Steph's Travelogue: Day 3: Athens

That’s our motto of our day as we did an amazing tour of Athens today. Up bright and early and off for a full tour-day. First stop was the old Olympic stadium. From there, if we turned around, we could all see the Acropolis & Parthenon – awesome! You could hear the silent gasps when they saw it for the first time. We continued on to the city center to pick up our Local guide, who took us around, explained soooo much history – wow!! We went to the bottom of the Acropolis and made the hike up, stopping along the way to look at the amphitheater and other temples before we entered. I think the kids were in awe being there. Got some great pics. Weather has been absolutely amazing!! Think we all got some sun today – not a cloud in the sky & nice & warm (70s).

As we came out of the Acropolis, we could hear demonstrators outside the gate…oh, the Greeks! This time they were teachers. 2500 of them were fired/laid off on Sunday due to budget issues. Can you imagine?!?

We headed to the Agora, with a quick pit stop at Mars Hill where St. Paul preached, then off into the Plaka. Had delicious Gyros for lunch and did some great shopping…and gelato eating.

Headed next to the Parliament building to watch the changing of the guard. Quite different from how the Brits do it, that’s for sure! Last stop was the Columns from Temple Zeus. Exhausted, a little suntanned, wallets a little lighter, feet a bit tired, we boarded the bus back to the hotel for dinner. The kids were reflecting at dinner what an amazing day they had and hard to believe they saw that all today…our first real day of touring!! Good stuff!

Tomorrow is supposed to be another amazing weather day…which is good as we head out for a Saronic Island tour!! After watching sunset tonight from our mini-beach by the hotel, I can only hope we’ll see it tomorrow from the boat.

Better go check on the kids – when I last left them, some were getting ready for bed and the other half were out in the hallway playing UNO.

Until tomorrow…