LEARNING ABOUT GREECE
We flew through Istanbul on Turkish Air and had a slight layover there. It was a great place to people watch. We arrived in Athens about 9:00 pm and made it to our hotel, the Acropolis Select, and crashed. Check out a couple of photos below of things we saw in Istanbul.
The next morning we awoke, eager to begin touring Athens after a great breakfast at our hotel. Following the Athens Walking Tour in the Rick Steves' guidebook, we first visited the Ancient Agora which was the meeting place for eight centuries for people including Socrates, Plato and St. Paul. There we admired the well preserved Temple of Hephaistos and the Agora Museum. Click on the "play" arrow below to see the slide show of things we saw on the Athens walking tour on our first day.
In the afternoon we hired a driver/guide to take us to Cape Sounion. The Temple of Poseidon is located on the very tip of the Attica Peninsula and has a great view out into the Aegean Sea which is perfect since Poseidon was known as the God of the Sea . The drive was about an hour from Athens and was beautiful with views of beaches and nice landscapes. We stopped and had a perfect lunch of fresh fish with a great Greek Salad and a glass of wine and some spectacular views! We were excited to be in Greece! Click on the two photos above to make them bigger.
The second day we were in Athens was Orthodox Easter and Pat and I spent the day walking around the city following more of Rick Steves' Athens City Walk. We were sitting on top of Mars Hill enjoying the sunshine, watching people and reading our Rick Steves' Greece guidebooks. I went to take some pictures of the Ancient Agora below when Pat had her backpack stolen. Someone distracted her and the next thing she knew her backpack was gone. Needless to say, it put a damper on the day but we made the best of it. After calling the people we needed to call about Pat's missing stuff, we went out for dinner in the Plaka. Click below to see a slideshow of our day.
A DAY IN CORITNH
John, our driver, took Pat and me to Corinth on our third day in Greece. First we stopped to see the Corinth Canal from above. It was very impressive! Then we headed to the Archeological Museum of Ancient Corinth and the Temple of Apollo. Beautiful red poppies were in bloom while we were there. We also visited the Castle of Acrocorinth. Finally we drove to the lower part of the Corinth Canal and saw how the bridge sunk into the water so the ships could pass. It was amazing to see how that worked! On the way home we stopped and had a delicious meal of Souvlaki which was meat cooked on a skewer. To see photos of Corinth, check out the slideshow below.
To advance to the first day of the Rick Steves' tour in Athens, click Athens.