We are up and have a slow breakfast. We both feel sluggish from the full day of fun in the sun yesterday. Our ferry to Athens leaves at 12:10 so there’s no need to rush. We even sit outside on the porch with our coffee and tea to enjoy the smell of the flowers one more time - they are all around this place and they smell great. Eventually we go in to pack our bags. Next to the desk to check out - but Vasiliui is back in the kitchen. Dave goes in to let her know we are leaving. She makes a call and her son Panos emerges from a hidden staircase within minutes. We pay in cash because it is better for them. Vasiliui gives us a going away package with some cookies and a dry rye bagel. Panos pulls his car around, loads our bags and in four minutes we are at the port in Adamas. We find the ferry office and exchange our receipt for the actual tickets. Monique buys a sandwich for the trip that turns out to be horrible. We cannot even eat it. People line up and we watch the crew quickly load the cars into the ferry. Everything moves fast. Then we are allowed to enter and carry our bags up the steep stairs. We find our assigned seats and get to work. Monique downloads all the pictures from our cameras onto a external hard drive - which takes quite a while. Dave's camera was completely full - 2068 images. Monique's camera had over 5000 pictures. We are both hungry so Monique looks at what food they are selling on the boat. She comes back empty handed saying the food they have looks just as bad as that nasty sandwich we couldn’t eat. We dig into our treat bag that Vasiliui gave us and find out she gave us just what we need to stay alive. We buy two hot teas that compliment the hard bread.
The ferry backs into a small port. People scurry about to exit and new people come in always looking at the numbers on the seats to find their spot. This happens at several ports along the way. Monique works on the selection of pictures for the blog. We are reviewing pictures from Madrid. Our plan was to catch up during the relaxing island time in Greece. It didn't happen. Santorini and Milos were so nice we could not miss any of it. We will catch up eventually.
We arrive in Athens and disembark. On board we decided we were going to take a taxi straight to our hotel. If we can see the Acropolis tonight, we will - so every minute counts. We check into our hotel around 5:00pm and inquire about the museum and the Parthenon's hours of operation. To make this happen we must get there before 6:00pm. It closes at 7:00pm so that only leaves an hour to see it. They give us a map with the metro stops. It costs 1.40 euros per person and to our advantage it is not far away. We drop our bags and fill the water bottle. Food will have to wait. Take the blue line two stops then switch to the red and get off one stop later. Then it is a fifteen minute walk. We fast step it all the way - "VIK" It is hot outside so sweat begins to drip. We are determined and committed and soon arrive at one of the entrance gates, but they say they are just closing, so they direct us around to the main entrance. We follow the path and climb the stairs. They point to another building where we need to go for the tickets and they tell us to be quick. We rush over and get them. We made it. The sun is setting which is good for photos and one hour is enough to get a good look. This is late in the day on Saturday and it probably worked in our favor. We imagine this place probably had a very large number of people during the day. We feel victorious.
The Acropolis is amazing and to think we are here - awesome. The Parthenon is a little different than photos we have seen because it has a scaffolding on one side - it is being restored, but it is beautiful just the same. After 45 minutes of walking around and snapping photos, the guards announce the park is closing and they start moving the people towards the exit. We take pictures all along the way. Back out on the street our only thought is FOOD. There is an area of Athens called Plaka. It is known for restaurants and stores. We find a nice place tucked in a small square with candle lit tables. Monique has Greek beef stew cooked in a clay pot and Dave has rooster in wine sauce with pasta. The food is good and we are finally replenished. We ask for a shot of Raki, a traditional Greek drink that we had on the boat in Milos. It is made from the leftover grape skins and stems. My guess is that it was a poor man’s drink. The guy gives us a funny look when we ask for it and when he returns he says it is on the house. Not the typical tourist request is our guess.
We walk through Plaka in the other direction to find the metro where we switched to the red. The plan is to take in a small part of the city on the way. We walk by a large literature show where rows of different vendors sell their selection of books. It's quite busy with families milling about - it's Saturday night and it must be something fun to do with kids on a beautiful evening. We enter the Metro at Syntigma Station to catch the blue line. And one stop later we exit at Evangelismos. Up the stairs and out where we attempt to cross the very busy street. The cars don't obey our pedestrian walk signal so you really must be on you game to get across. We reach the hotel and go up and work on the blog. We can sleep in because our flight to Dubrovnik leaves about 1:00pm. We are glad we completed our mission of going to the Parthenon tonight, because if we didn’t, we were going to try to do it in the morning which would have been equally as tight but with the added possibility of missing our flight. Onward to Croatia and goodbye Greece.
Our high speed ferry to Athens - this is how the Greeks get around. (As well as us "visitors")
The view from our hotel balcony (The Hilton Athens). We used points and dollars - love it! We could see the Acropolis (blueish-gray hill on the left) and this really awesome sculpture in the park across from the hotel. Dromeas, also called “The Runner,” is a 30 foot statue made from stacked plates of glass that connote speed. It was created in 1994 by Greek sculpture Costas Varotsos and stands in the Hilton square on Vassilissis Sofias Avenue in Athens, Greece.
The entrance to the Parthenon - we made it! This is the West gate of the 3rd century A.D. fortification. You can see the Monument of Agrippa here.
In the foreground (the rubble) you can see the Old Temple of Athena and the buildings in the background are the Erechtheion with the Kore Porch (Porch of the Maidens) and Pandroseion.
The Caryatids (female figure columns) have become the temple’s signature feature, as they stand and seem to casually support the weight of the porch’s roof on their heads.
The Parthenon is the main building on the site and was started in 447 BC and completed some fifteen years later. It housed both a treasury and a sanctuary to Athena, in which was placed a fantastic 12-meter high ivory and gold statue of the goddess Athena, called the Athena Parthenos.
A panoramic view of the city of Athens from the Acropolis.
This is a view of the Erechtheion and the Parthenon. This is when they were kicking people out - a benefit of going in at the end of the day - less people in your photos!
Restoration work being done on the Parthenon.
Another view of the Parthenon.
This is the Temple of Athena Nike which was built around 420BC, the temple is the earliest fully Ionic temple on the Acropolis.
This is a permanent market showcasing books. We just happened to find it as we were heading to the metro stop. It kind of reminds us of the book shops along the Seine River in Paris.