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| The Parthenon |
Mike is a type 2 diabetic. He's lost a ton of weight since he found out and started eating a more restrictive diet. He also told me that his doctor currently has him on a Keto diet. It's been a few months of avoiding all sugars and carbs and now here we are in the middle of Carb heaven. I think Mike tried to stick to minimal carbs for this breakfast, but it didn't last for too long.
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| The Acropolis - viewed from our breakfast table |
I've had eggs benedict a few times in the past, usually at less reputable restaurants (like Denny’s). But this is a high-end place so I thought I'd get eggs benedict here and it would be better than anything I've ever had before. I still wasn't impressed. I don't seem to like hollandaise sauce, and the poached eggs are tasteless. I guess that seals it for me, no more eggs benedict. I did have a bunch of bacon, hash browns, and croissants to tide me over though.
After breakfast we got a cab up to the West entrance to the Acropolis. We arrived just after opening so the line wasn't too long to get in. Once we were in, we didn't really know what to do, so we just followed the crowd towards the top of the Acropolis and the Parthenon. The climb up to the top was slow because the path narrowed and many people needed help climbing the uneven terrain.
This is the Athens Acropolis, but there are many other “acropolis” around Greece. The meaning comes from Akron - meaning highest point and Polis - meaning high city. So, it just means a city on a hill elevated above the surrounding area. This one is so famous because of its’ enduring symbolism of Greek art and democracy. Athens gets its’ name from the Athena temple at the top.
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| Entrance to the Acropolis |
While climbing the hill, I’m sure I looked like the tourist that I am. I was gawking at everything. So many people were stopping to frame a picture or pose for pictures, that we moved much slower than we should have been. I didn’t want to be poked, prodded, or yelled at so I didn’t take many pictures on the way up. I wish I had, I remember the entrance being odd, but I don’t have pictures to prove it. I think we had to go single file through some construction/restoration areas and even had to walk over a few wooden planks laid across gaps in the pathway. Whatever the case, eventually we made it to the top.
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| Odeon of Herodes Atticus - viewed from the Acropolis |
I downloaded an audio guide app for the area before we came. Both Mike and I paired our ear buds to my phone so we could hear the same tour. The audio tours had good basic info, but I wish they were even more detailed. We wandered back and forth across the Acropolis looking at the various buildings and listening to the tour.
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| Rare photo of both of us - the Parthenon |
There weren't many people when we first arrived but, the longer we stayed, the more people kept arriving. Eventually it got hard to take pictures without a mass of other people standing around you trying to do the same thing. I was using my brand-new Samsung Galaxy S23 ultra which had new features for removing items from pictures. I tried a few times to get a picture with only a few people so I could remove them. I think I got a few, but I have no idea what I did with those altered pictures.
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| Temple of Athena |
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| Growing crowds at the Parthenon |
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| The Theatre of Dionysus |
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| 6 Virgins at the Temple of Athena |
One thing that caught us off guard was the sign saying, "don't stand on any rocks", but sure enough many people kept climbing on rocks to try to see over other people or get a clearer picture. There were security guards that kept telling people to get down. But even more than standing, at one point I sat down to try to read something, and they yelled at me for even sitting on the ground. I guess you must stand on your feet, on the ground, and nothing else the whole time you’re up there.
My favorite activity was walking around and looking at the Parthenon. That's the famous temple dedicated to the goddess Athena. A few years after this trip, I was in Nashville, and believe it or not, there's a reproduction of the Parthenon there in Nashville. It was cool to go see an intact replica after seeing the original in ruins.
One end of the Parthenon was covered in scaffolding. They were trying to stabilize the pillars and cross beams and have been at it for years. As I write this in 2026, the recent news is that for the first time in many years, the Parthenon is free of all scaffolding. It must be nice to get a picture without all the modern steel in it. Mike and I got a few pictures without scaffolding, but you had to get creative with your shooting angle. You especially had to be lucky to get a picture without other people in it. We even had people literally walk up and stand right in front of us while taking pictures.
We spent nearly 3 hours walking around the top of the acropolis. We took a lot of pictures and listened to all of the audio tour, including descriptions of all the sights we could see from the perimeter. Finally, we were getting tired and hungry, so we walked back down the pathway, taking pictures all the way. I especially loved the picture with an in-tact Greek temple in the distance behind me
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| Leaving the Acropolis |
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| The Ancient Agora viewed from the Acropolis |
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| The Temple of Hephaestus |
At the bottom, we were kind of funneled to the exit. We didn’t realize it was the exit or we’d have diverted to walk some of the ruins surrounding the hill. We checked on yelp and other websites to find somewhere for lunch and settled on a restaurant called Strofi. It was a short walk and was in the direction we were headed.
Strofi is a Greek restaurant. I can’t remember what we ate, but I do remember liking it and the Diet Coke over ice on this warm day. I especially loved the panoramic view of the acropolis from the elevated position of the restaurant. We spent well over an hour eating. Meals in Europe tend to be more relaxed than we’re used to.
