We chose Athens as the final destination in order to get direct flights back to London.
Our desire to visit Athens was based on an interest in visiting several icons of ancient civilization including:
- the Acropolis,
- the Oracle at Delphi
- the fortress city of Mycenae.
And also to eat plenty of souvlakis, a dish that is common in Melbourne, but we hadn't eaten a lot of in London.
Arriving in Athens
We arrived in Athens by ferry from Santorini. With an arrival time close to midnight, we found it best not to negotiate the narrow streets of the old town at night; but instead to check into a hotel within the port district of Piraeus.
Phidias Piraeus Hotel
We checked into the Phidias Piraeus Hotel, located a 15 min walk from where our ferry docked. The hotel website advertised a 5 minute walk from the port; however the distance that you travel actually depends on which part of the massive harbour that your ferry anchors at. The hotel had a modern 'Premier Inn' feel and the staff were helpful and friendly.
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| Church at Piraeus |
Central Hotel, Plaka
The next day we took the subway to central Athens where we had booked three nights in the tourist district of Plaka at the Central Hotel. On check-in, we received a room upgrade to ensure we didn't have to change rooms each night as we had made three separate booking entries due to changes in our itinerary. The location was perfect, right under the Acropolis, close to taverns and crowded with enough tourists to ensure the streets were never deserted when we walked home late at night.
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| View of the Acropolis from our hotel room |
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| The Erechtheion |
Monastiraki Square
Our closest Metro station was at Monastiraki Square. This was next to the famous flea market and the remains of Hadrian's Library. Lined up nearby were a number of souvlaki restaurants that we became well acquainted with during our stay in Athens.
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| Monastiraki Square |
Chatzis
For breakfast we discovered a small Turkish bakery cafe - Chatzis next to Syntagma Square that had been popular for its pastries since 1908. We had a coffee and a serve of crispy spanakopita (cheese and spinach in filo pastry) before seeking out the start of the Hop-on-Hop-off tour bus route.
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| Spanakopita |
Hop on Hop Off Bus
Throughout our travels in Europe we have used many different Hop-on-Hop-off tour providers, with thee companies operating in Athens. The City-Sightseeing brand is by far the most popular - offering a fairly good map of all the key tourist sights, free headphones and translated commentary in a dozen different languages. We also scored a small discount from the ticket seller by stating that we only needed the ticket for the rest of the day instead of the usual 24 hours.
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| Syntagma Square |
City Sightseeing
The first stops included the Temple of Olympian Zeus, and the Arch of Hadrian that were on the boundary of the ancient city wall. Hadrian - the famous Roman Emperor that built the wall that skirts northern England, was a benefactor of Athens and many monuments were dedicated to him during this time. The bus then headed towards the new Acropolis museum - that we had the opportunity of visiting during one of the late night sessions.
From the Acropolis, the bus headed past the reconstruction of an ancient athletics stadium; the Parliament (including the guards in traditional dress); and then looped through the market district where we noticed a large amount of graffiti and run-down buildings.
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| Arch of Hadrian |
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| Temple of Zeus |
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| The Agora |
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| Stadium built in the ancient Greek style |
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| Locals hanging out on a traffic island |
Downtown Athens
Downtown Athens is not the prettiest city in Europe, despite having a number of ancient temples half hidden between modern buildings like hotels and banks. The austerity measures are no doubt having an impact on the local population, with us witnessing a night-time protest by students and teachers on the steps of Parliament House.
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| A Byzantium church hidden behind modern buildings |
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| Protests on the streets |
Port Bus Route
As our Hop-on-Hop-off bus tour ticket gave us access to the port tourist route, we decided to see this shorter tour before lunch. It was slightly disappointing, with the scenery just filled with hotels and cruise ships, clearly a marketing ploy to provide ferry passengers with an expensive bus route to the Harbour instead of taking the subway.
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| The large cruise ships at the Port |
Thanasis Souvlaki It didn't take long before we were craving something else to eat and next to Monastiraki Square, we sat down at the cafe style Thanasis Souvlaki restaurant that had been recommended by the receptionist in Santorini. We ate an amazing Greek salad and tasty souvlakis washed down with Fix beer.
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| Amazing Greek Salad |
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| Souvlaki |
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| We love Greek beer |
Exploring Plaka
After resting up at the hotel, we took a walk around the historic sites of the Plaka district and took photos of Hadrian's Library, remains of the Roman Agora and the skyline of the Acropolis at night.
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| Hadrian's Library |
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| Roman Agora |
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| The small mosque, converted from a Byzantium church |
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| The Acropolis on the skyline |
Outdoor Garden Tavern
For dinner we wanted to eat at a traditional taverna instead of restaurants that target tourists. We walked around the district near our hotel where we were approached by a man in a suit that asked us what kind of food we wanted to eat in English. We asked him for recommendations and he directed us to the Outdoor Garden Tavern that was a few streets away - praising it as having good food that he even brings his family there. At the time, we thought nothing of this chance encounter; but when ran into the same guy at least three further times talking to other tourists and just hanging around the area, we figured that it was some sort of scam.
At the Outdoor Garden Tavern we ate some average tasting food including prawn saganaki, stuffed peppers and a moussaka that tasted like it had been pre-frozen.
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| Prawn saganaki |
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| Peppers stuffed with cheese |
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| Moussaka |
Key Tours
We had booked a series of day trips with the tourist provider 'Key Tours' based on TripAdvisor recommendations. They offered a slight discount for multi-day packages and our first destination was the UNESCO listed Oracle at Delphi.
