Athens Acropolis, the Caryatids
A lekythos; I couldn’t find one in a shop in Athens
The Rooftop Breakfast Restaurant at our Hotel in Athens
National Archaeological Museum, Athens
I wrote a little about our arrival on Athens yesterday after getting off the cruise ship.
It is kind of nice to be uncocooned again: of course we’ve been watching with some alarm the progress of the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship, and it seems to get worse everyday. When you’re on a cruise ship, you’re wonderfully looked after, but you can’t get off the ship! You’re almost captives there.
In Athens it is busy and hot. Yesterday morning we went for a walk once we’d settled into our hotel room, unpacked a little, booked tickets for climbing the Acropolis and the Acropolis Museum for 8 am on Tuesday (the very next day); they cost around $300 NZ but it was a bit cheaper on my phone than on JD’s computer.
We walked around this bustling city where many people walk on the narrow roadway rather than the footpath, but you have to watch out for bikes and cars. Google told me that the Greek people eat lunch after 1 pm, but it was still before 12 noon and many people wanted lunch. We shared pastitsio, which came with very nice toast, and a Greek salad. The salad was very good, with beautiful slabs of feta cheese. Hohepa, your feta is very good, but this is way better!
The meat dish was pretty ho-hum, and we were glad we’d shared. Many other diners had come in, and service was very slow, so we agreed to have coffee somewhere else. The smell of smoking was quite discordant!
We walked through a coffee and cake place, which had gelato but that didn’t look very appealing. So we found somewhere else where I chose a small mocha with double espresso flavour. I love the way they serve it in wee containers with a spoon and a paper napkin.
Then we went back to our hotel for a rest. After a bit we walked to the nearest DHL facility where they agreed to post back to NZ some of the things we bought and would prefer not to carry back to Paris. They were amazing: they packed the stuff into a plastic container, and it’s on its way! We trust. (It arrived on the following Thursday morning! NZ Post, you could do far better!)
That evening we wanted to be very quiet, so we ate early at Brera, an Italian cafe. We were very boring – we shared a Pizza Margherita, and some water and a glass of Chardonnay. They were all very good. There was some confusion over the bill – the receipt didn’t show the tip! You select how much (3 options) and it’s added to what you pay. Then we retired, to try and rest before our 8 am appointment next day to climb the Acropolis!
Tuesday
We were up bright and early for breakfast shortly after 6:30 am. The breakfast restaurant is upstairs from level three with a view of the Acropolis! It’s quiet and beautiful. It was actually quite cool up there, so I came back to our room to get a cardigan. Of course this took a while – I had to find one, after not needing one for the last few days! Breakfast was just fine: fresh orange juice, sliced kiwifruit and golden queen-like peaches and fruit salad with cereal, and toast with a pop-up toaster, sachets of butter, and you helped yourself to jam or marmalade. Coffee too, of course. There is a fridge in our room and tea making facilities and a coffee machine, which we did not have on the cruise ship!
I had a shower first (pretty slippery, hard water, and an overhead or a handheld water dispenser, and really thick towels. Then JD did his ablutions. Meanwhile I got all ready with my tote bag, spare water, jacket etc but JD comes out of the shower and cuts his toenails!!! Eventually we are on our way to walk to the Acropolis Museum ticket office, and I know we’re going to be late; we are almost there when he realizes he’s left his passport and wallet in our hotel room! Really, how can you do that? You should always keep your passport with you! So I wait while he goes back for them. I suppose we’ll miss our climb now.
Meantime there are lots of bells, lots of churches, and a clock that chimes on the hour.
There’s lots of vegetation, lots of colour, lots of flowers and lots of jewellery shops. Lots of rolls (bolts?) of fabric – I haven’t seen them for a long time. There are lots of fur coats and jackets! Perhaps it’s fake fur? In this heat, I don’t feel at all tempted by it. There are ATMs everywhere, unlike on one of our trips when it was very hard to find an ATM in Spain. And WC’s! Like in Scotland!
While I’m waiting for JD the souvenir shop across the way sets up, hanging out all their wares, which is most interesting. I don’t feel inspired to buy anything though.
Finally JD returns and we are on our way again. Then we don’t know where to go to start the climb, and a helpful cafe owner tells us. In spite of being so late, we are welcomed and shown through to the climb. I tried to download the audio guide but maybe I downloaded the wrong app, because it wanted more money!! So we went without a guide, which was a relief, in a way.
We were so glad that we’d come early – it was about 8:45 am, and although there were plenty of people about, and some groups, it was nothing to what came later!
The path was uneven and slippery in places, but having done our Ephesus and other excursions, we didn’t find it too bad. Mind you if we had not done the excursions and got used to uneven cobbled stones I may well have refused to do the climb. But it was amazing, and we were so glad that we done it. The Parthenon despite the cranes is amazing, but I think it was the Caryatids that impressed me the most. Of course the views of Athens on this fine, clear day are amazing too, wherever you look. What an experience! I am quite emotional about it. After a while we get safely down, which is harder in a way, and come down a different way. There are so many tours now! It’s quite a walk, and I’m desperate for coffee, orange juice, sparkling water, something to eat and a WC stop. We get into the beautiful Acropolis museum all right: this time Headout have emailed the 4 tickets and I’ve forwarded them to JD as well.