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| View of the Acropolis from the Stofi Restaurant |
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| My lunch view |
After leaving we walked slowly toward the Acropolis Museum and did a little souvenir shopping on the way. I was struggling trying to find something besides Venus statues or evil eyes.
Once we were in the museum, we noticed signs forbidding photography. No one had a camera or phone out, so we walked around just admiring things. I was just now looking at the rules online and it says no photography on the first floor and a few selected areas. I think if we had paid better attention, we could have taken many pictures, but we didn’t, so only a couple pictures where we saw others taking them.
One of the big controversies around the acropolis is the fact that several English scholars removed many sculptures from the facade of the Parthenon and took them back to England. They are now in the British Museum where they are called the Elgin Marbles. Greece would like to have them returned, but the British will not return them. It’s far from the only example of thefts from one country being displayed in a museum in another, but this one is pretty famous. I read a quote that said something like - “If every museum returned its displays to the country of origin, most museums would have to close”
We saw replicas of the Elgin Marbles on display along with the few remaining pieces. I saw the real Elgin Marbles back in 2002 when Nan and I went to London for vacation. I remember spending a long time admiring the craftsmanship of the sculptures. I don’t think I’d seen anything like it at the time.
The museum had a section outside of the main building where they had excavated some of the old city. We spent quite a while looking through that area and reading the signs that explained what ancient life was like in Athens. Most homes were built around a central courtyard with all rooms branched from it. Life was mostly lived in the courtyard or out around the city.
We spent another couple of hours wandering around the museum and the excavations.
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| The missing Virgins from the Temple of Athena |
On our way back to the hotel, we stopped by the Greek Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and were just in time to watch the changing of the guard. The ceremony was much different from the US ceremony in Arlington. It seemed less formal with an officer casually walking out to inspect the soldiers and direct the changing. They do the high type of marching where a leg is stuck high forward in the air and held, then swung behind and back forward, often with one arm held high in the air. YouTube it.
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| Tomb of the Unknown Soldier |
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| Tomb of the Unknown Soldier |
We went back to the hotel for a few hours. I don’t remember what we did or if I tried to write the blog again. If I tried, it didn’t work or I wouldn’t be writing it now.
After it got dark, we decided to go look for some dinner. We didn’t have a specific restaurant in mind, but Mike wanted to walk around the Psiri neighborhood. Psiri is filled with small shops and restaurants, so we figured we’d find something.
Not far from the hotel we were crossing a street. I wasn’t paying attention and caught my shoe on an uneven cobblestone. I took a hard tumble bruising my right knee. I got up fairly quick, but the knee got very sore over the next few hours and bothered me the whole rest of the trip. If I sat somewhere for long it would stiffen up and take a bit of flexing to start moving again. Just a moment’s inattention can have a lasting effect.
We slowed down a bit and got off the main road, so we didn’t feel like the cars were going to hit us. Some roads in Athens have no sidewalk and you must dash from doorway to doorway to tuck yourself away from the traffic.
Off the main road we found ourselves funneled toward a large square with a fountain in the middle. This was Kotzia Square and it sits in front of Athens City Hall. The lights in the fountain were very striking, and we spent 15 minutes trying different camera techniques to get a really nice picture. The fountain was so bright that trying to get a picture with one of us in it resulted in a big blob of light behind us.
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| The Fountain in Kotzia Square |
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| Timelapse of the Fountain |
We continued walking and eventually arrived in the Psiri Neighborhood. It was much brighter than last night’s walk, and very much louder. Live bands in many restaurants and groups of people talking loud enough to be heard over the bands.
We meandered for a while and eventually stopped in a quieter street. I don’t remember why we picked the place we did, other than it was outside so we could people watch and it wasn’t loud or packed with people. I don’t even remember if we liked the food. But we did enjoy the ambiance and the groups that wandered past.
I think we spent an hour or more eating. I also think the owner came out to chat with us for a while, but that’s just an impression. We both liked the ambiance and would have liked to come back and try another place, but we never did.
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| Dinner in the Psiri Neighborhood |
Heading back to the hotel, we could tell from quite a distance that another night of rioting was taking place. There were people filling the streets starting several blocks away. We wanted to grab water and soda on the way back, but everything seemed to be shut down. Eventually, we found a cart just off the square that was open despite the yells and anger around us. The guy was doing a booming business. Once that was done, we started shoving our way toward the hotel.
It really wasn’t that bad, but it did take a bit to get through the crowd, especially when we broke into the actual square. Our hotel was just 30 yards away, but it looked like it was closed. There was a big metal door rolled down in front of the entrance and all the guide ropes, trash cans, and anything else you’d normally find by a hotel entrance were gone.
We made our way up the marble stairs toward where the doors should be. I don’t remember exactly what we did or how we were noticed, but a smaller rollup door was opened, and we were waved inside quickly. No one tried to attack us or rush in behind us. Just like last night though, everything seemed fairly peaceful except the occasional outraged scream or chanting.
I think we watched from the window again, but this time the violence came a bit earlier and the police response was a bit harsher. I think I was so tired I went to sleep shortly after we arrived.
