We were picked up at our boat by Paul for PK Travel. I booked this tour for 380 Euro which included a 12 person tour, private bus and private guide. It was a great deal. He gave us some information about the city, pointing out the Olympic stadium, which is used very infrequently now, rules of road use--odd/even plates dictate who is allowed to drive into the city on given days, and other odds and ends. The poor economy has helped decrease the traffic conjestion immensely.
We met our guide at the Acropolis, which refers to all the hills in Ancient Athens which were used for political purpose. We heard a very detailed explanation, checked it all out, touring for a few hours, then headed over to the Changing of the Guards ceremony. We completed a driving tour of the city, then opted to skip the museum and head over to the shopping/flea market district where we dined on gyros and shopped a bit.
It was a lovely day!
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| The Acropolis from below. |
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| The theater where numerous greats have performed--Pavaroti, Elton John to name only 2. It has been restored, but it looks as it did centuries ago. Amazing. |
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| This is a view of a different hill on the acropolis. THis structure is missing pieces on both the left and right sides, but still pretty amazing. |
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| This is what the structure looked like long ago. Mya is being the "assistant." She took great pride in that duty. |
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| This was another hill. Each hill had a certain duty assigned to it. I can't remember if this is the judicial one? Anyway, the red hatted people are children from a local school on a field trip. |
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| Good heavens it was sunny, but I hate seeing sunglasses in every picture ;) |
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| Mya checking out Ancient Athens. How many kids can say they've done that??!!! |
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| The Parthenon. It is in the middle of restoration. They are digging up the marble from the ground to add to the buildings. So interesting. |
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| In front of the Parthenon. |
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| Changing of the Guards ceremony. These gentlemen don not move unless to pound their gun which alerts the other guard who is able to move that an issue has arisen. The ceremony was adjusted on this particular day due to a demonstration. We actually watched the riot police storming up the hill to tend to the crowd. It was pretty crazy. |
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| Their shoes have nails on the bottom as they did long ago. The nails helped keep traction when they were climbing mountains, etc. |
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| They guard the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. |
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| Can't remember what this was called. We ate at a very famous gyro place. We ordered gyros and asked what the gentlemen beside us was having. The next thing we know, we were being served it as well--on the house! It was lamb, but I can't quite remember the name. It was delicious, tasting much like sausage. |
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| Mya enjoying her lunch. |
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