Athens - The First Day

The Olympic stadium built in the 18th Century when the Games were reinstated.

Theatre of Dionysis at the foot of the Acropolis.

Statue of diskus thrower outside the site of the Olympic stadium.

Walking through a small section of Athens on our walking tour.

Rather large burly Greek lads in hobnailed shoes with big guns. These guys are all over six foot tall and the one chap was tall enough to make FG look small. It is one of the prerequisites to be in the Guard. They guard the tomb of the Unknown Soldier and the Houses of parliament. We were lucky enough to see the changing of the Guard.

FG and smee infront of the impressive columns to the Temple of Zeus in Athens.

Lone man playing music outside of the temple.

Arty shot of the Parthenon.

Moon over the Acropolis.

We were amazed by a few things regarding Athens - how clean it was, compared to London, how easily navigational it was, both to walk and take the Metro. We were extremely fortunate in that the wind was blowing so we had some good clear blue skies.

The visit to the Acropolis and seeing the Parthenon was stonking - it was both what I expected and not. It was bigger than I could have imagined - possitively huge and beautiful but the scaffolding detracted from it quite a lot. Also the fact that you couldn't go near it. Unlike in Egypt where you could clamber in and around and on things. Scary locals with whistles warned you to shrilly "Do not touch" "Stand back". And boy, was it hot. The glare from the stone all around was mesmerising. I made me dizzy and I had to go sit in the shade and drink around 2 litres of water just to find myself again. It's never happened, not even in Egypt - but was we loved was the fact that the fountains you drank from on the Acropolis is pure spring water. Which made the site such a fantastic fortress.

Our guide for the first day, Geoff was a lovely, intelligent ancient history scholar and very passionate about his studies, the sites and his knowledge was vast and he held forth eloquently and we look forward to meeting him here in London when he gets here for a brief visit.

We strolled around ancient sites, had lunch in a taverna, went back to our hotel and freshened up before taking the metro again and walking all around the Acropolis again, at night. We had dinner at the foot of it and that is where we took the picture of the moon rising. Needless to say both FG and I have fallen into smitteness with Athens. I mentioned this before, I think. We went back to the hotel at around midnight and couldn't stop smiling for the sheer thrill of being in this ancient city.