6/8 - we are here!

June 08, 2023

A groggy half-day in Athens! (Actually, we felt pretty good. Just wait until late afternoon!)

A lot is made in the travel literature about Athens' and Greece's rise as a tourist destination. Rick Steves called pre-2004 Athens the worst city in Europe to visit. The investments made to host the 2004 Olympics made Athens a much more tourist-friendly place and arguably improved the entire Greece economy. While we took a cab from the airport to the center city, the light rail looked shiny and efficient and there was nothing to note about the air pollution since auto traffic was more highly regulated. The view from the back seat of the cab showed a nice, smooth, multi-lane highway.

That's Athens in the distance.

Athens is described as a sprawling city of about 4 million, about 40% of the entire population of Greece. Without any urban planning, most of the city is of little interest to tourists except for the center city where most of the historical landmarks are located. This neighborhood below the Acropolis, the Plaka, is compact enough to be walkable and it's where our first hotel is located.

When Mike and I checked in, my room was ready, but Mike's was not. Stu had already arrived. So we dumped our luggage in my room and went to the rooftop restaurant for enjoy a complimentary drink and check out the view while waiting for Mike's room.

Here's the view. Not bad for a first look.

Yup, that's the Acropolis and the Parthenon on top.

We're not sure what this is, but we will probably find out.

And here's Mike with his first Grecian beer.

Here's the view from my room to show that there's not much of interest in the city view.

We decided to do the Rick Steves city walk in the afternoon. Mike played navigator (thanks, Mike!).

Post Olympics, Greece reduced air pollution and increased walkability in downtown Athens by imposing and system where cars were allowed downtown depending on their license plate numbers. You would never know that downtown traffic had improved because it easily took us as long to navigate the last few kilometers to our hotel than the long distance from the airport to the center city. The city walk also demonstrated that you had to be on your toes when crossing the street because the traffic lights were synchronized for traffic, not walkers. Nonetheless,

Nice, wide, pedestrian-friendly plazas.

Narrow, cobbled streets that are mostly free of motorized traffic.

Here's a perfectly lovely view of an old church at the end of a quintessential European street ruined by two photo-bombing tourists.

Here's an example of traffic that almost killed us.

It was the motorcycles that you had to watch out for. They were fearless.

Our first stop was the Parliament where the changing of the guard is a tourist attraction. The red train is a tourist "bus".

As we walked around the Plaka, we came across many little churches.

This one was rebuilt which is why the stones don't match.

The insides were very ornate but at least one of them had a sign prohibiting photography. I didn't try to take any pictures insides the churches because I am already on God's probation list.

This next one actually had an identifying sign.

I may go back and re-read the Athens walking tour to pass on anything of note and update this section since we didn't have a tour guide with us or Rick Steves in our ears.

Some of the ruins were buried as the city grew. Here are some that were preserved when excavated.

On our walk, we passed a shop that was a "spa". Ever heard of a "fish spa?

I think this is kinda creepy.

On our way back to the hotel, we picked out a place for a late lunch/early dinner so we could crash early. This place was lovely and we ordered family-style. The food was fabulous.