Monday, May 14 - Athens, Greece

We considered other options but decided that this would be  day to wander Athens.  We set out to find the subway, with the objective of reaching the Parliament Building by 11 for the changing of the guard.  Never did find the subway, but walked there in plenty of time and enjoyed the spectacle of the comical precision motions of the event.  I wonder what the origin of the high-stepping style is ?
We then wandered in the National Garden for an hour or so, enjoying its peace and the relative freedom from traffic noise.
Then we boarded a hop-on-hop off tour of the city.  After a few stops we discovered Jean and Arturo from our cruise sitting a few seats behind us!  They told us they'd loved the trip up to St. George's hill-top church via the funicular, so we added that to the plan for the day.
Beforehand, however, we needed sustenance, so hopped off near an area with lots of coffee shops and restaurants.  Good meal and great people-watching.  Saw another couple from our cruise go by.
Then we got info on how to get to St. George's, hopped back on our bus for a while, hopped off and found our way.
It's not a well publicized site, so we trusted our map and after climbing a very long steep staircase upward for about 4 blocks, finally arrived at the foot of the cable car/funicular.  At the top we had a panoramic view of the city, all the way from the mountains to the sea.  We could look down on the Acropolis and were able to pick out many other places.  Once we made our way down and found our way back to our bus stop we were feeling quite ready to quit for the day but it was a long circuit back to our neighbourhood.  So we saw some p;arts of the city 2 or even 3 times, and everything at least once.  We stopped at a nearby convenience store and got supplies for a picnic supper and returned to our room.
We will be on our way home tomorrow.

Photos 14 May


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