Athens walking tour

Day 5 – Athens walking tour

Athens

Friday, 20 September 2013

We started the day at Syntagma Square with a walking tour of Athens and the Acropolis which we had booked online. The Syntagma metro station has a collection of artefacts that were discovered when they were excavating the site, including the preserved grave of a young girl which is now behind glass showing the different ages of Athenian settlement.

Across the road to Parliament House and the changing of the guard. For an interesting experience you can be photographed with pigeons fluttering on your arm and head! There are entrepreneurs everywhere in Athens finding inventive ways of earning a living. Times are very hard for Greeks. Nikkos, our guide, said that unemployment is at 28%, and a stunning 60% for young people. The government has cut public service jobs even further, hence the latest round of strikes in Athens.

We walked through the national gardens and listened to a very potted history of Greece. Then to Zappeion Hall, a beautiful neoclassical building. From here to the Temple of Zeus where you can get an amazing view towards Hadrian’s Arch and the Acropolis.

We entered the Acropolis from the south slope to avoid the crowds. The ascent is steeper this way and the day was already getting very hot. Today’s skies are a bit more cloudy and a heat haze is evident.

Overall the tour was OK, but more geared to novices or those with limited time to explore. The tour was expensive at 37 euro each plus entrance fees and I don’t think there was enough value add for that sort of cost. It certainly doesn’t compare to the more specialised London and Paris walking tours. I’d recommend checking out the free tours of Athens instead. Or have your own historian in tow!

Very hot by this stage so we wound our way down from the acropolis and found an outdoor cafe for lunch. A refreshing Greek beer and noise of happy insects in the terrace plantings. But too much food in the set menu – note to self only order a few dishes and don’t fill up on the bread! On the eay found a free museum with an amazing private collection of Byzantine and Greek artefacts from prehistory to Roman times.

Retracing our footsteps we found that all roads do in fact lead to the acropolis. Found a terrace cafe for a sunset drink, 5 euros for both of us. But the view was priceless.

We then circumnavigated the acropolis and found new streets to visit.

Sore feet and calves, we are a pair of old crocs!

	Our tour guide Nikkos at the grave of the young gi [Map]		Temple of Zeus [Map]
	View to Acropolis from Temple of Zeus [Map]		Hadrian’s Arch [Map]
	Theatre of Dionysus from southern slope of the Acr [Map]		Our tour group [Map]
	Those strong girls (Karyatids) holding up the porc [Map]		Terrace cafe [Map]