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| UNESCO Listed site |
Travelling to Delphi
The bus ride from Athens to the Delphi archaeological site took 2.5 hours and passed through some nice mountain (Mount Parnassus) scenery. On arrival, our guide took us through the museum where we gained an understanding of the statues and buildings that had been excavated on the site by the French archaeological society that had to relocate an existing village in order to get to the ruins.
Museum at Delphi
Inside the museum, we saw a number of famous artifacts from the classical period that provide some insight into how Delphi once looked when it was known across the Ancient World for its Oracle.
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| Sphinx of the Column of Naxie is from 570 BC with lighter areas showing restored stone |
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| Marble pediments |
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| White Kylix of Delphi, 480 BC |
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| Statue of Antinous, a close friend of Emperor Hadrian |
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| Bronze statue of a charioteer that was buried during the great earthquake of 373 BC |
Oracle at Delphi
After the museum tour, we walked through the site to read the descriptions of the various temples that are now in ruins. At the top of the hill and the most recent excavation is the stadium that was likely built during Roman times.
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| Remains of the temple of Apollo |
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| Names of slaves that constructed the site carved into the stone |
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| The site is in the middle of a mountain range |
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| The Stadium |
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| At Delphi |
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| The historic site |
Apollonia Tavern
Lunch was eaten at a small tavern style restaurant, Apollonia where we ate chicken and rice. The next stop was the ski resort of Arachova where we had an opportunity to buy souvenirs (a compulsory part of any packaged coach tour).
New Acropolis Museum
On arrival back to Athens we took the opportunity to visit the new Acropolis museum as the opening hours were extended for the end of the peak season. We highly recommend a trip to this museum as contains a full reconstruction of the Parthenon and sculptures, including an explanation of why a number of artifacts are 'missing' due to being stolen by the British Lord Elgin and are held in the British Museum. The museum has been built over an archaeological excavation site with glass floors allowing visitors to admire the ancient ruins that lie at the foundation level.
Peloponnese Tour
Our second day trip with Key Tours was to three destinations: Corinth Canal, the UNESCO site of Epidaurus and Mycenae, all located in the region of the Peloponnese. The Peloponnese used to be peninsula until the Corinth Canal was built in 1893 to link the Ionian and Aegean seas. At the time it was one of the wonders of world engineering and it saved ships a journey of 700km. Before we reach the canal, we passed by the site of a famous naval battle (Battle of Salamis) between the Greeks and the Persians in 480BC.
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| Corinth canal |
Goat Crossing
On route to the next destination, we passed by a goat herder that was stopping traffic by leading his flock across the main highway.
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| Goats crossing the road |
Theatre at Epidaurus
The second site, Epidaurus was important in Ancient times as the birthplace of Asclepius, Apollo's son that was healer god and Asklepieion was the first sanctuary (hospital). The site also contains a theatre with perfect acoustics that allow a person sitting anywhere in the stands to hear a stone drop by a person standing on the centre stage.
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| Another UNESCO listing |
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| Asclepius, patron on healers |
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| Remains of the sanctuary |
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| The theatre |
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| The acoustics are better due to the radio magnetic ground |
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| The theatre at Epidaurus |
Nafplion
Between Epidaurus and the third destination, Mycenae we passed by a number of castles at Nafplion (the capital of the first Hellenic republic) and thousands of olive trees.
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| Island castle at Nafplion |
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| Thousands of olive trees |
Mycenae Fortress
Mycenae is an archaeological site containing an ancient fortress with large cyclopean walls (so large that the Greeks believed that they were built by cyclops) that were built around a royal palace. The site was excavated in 1876 by Heinrich Schliemann (who excavated Troy) and he found large quantities of gold artifacts that can be visited at the museum in Athens. There is still a lot of mystery about the Mycenae civilization as similar to the Minoans, they wrote in Linear B script that still hasn't been translated.
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| The famous Lion Gate of Mycenae |
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| The grave circles where the gold was found |
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| Another UNESCO listing |
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| The beehive graves using stones weighing several tonnes |
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| The hill where the Mycenae citadel is located |
Rooftop Drinks
After a long day on the road, we arrived back in Athens looking for quiet place for a drink. Our hotel had a rooftop bar with excellent views of the Acropolis.
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| Acropolis at night |
Psaras Fish Tavern
For dinner we headed out to Plaka's oldest restaurant Psaras Fish Tavern where we ate eggplant rolls, fava beans (that we had also eaten in Santorini), seafood pasta and grilled squid.
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| Alfresco dining |
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| Seafood pasta |
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| Grilled squid in a creamy sauce |
Museum Free Day
On the first Sunday of every month outside of peak season, the museums in Athens are free. We took the opportunity to visit the Acropolis early in the morning before it became too crowded with tourists from cruise ships and coach tours.
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| Remains of the stadium on the Acropolis |
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| The Parthenon |
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| Remains of marble sculpture |
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| At the Parthenon |
National Archaeological Museum
Our final tourist stop was to the National Archaeological Museum, also free for tourists on this day. The museum is a must-do for bronze and marble statues and it had a special exhibition on the Antikythera wreck - shipwreck from the 2nd quarter of the 1st century BC; that included the Antikythera mechanism - the world's first computer that could tell the cycles of the sun, moon and planets. We were particularly interested in it as we had watched a documentary about its discovery not long ago.
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| Front entrance of the museum |
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| Artemision Bronze of either Zeus or Poseidon |
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| Mask of Agamemnon |
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| Cycladic sculpture 2300BC |
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| An amazing sculpture, half eaten by ocean organisms, half preserved by the sand |
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| Antikythera mechanism |
Things we loved about Greece
We couldn't leave Greece without enjoying once more three of our favourite things:
1) Greek Beer (Mythos)
2) Souvlaki covered in greek yoghurt
3) One last Grecian sunset
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