Classy Athens

Day 6 – Classy Athens

Athens

Saturday, 21 September 2013

We started the day by eating out for breakfast at a Greek pastry chain cafe just around the corner from our accommodation. Nothing fancy but a piece of cheese pie, a roll filled with ham and feta, a piece of dark baclava and medium sweet Greek coffees with some sort of red syrup on the side and a piece of Turkish delight – enough to set us up for the day. Delicious!

After breakfast we walked to the Agora for our second visit and early enough to beat the crowds. The Temple of Hephaestus is located in the Agora and is one of those iconic picture postcard buildings of Athens. It’s just beautiful.

Then a leisurely walk to the Keramikos located on the old city boundary. Within the walls was the pottery district, and outside the walls had been a burial area from Neolithic times. There was also a nice little museum.

We weren’t sure whether we would have time for more museums before lunch and we both had tired feet. Anthony suggested a foot spa for me. We’d passed one our first day in Athens so knew it wasn’t too far away. We asked for directions from a lady in a jewellery shop and found Dr Fish where I had a 30 minute fish spa for 20 euro.

It probably looks yucky to people watching but the fish felt tickly only and it was quite relaxing. Anthony got to have a little sleep and rest in a chair as well! Service seemed to be a little lacking as I just had a very peremptory towel dry of my feet with no massage or even lotion. Just as well the fish were more friendly!

We stopped off quickly at our accommodation to pick up a better map so that we could find our way to lunch at the Orizontes restaurant on Lycabettus Hill. This looked a long way away but it was only about 30 minutes but the last bit was very steep (on the way bak down I counted approximately 177 steps not including the straight bits). A short funicular ride to the top and we were there on top of Lycabettus Hill with views all the way to Piraeus. The Acropolis and the Temple of Zeus looked like a perfect miniatures!

We had a delicious lunch in a beautiful setting. Orizontes is one of three or four eating options on the hill but is certainly the classiest with real napery and quality fixtures. We had booked online yesterday and I was really glad we had got in but it didn’t turn out to be busy at all – just another two tables. We had a window table which gave us panoramic views. We started with complimentary tomato gazpacho and bread, oil and olives and a nice glass of Greek wine. I had mussels in chardonnay with lovely flavours of oregano for an entree and a Greek salad for mains whist Anthony had an entree of feta in pastry with honey and black sesame and fig jam, and fillet of grouper with saffron sauce and beetroot risotto and spinach for main. We finished by sharing a cheesy tart that was a little bit like a yoghurt pie, with cinnamon ice cream and Greek coffees. Certainly a very pleasant way to spend an afternoon.

After lunch we retraced our footsteps and found that the Museum of Cycladic Art was still open. Inside a very helpful guide told us what we should try to see in the remaining 40 minutes before closing time – the fourth floor everyday life exhibition, then the Cycladic art on the first floor and if we had time, the Cypriot art on the third floor. He couldn’t change a 50 euro note so let us in for free. I loved it – small rooms but the pieces were all beautifully displayed and so many variations of the Cycladic female form, representative I suppose of as many sizes and shapes of women! I had to buy a museum replica as a souvenir.

Then our home away from home and a quiet night in watching My Big Fat Greek Wedding.

	Greek coffee for breakfast [Map]
	Yours truly at Temple of Hephestios [Map]		looking up at Temple of Hephestios [Map]
	sculpture at the Keramikos museum only recently un [Map]
	Anthony’s main meal at Orizontes restaurant [Map]		Cycladic figure at Cycladic art museum [Map]