Athens Part 2

After the Parthenon, we walked around another temple up on the hill, but I can't remember who this one was dedicated to. Probably Athena in some way, but I'm not sure.

This was the view from the very top.


This was that other temple I mentioned.





The patchwork on this one was interesting because you could see that the inside wall was not flush.



But on the outside it is.





Heading back down through the narrow gate.





You are not allowed to touch the marble, and it is this woman's job to make sure that rule is followed.


As we walked through, I tried to take pictures close up of different parts so you could see some of the detail and texture.







You can see on this one where the bracing rod would go.





Ok, so remember in the book of Acts Paul goes to Athens and debates with the people there about the unknown god? This is the Aeropagus, where it is supposed to have happened.


To get up there, you climb up these crazy steps.



This would never happen in the US-too many lawsuits.


And from the top you can see the Acropolis


as well as the rest of the city.




Do you see that little temple just to the right of my head? That is the oldest standing temple in Athens, I believe it honors Hephaestus, but I'm not sure. We didn't have time to hike down to it, sadly.


After our visit to the acropolis, the rest of our tour was basically a bus tour of significant things in Athens. It was a little limited, but given the heat and the crowds, we actually didn't mind too much. I apologize for blurriness or reflections in windows for these next pictures.

First of all, I was amazed that our bus could successfully navigate these narrow streets.


There are several greek orthodox churches around, obviously.


This might be the parliament building (?), and at the front, the tomb of the unknown soldier.





This made us really, really sad. There is a ton of graffiti everywhere, including on ancient buildings and monuments.


This was a police bus. several cops we saw were also pretty heavily armored.


The Olympic stadium in Athens (there's another one in Olympia).


This was the first Olympic village of modern Olympics (I think).


Hadrian's arch.


I love that you can just be driving down the street and suddenly see this.


I also love that from this port, you can get on a boat going to any of these places.



When we made it back to the port, we were amused to find that many people were taking advantage of the free wifi offered. However, there was nowhere to sit, so we were all camped out in this weird baggage claim area.


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