For some reason Jet_Leg is hanging around! Another book reading session at 4AM to get me back to sleep.
After breakfast we set off on a tour of Athens, originally we were going to try a walking tour, but decided we’d be safer on the Hop-onHop-off bus. After a little agro with the website, I finally managed to download the tickets.
We walked downhill for 3/4 mile or so to get to the bus stop. Athens has 3 different Hop-onHop-off buses, blue, brown and red. We needed the red one…. must remember that.
What follows is a series of pictures in no particular order. I’ll leave it to you and Google to find more detailed information!
On our walk to the bus we passed a soldier of the Presidential Guard in full traditional dress. These soldiers are known as evzones. I took a similar picture on my last visit to Athens in 1964!!
I was expecting there to be plenty of room on the bus given there were 3 different companies, but the bus was almost full.
Below is the Hellenic Parliament building, below it is the tomb of the unknown soldier
Below is the old Parliament building, it now houses the Natural History Museum.
The picture below is for my brother-in-law, Robert. He should understand after his recent trip from S. Africa!!
Again we went for a late lunch, we got off the bus at one of the many large squares in the city. The traffic is pretty much non-stop any where in the city with many impatient motor bikes threading their way through stationary cars. At least they (mostly) give way to pedestrians when required!
We then headed to the site of the first modern day Olympics held 1896. The stadium has 45 rows of seats and holds 60,000 people.
We also found our first Greek geocache here!
Not far away is the Zappeion Hall, the Olympic Village for the 1896 games.
We took the bus back to our starting point, and walked back to the hotel, just a little tired. Our decision to take the bus was a good one, there were many hilly streets on the route but more importantly the English version of the street map we had showed Anglicised street names, which bore little to no resemblance to the actual Greek signs.
Tonight’s plan was to eat at the hotel, but we discovered the restaurant closed early today for some reason, so we’ll hed out and find one.