Tour of Athens

Today we got to see a lot of Athens! We did a city sightseeing bus tour where you can get off at the stops, tour around, and get on a later bus. We got off and toured the New Acropolis Museum, Acropolis (Pantheon, Theater of Dionysus, Temple of Hephaestus), and the National Archaeological Museum.

I'll have to post about them later because we are getting up very early to get to Piraeus to take a ferry to Mykonos!

Goodnight! 

Update: June 29

The New Archaeological Museum was very extensive and impressive. We met someone later that day who was so excited that there was this new (around 2009) museum that really shows off how impressive the artifacts are. The first pictures below are at this museum; it's very cool that there are glass floors through which you can see some of the ruins. Apparently they're going to let people start walking under there in a few months!  We spent a good amount of time there (about 2 hours) and 5€ before we left to get back on the bus to get to the walking tour of the Acropolis.

The (free) walking tour definitely wasn't what we thought it would be: a tour through the Acropolis. It was a tour outside of the Acropolis and nearby sites that showed us “when you buy a ticket later, you'll see that." As disappointing as that was, it ended up being helpful when we were navigating later.

The walking tour ended up taking us far from the entrance to the Acropolis, so we got on the tour bus near where we were, went through the end of the tour, and started it over. I just liked riding the bus and seeing the city from a double decker open air bus, so I thought that was neat. We got back off at the Acropolis.

A 12€ ticket got us in. We started at the Parthenon, which was awesomely impressive. It was, of course, under construction, so it was hard to get a picture without scaffolding. The view of Athens up there, with the mountains in the background, was beautiful. Not the Athens we saw on our first day! There is another monument up with the Parthenon, the Propylaia, the sanctuary of the Acropolis. It's much smaller, just as impressive, and much less crowded. (*things to consider: many of the stores are smooth and slippery. Definitely wear shoes with traction.)

On the way down, we saw the Theater of Dionysus. This is also accessible from the road beside it (across from the Temple of Olympian Zeus) and, if you want to visit separately, you don't have to climb the stairs back towards the Parthenon.

Well we hiked back up (guzzling water) and headed for the Ancient Agora and Temple of Hephaestus. This temple is so well-preserved and is definitely worth seeing.

We found an outside-the-Acropolis road that led us back to the bus. We got on and enjoyed a good number of sites from the bus before we got off at the National Archaeological Museum (7€). We stayed there until closing (8pm) and saw prehistoric, bronze, sculpture, and Egyptian exhibits as well as a special exhibit of a shipwreck. We caught the last bus back.

We saw a lot of Athens and took the whole day doing it!