Starting off with the view from my hotel (Novotel Athenes) - this is a very typical view one might find in Athens, the architecture isn't particularly attractive and often has a coating of graffiti!
These pictures are from a morning walk to Lycabettus Hill, it takes about thirty minutes from where my hotel was located and goes through similar areas as above. Things gradually get steeper and steeper and steeper again...
...with some steps occasionally thrown in for good measure...
...but eventually it starts to pay off as views over the city and beyond begin to emerge from the trees.
They just get better and better and even on this cloudy and dull day you can see the sea, can only imagine that you can see further when sunny.
On this sign you can just about make out that the surface is slippery - this is very, very true when it rains and you do have to be careful all over the city that you fall over!
After the final climb the lovely church at the top of the hill comes into view.
It's small but beautifully decorated inside and looked after by an elderly man who must make this trek every day. It's hard work I imagine but must be good for fitness and who wouldn't want to continue enjoying the views from the top of the hill every day?!
Having descended the hill a lot quicker than it took to climb up I headed to the Panathenaic Stadium, the first place to host the modern Olympic Games. It only costs €5 to go in and it's worth every penny and more. The stadium is amazing and it's great to go on the track and feel like an athlete and walk out of the tunnel imagining what it must have been like to be greeted by thousands of fans.
Having walked up the tunnel there is a small room that contains the torches from many of the Olympic games of times gone by. It's great to look at the old posters and other pieces of Olympic history in here.
Next I headed towards Syntagma Square and stumbled across an interesting enclosure containing goats, rabbits, ducks and other birds. An intriguing combination but everyone seemed to enjoy it!
At Syntagma Square the Greek parliament building where everyone was queuing up for a picture with one of the guards.
After dinner I headed up to the roof terrace of my hotel. Many of the hotels in Athens have this great feature offering amazing views of the city day and night.
The following day and I was off walking again, this time to the Acropolis. As is expected the walk took me through areas that are often run down.
At Monastiraki Square you begin to get close to the Acropolis and the first souvenir stands begin to appear.
On the ascent up to the Acropolis there are numerous incredibly old sites to visit, there's so many it's hard to remember which are which!
Aeropagus is a rocky hill which offers great views over the city and a close up view of the Acropolis. This was one windy place today it was hard to stay standing!
Before entering the main Acropolis complex is the wonderful Odeon of Herodes Atticus - an incredible theatre which takes you back to life in Ancient Greece.
Up on the very windy hill it is naturally very busy and probably more so today as it was a national holiday in Greece (Ochi Day) which meant free entry to all historical sites. Guards monitor every move of tourists to ensure no-one compromises the ancient monuments and when you see the care that goes into maintaining them it's easy to see why.
On the descent down back into the city you get the first glimpse of the modern Acropolis museum (building just above the trees, centre right.) Inside it was very busy but it contains all sorts of wonderful sculptures and pieces found in the area.
After the Acropolis dropped in on the lesser known Temple of Olympian Zeus - a lot of the original construction has been damaged but its great to look at the intricacy of the remaining columns.
Below is the Zappeion - a stately hall bult in the 1880s for the first modern Olympic games.
Time to go and caught the bus from Syntagma Square for the forty minute journey to Athens airport.
An incredible and amazing feature to see at an airport is a museum of ancient artefacts! This was free and located in the main terminal building, it contains some fascinating pieces that were found during the construction of the new airport. It makes a change to the normally mundane ways of killing time when waiting for a flight.
