Ancient Agora

We decided against the cruise since there is a lot to see here and we have the hop on hop off still available to us.

As I sit here writing this at 6:46 pm on Tuesday Greek time there is a very large Iranian protest taking place outside the hotel, in front of the National Palace and further along the streets. We were walking back when we took this photo.

A little further along and there were 2 National Police in full swat uniform. Then there was a bus full of national police disembarking with shields. We decided to walk up to the street our hotel is on (across from the National Palace) and the area was full of police and protesters with megfaphones and flags attached to very dangerous looking sticks.

We headed back to the hotel and for the last hour we can hear the protests outside.

Last night we headed back around 8:30 to the same restaurant as last night and DH had chicken soulvaki and I had the lamb chops all was delicious. We decided on an early evening in reading our books.

Today, Monday, we got off to a slow start with coffees and chocolate croissants in Plaka as we people watched.

We caught the 12:15 hop on hop off to Pireaus where we decided to take the tour without getting off. This is where all the cruise ships moor. It is the world's largest port.

We came back into Athens and started walking towards the Agora. We stopped and had lunch. This was by far (and finally) the best spinach pie with Greek salad of course.

We could see the Acropolis above us so we started climbing and had amazing views of the Acropolis, Agora, Hadrian’s Wall and the city. This felt so much like what you wanted from Athens. The markets were in full regalia and once again there were the dogs and cats of Athens.

Finally around 5:30 we arrived back at the hotel for some photo downloading and blogging before heading out to dinner.

BTW the protesters are getting louder.