Strolling Through Athens

Nate and I arrived in Athens on a Monday, after the shortest international flight I will likely ever take (only one hour from Izmir to Athens).  After the success of using the iRhodes travel app in Rhodes, I had been looking for other walking tour apps for some of the places we were visiting this time in Greece.  The best option I could find was actually free--Rick Steves' audio guides.  You can download the app and from there download any of the walking tours for the places you are visiting.  I highly recommend this as a convenient and FREE way for getting to know a new city and to learn some important background information.  Rick provides enough background information to make it meaningful, but not enough to overload and bore (Nate and I got to know Rick Steves so well on this trip, that we just started referring to him by first name only).  The first audio tour we did was a walking tour of Athens.  Rick got us acclimated with the city center of Athens and offered us a small dose of the history and sights we would later explore in depth.  We started off close to our hotel near Syntagma Square, which is where the present parliament building is in Athens.  We arrived just in time to see the famous changing of the guards, with their funny walk and outrageous uniforms.  

New guards walking up

Slowly and deliberately walking away.

The guards have to stand still without smiling until the next change, amongst tourists trying to make them laugh and taking their photos.  I learned that there are 400 pleats in their skirt, one pleat for each year of occupation under the Ottomans.  

Standing stoic, even when some clown tries to take his photo with him

From Syntagma Square, we walked along a pedestrian walkway filled with shops and cafes.  Amongst all the H&Ms and shoe shops was a little Byzantine Orthodox church in the middle of the street.

The first of many Orthodox churches Nate and I would see in Greece

One of the most interesting aspects about Athens for me was how the different parts of it's history have come together to create the city it is today.  Throughout the city, there are different archaeological spots where scientists are still digging, as well as site from the Classical and Byzantine periods.  Our tour brought us to a large cathedral that was largely under construction and had been since the 1980s.  Next to it was a small Orthodox church that was built using pieces of ruins from other buildings.

A mish mash little Orthodox church

We kept on following Rick's instructions and made our way to a busy street filled with cars and huge busses.  Athens used to have the reputation as one of the most polluted cities in Europe, but in the past 20 years it has started to clean that up.  One way they have done that is to limit the days Athenians can drive their cars (even numbered plates get one day, odd numbered plates the other day).  We crossed the busy street to see the large and impressive looking Hadrian's gate and Temple of Zeus.

Hadrian's Gate

You can find evidence of the Roman emperor Hadrian all over Athens.  He loved everything about Greek culture and commissioned many structures to be built in the classical Greek style.

Massive columns of the Temple of Zeus

Rick brought us closer to the big Acropolis rock, which looms over the city of Athens, to my favorite part of the tour.  We started walking up one of the little narrow side streets that winds it's way up to the top of the Acropolis.  This neighborhood is called the Plaka.  The inhabitants came here from one of the Greek islands and have been here ever since.  Walking through this little maze of a street was like being on one of the Greek islands....except you are on the Acropolis rock in the middle of Athens.  Nate and I came back to the Plaka one night for an awesome evening of Greek food, wine, music, and dancing.

Little houses under the Acropolis

Just in case we should get lost...

Narrow little streets!

The little street wound us back around to the other side of the rock, where we saw another example of an ancient site in the middle of Athens, the old Roman forum.

Aerial view of the Roman forum

Acropolis at twilight

As dorky as we might be, we really enjoyed the little walking tour with turn by turn directions.  It gave us a pretty good bearing of the city center and we didn't even get lost the rest of the time we were there.  Although it isn't evident in these photos, even the city center was filled with empty buildings and graffiti, likely signs of the hard economic depression and protests that have taken place over the past several years at the parliament building.  But scattered throughout the city are some great little gems and it certainly made for a nice place to visit and stay for a while.