Athens, Greece

Today brought something that Emily Downing has been waiting for: we went to Athens. It was a long day as we were trying to hit as many of the highlights as possible. I think we managed to get a good overview and Emily said that “it made me really happy!” Obviously, Athens has thousands of years of history…I can only imagine what is hidden below the current buildings. We started out with a drive through the city. We could occasionally see the Parthenon up on the hill. We went to the Panathenian Stadium, which is not an ancient structure. From there we spent about 1.5 hours at the National Archaeological Museum. We barely scratched the surface in that short time, but we did get to see the Mask of Agamemnon. Even though it is such a well known artifact, it was mixed in a display with other artifacts and no obvious signage. Our guide was very into describing the minor details of art (she literally spent 15 minutes in the first room discussing only a map and a single pot). We and about half of the tour group ditched her, for the most part, and were able to see much more of the museum than those who stayed with her. After the museum we headed up to the Acropolis. This requires a long, steep walk up the hill to get to the buildings. Our guide said that the route we took was the same as the one the Ancient Athenians would walk. There is archaeological evidence that this site was inhabited as far back as the 4th millennium BC. The site is absolutely breathtaking! We saw the Theater of Dionysus, the Temple of Nike, the “Old Temple” of Athena which was built in 524-500 BC over a site of a previous temple of Athena dating back to the 8th century BC. Most of the buildings found on the Acropolis today, including the Parthenon, were built from 460-430 BC. The Acropolis site is very hot and without any shade, but very much worth seeing in person. After the Acropolis we walked down the hill and had lunch at a local restaurant where they brought us sample of many different traditional Greek foods. It was very good and there was a ton of food. From there we walked to the Plaka, a shopping area just below the Acropolis. This area has a lot of neoclassical architectures and is a quaint neighborhood. That was our chocked-full day. After 4 busy port days in a row we are all looking forward to a relaxing day at sea tomorrow.