It is a wonderful museum, but we make our way to the Restaurant on level 2 which is not busy. We’re asked to sit down and a waiter will come (eventually)! We sit down inside but with a view of the Acropolis. You have to download the menu from a QR code on your table, but there is free Wi-Fi too.
As well as the drinks I order a tuna wrap and JD a sandwich with ham, cheese and so forth. Everything is delicious and although it is early, we decide that this will be our lunch.
Eventually the restaurant fills up, and we decide we’d better leave. On exiting, we have to show our tickets again! It takes me a while to find mine, but there’s no rush, eventually I do and she waves us through. I’m afraid we came back to our hotel after that Adventure! I think I’ve almost seen enough Archaeological Museums for now.
Our niece and her family are due in Athens tomorrow, so we may have dinner with them tomorrow evening.
JD has gone off to do some washing.
That night we ate somewhere – I had a pork skewer (actually 3) with tzatziki (not very nice), a bit of salad, potato chips (very good) and pita bread which I did not eat. I did have a very nice “virgin” cocktail (I think they meant mocktail) called Red Riding Hood with strawberry puree. JD’s Chardonnay was not very nice. When he doesn’t know the waiter, he should read the menu! Not such a good choice.
Afterwards as we walked back to our hotel we looked at jewellery. At a second shop we went to he bought me a beautiful necklace with 5 blue stones. There is a tax receipt we can reclaim when we leave Paris. It’s gorgeous, and I feel really guilty about it, knowing that this journey is costing us far more than first anticipated..
That night I slept better, no doubt helped by having better Wi-Fi and being able to listen to audiobooks.
Breakfast this morning was wonderful. The waitress brings juice; the fruit was sliced kiwifruit, peach halves and fruit salad with the addition of sliced banana and strawberries!
Then we showered and set out to walk to the National Archaeological Museum, about 1/2 hour’s walk. It lovely in Athens on the early morning – the streets are quite empty of people and cars, and it’s not too hot.
On the way we looked at clothes shops, and again fell for buying things: a blue and white dress made in Italy for €25, and an amazing multicoloured jacket that the woman had designed! Oh dear, they are both gorgeous, especially the jacket. It is made of coloured multi-coloured denim, and is lined; it goes with so many things, black and white trousers and hopefully my other trousers. As it turns out, I am really glad of this jacket when we come to cooler climates, in Vienna and Italy.
Then we continued our walk to the museum. Thankfully there was no queue when we got there, although I think many people came in after us. We repaired downstairs to the lovely cafe and museum garden first, and shared orange juice and a beautiful orange honey and semolina cake with our coffee.
Then we looked at the museum which was well worth a visit and extremely interesting and well laid out, for the most part. I continue to wonder at the Greeks who made such beautiful things on all areas of Greece. Stylistically they are very similar.
Then we had lunch across the road on a cafe, sharing a baguette which turned out to be wholemeal and filled with ham, cheese, lettuce and tomato. We shared orange juice too but the coffee wasn’t great.
Then as planned we caught a hop on/hop off bus outside the museum. JD was able to pay for our tickets on the bus. We met a couple from Texas and had a really interesting conversation with them. They have been married nearly as long as we have, and their anniversary is August 9! We talked about Nixon’s resignation, and Rebecca asked me about Dame Jacinda Ardern’s resignation. They were on a cruise and got off our bus to get another tourist line to Piraeus . We eventually got off the bus at the Acropolis museum and walked back to our hotel. We looked in souvenir shops for a miniature lekythos to take home as a memento of our stay, but strangely we could not find one. Very odd. We did get a copy of the famous statue of Aphrodite and a present for our teenage grandson in New Zealand.
Then we returned to our hotel and tried to check in online for our flight tomorrow. Oh dear oh dear! It used to be easy, now what a performance. It took ages but I succeeded in the end.
We met our niece and her lovely family for dinner at 6 pm at a Gluten-free restaurant opposite the Acropolis Museum. They had just flown in from Santorini. It was great to see them and to compare notes about travel, cruises, Italian trains and other things.
Dinner was good: I ordered cabbage leaves filled with mince and rice with an egg and lemon sauce. JD ordered chicken skewers with chips. Very boring. The others ordered appetizers and we tried beautiful tzatziki with pita bread. The food was all very good.
We shared some frustrations with cruises, tours, ticket validation and Italian trains! But generally we’re all well and happy. We also have shared some what we hope was honest advice about how climbing the Acropolis is quite hard work! And there’s no way you can drive up. And yes, it’s quite expensive, you have to get separate tickets for the Acropolis and the museum, but in our view it’s worth it.
They head back to Adelaide via Singapore on Friday; we fly to Vienna on Thursday 14 May. Sadly, it’s the beginning of our journeys back to the Antipodes.
This morning we had breakfast again at our amazing hotel. This morning I smelt bacon, and I had a fried egg on my slice of toast and some bacon. We are sorry to leave Athens. It is cooler and slightly overcast today. We catch a taxi to the airport. He delivered us to Gate 4, where Austrian Airlines is found. It’s part of the Star Alliance, apparently! I did not know that when I booked the flight. Despite the fuel crisis, it is still flying.
Nga mihi nui
Classic Barbarian 