Exploring Athens

                   Judy at the shutter

Traveling on our own gives us plenty of flexibility. We can make plans, change them, spend the amount of time we want taking photos, reading plaques and signs, gazing at the scenery. 

Our first full day of Athens sight-seeing started a little late, but we could still make the Acropolis in good time. However, a few blocks from the apartment, we came upon a market that takes over a nearby street on Fridays. The beauty of the stalls of flowers, fresh fruits and vegetables lured us from our path, and we strolled through, making enough purchases that we decided to back track home to drop them off. Some we would wash and take for mid-day snacking.

                                                       A pleasant discovery

                                                  An array of Greek Olives

    Already hardboiled -- we bought some for snacking

By the time we reached the Acropolis, hordes of tour buses had arrived, and tourists covered nearly every surface of the stone steps and walkways. Pressed in the ticket line, we decided to get our tickets since we were there, but to follow Rick Steves's advice and come back in the evening. "Let's find the Tourist Information office and see about the ferry schedule and tickets," we said and located it on Rick's handy map in our Pocket Athens guidebook. 

Through the maze of streets in the Plaka, we came out at a huge and busy main street and the Arch of Hadrian. Through the arch, we could see the ruins of the Temple of Olympian Zeus. The temple admission was included in our Acropolis ticket. We were here! We could find the T.I. office afterward. Getting close to the remaining colossal columns, some standing and others not, we listened to the Rick Steves audio tour we'd downloaded and let our imaginations fill in the grandeur of the place, which was started by the ancient Greeks and finished nearly 700 years later by the Roman emperor Hadrian.

                                                          Arch of Hadrian

                                              Temple of Olympian Zeus

           Corinthian column with ornate capital

     

                   Columns were built from perfectly-matched pieces called "drum rolls" 

According to our trusty map, several blocks north toward Syntagma Square, we should see the T.I. office. We walked past the National Gardens and realized we needed to cross the street. Oops, we'd gone too far and passed where the map showed the T.I. office. We turned around and walked a block or so then stopped in an office to ask for directions. "This is an insurance agency," the man seated at one of the desks said. But, he stood and walked us out and pointed north. We told him we'd come from there, but hadn't seen anything. "Well, this is Greece," he said and told us to try a travel agency a few doors down. 

The two older red-headed women who sat back in conversation seemed annoyed that we'd bother them with a question about the T.I. office. One hoisted herself up and got us a map. She drew a line with an arrow on the road (south), circled an area and wrote an address number. We thanked them "Efharisto"  as she shooed us out the door, and walked back the way we'd come. At the end of her arrow, we came upon a different travel agency. The agent in there was the most helpful. He gave us information on the ferries and said we could reserve online. But, he sent us to the street beyond Syntagma Square to find the phantom T.I. office. 

Though we had traversed the same territory numerous times, talked to lots of folks, got conflicting but sincere information, we never did find the T.I. Office. 

Finally, we noticed we were at the Ancient Agora.  "Oh, well, this IS Greece," Judy said.Yes, we had a Rick Steves audio tour of this site, where the ancient Greeks had lived and worked and done business as well as taken care of the business of state. So, we followed Rick through this amazing historic cradle of civilization.

                                            Statue columns in the Agora

                                                       Statue of Hadrian

By 5:30, we were at the Acropolis, with a little life still left in our legs. The crowd had thinned around the Parthenon entry, but there were still folks on Mars Hill, looking over the city. We'd cautiously climbed those steep ancient rock steps the evening before and perched to look up at the Parthenon. Thousands of years of foot traffic have polished the rocks like they'd been through a lapidary tumbler. 

Time to view the heart of Athens, the Acropolis, close up. We climbed the stone ramp that led to this complex of ornate temples devoted to Athena, unimpeded by other tourists and their cameras. We listened to the audio tour pointing out the visionary feats of architecture and the artistry chiseled from marble over 2,500 years ago. 

                                          Odeon Theatre of Herodes Atticus

                     East end of the Parthenon (continuing renovation since the 1980's)

                     The Erechtheion, which held a life-size, olive-wood statue of Athena

                          The porch of the Caryatids on one end of the Erechtheion