Day 41 Tuesday 26th September 2023 - Athens
After a long day yesterday, we chilled out a bit today with a sleep in and a casual walk around Athens. Rain was expected so we took an umbrella just in case. We visited the Botanic Gardens, watched the changing of the guard at Synpagma Square (not planned - we just happened upon it) and wandered through the "hip" district of Kolonaki which was very interesting and would be a pleasant but expensive place to live. An enjoyable easy day with no rain eventuating.
Here is Graeme feeling right at home in the "hip" district picking out his new outfit !
Day 41 Wednesday 28th September 2023 - Athens
As we were getting into bed last night, Graeme received an "URGENT" alert message on his phone, sent by the Greek Government to everyone in the Athens district via the emergency 112 number. It was to advise that extreme weather conditions in the form of thunderstorms and heavy rain was happening all day Wednesday, only venture out for essential purposes otherwise stay indoors ! GREAT - today we had pre-booked our walking tour of the Acropolis, and we were going to be walking on slippery marble surfaces to the top of the large hill overlooking Athens during a thunderstorm !!
We woke next morning around 5am to thunder, lightning and earlier rain ! Checking messages and our tour hadn't been cancelled yet. So at 7:40 with umbrellas and rain jackets handy, we headed off to the meeting point for our 4 hour tour, about an 8 minute walk away. Halfway there the jacket was on and the umbrella open. We arrived at the office of Athens Walks before the required 8.00am and they were still uncertain if the tour would go ahead or not. Last minute phone calls awaiting advice from the Acropolis as to whether they were going to open or not ! At 8:15 we were ok to go, it was still raining but it was getting lighter. Our group was 16 people and our knowledgeable guide was Artemis (also the name of a virgin Greek goddess).
The Acropolis is the hilltop, the Parthenon is the Temple of Athena which still sits atop the Acropolis, along with other temples, theatres, stoas etc. The view over Athens is amazing ! As we made our way up the hill, the weather cleared and blue skies appeared - the Gods must have known we were visiting ! Earlier crowd numbers were down but soon increased as the weather improved. Artemis was a great guide and we learnt a lot about the history and structures on the Acropolis.
We spent about 2 hours on the Acropolis, moving next to visit the adjoining museum where original sculptures and art works from the Acropolis are on display. We spent another 2 hours with Artemis in the museum, then even more time after the tour was completed. It turned out to be a fantastic tour ... and day weather wise !
We had a few hours left of the afteroon, and Tania wanted to check out the one and only shopping mall in Athens, so we caught the metro there and spent some time looking around. It was the Metro Mall, contained 95 shops, 5 cinemas and many eateries. This style of shopping experience is foreign to Athenians even though it has name brands there to draw in the shoppers. Crowd numbers were down so the stroll around was pleasant.
Well, that was a positive development after the overnight emergency warning.
Sounds like a good decision to persevere, especially as it likely reduced the number of pesky tourists scrambling like mad ants over the anthill.
Brings back memories of Athens -Thankyou
our pleasure Ros !
Yum u can smell the richness of Kolonaki from here Luv the fish pic thanku Debra
Lyrical 1970s: Oh, I got a funny feelin’ when she walked in the room.
IQ: CACAOS PRUNED is an anagram of which two six-letter words that are opposite in meaning?