it was literally just round the corner.  Wow. The sun was starting to set, throwing a beautiful golden light over the city.  Look at that sky at 6pm on a February evening!!

 We wandered around until the sun set

The next morning we were up bright and early queuing for our tickets.  A bargain at Euros 12 each, which would give us access to 7 different sites. We hired a guide who told us all about the history and kept on telling us how everything of any importance could be attributed to the Greeks, eg philosophy, education, medicine, sport, etc, etc. And that most of our vocabulary stems from Greek (If you’ve seen the film My Big Fat Greek Wedding you’ll know what I mean).

The Acropolis was really busy. I can’t imagine how crammed it gets during the high season! The views are amazing and well worth the trek.

Further afield

A gentle walk down from the Acropolis and you find The Agora, a 6th century BC marketplace.

You can just picture the ancient Romans walking around in the cool shade doing their shopping.

The area also includes the Temple of Hephaestus

and the Nymphaion, which has a Byzantine Church built over it.

We stopped off for lunch and thought we’d go for a vegetarian option, don’t think it was as healthy as we thought!

Next we made our way past the Parliament building to the Temple of Olympian Zeus

and Hadrian’s Arch

Boat Trip

The following day we took a boat trip and visited some islands

And yet another temple, this time dedicated to Athena,

where I suddenly decided to pose …

It was a lovely break and we both had a great time.  I would recommend Athens as a city break, there is so much to see and do, we only saw 3 of the “top 10 things to see in Athens”, so lots of reasons to go back.  The people we met were really friendly but I was surprised at the attitude of many Greeks to the Germans, on the other hand, maybe I shouldn’t be.

Antio Athens : Goodbye Athens.

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