Sunday - Athens

I've been up writing the previous blog since 7, DH is finally awake and we get ready and head down for the continental breakfast provided. It is much more than continental buffet, there are many types of fruits, cereal, pastries, scrambled and fried eggs, mushrooms, potatoes, salami, tomatoes. Various cold cuts, cheeses, spinach pie, breads. Coffee is served at your table with warm milk much like café con leche in many other countries. All was good and hopefully I can sneak some photos next time.

We asked at the desk about the hop on, hop off tour and he said perhaps it wasn't running today as it was Election Day so no tours were running. However, just then 1 drove by so he told us we could pick it up across the street. The normal price for 1 day is 22 Euros, however due to the elections all museums were closed so they had a special for 18 Euros and he made it valid for use on 3 days, quite the deal. He suggested we head over to the National Palace for the changing of the guards. This is normally done every hour on the hour, but on Sunday they do a special parade. The police were very busy being pushy with the crowd, since they do this every week it would have been easier to put barricades up. The female cops especially were snarky with the crowd. When it came time for the parade the street was blocked to traffic. This was very entertaining. The guards were uniforms of white kilts, with 400 pleats and takes 80 days to make a new one. They wear "darling" shoes. The guards are very tall and I would guess you'd need to be to wear such a uniform!

After this spectacle we hopped aboard and got the first seats on the upper deck. We took the tour all the way around, passing the Acropolis, Temple of Zeus, various squares, the Agora area. Plaka, museums etc. It was great for photos since they were all closed and no crowds.

Around 1pm we got off at the stop in from of the status to Nana Mouskouri and across from the Temple of Zeus. Again it was closed but we got excellent pictures through the fence!! Time for lunch so we were walking towards Plaka and found a back view of the Acropolis.

There were also many street peddlers and entertainers, some of them Romas or as they used to be called gypsies. The cops are constantly harassing them and moving the peddlers along. Some of the Romas are little boys playing the accordion for spare change.

We decided to eat in the restaurant that boasted of a roof patio with Acropolis view. We climbed to the roof and found a seat. We ordered Greek salad, spinach pie, tzatiki and I had a ham and cheese crepe. The crepe was nothing special and a bit greasy Everything else was very good and the tzatiki was much better than last night so there is hope.

After that we wandered down to the area around the University of Athens. Beautiful buildings with many peddlers selling everything you could think of. Most are from Africa - the same as you see in Rome selling knock off designer purses along the bridges over the Tiber.

We then took a stroll through the National Gardens, the ruins they discovered while excavating for the Metro which turned out to be ancient baths. We decided it was time for a nap, some blog and internet time before we head out to dinner.

I forgot to mention that there are stray dogs absolutely everywhere, they don't bother you but it is just very odd and I will have to find out the history of this. I took this picture last night as we first stepped out on the streets of Athens.