If you like what we’re doing, Following Us is a great way to show your appreciation.

livefree2travelslow.com

Chasing The Odyssey- Day 6, The Acropolis, The Parthenon And An Athens City Tour

Picture of Son of a Sailor

Son of a Sailor

This day would turn out to be our longest day....seeing these world class sites all in one day.

So on this day we had boarded the bus early…to do the drive to the Temple of Poseidon at Cape Sounion before immediately driving back and directly to the center of Athens, where we were greeted by the summer heat and unescapable crowds.  We spent a few hours exploring the Acropolis Museum before it was our turn to ascend the Acropolis (fortified hill) to see the famed Parthenon + a slew of other famed monuments and temples that you have seen in pictures….they’re all set in this one place…the city center of Athens.

Perspective:

To give some perspective on the day…you can see where the Acropolis Museum is located, along with the walk up the Acropolis.  We would pass the Theatre of Dionysus, see directly down into the Odeion of Herodes and then try to find a corner under the Proplyaea (entrance) for our guide to explain what we saw and what we would be seeing.  Then we were able to top the hill and explore the entire center of the Acropolis including the area around the Parthenon.  You can no longer go near or inside the Parthenon due to construction and rules.  Take note of the hill at Areopagus (Mars Hill), where the Apostle Paul preached his famous “Unknown God” sermon.
And a closer view to give perspective of the pictures I’m about to share.

The Way Up the Acropolis:

Starting from the Acropolis Museum when our ticket time came up, we entered the official Acropolis gate and started the climb.  But I need to make sure you understand how crowded and busy this venture was.  Not only were you elbow to elbow with your own group but also with complete strangers, often in a hurry to get past you and up the hill.  And it is a hill…you are climbing a dirt path past thousand year old ruins as you often miss hearing the guide describe them because there is so much noise and chaos around you.  But you paid to be here, so carry on.  Here we go with my pictures of the way up the Acropolis:

The entry gate as we walked through.
People ahead and behind us.
The Theatre of Dionysus, largely original and not much rebuilt.
Odeion of Herodes, partially rebuilt but without the roof that used to be on the building/theatre.  This theatre is still used on a regular basis.

Continuing the hike up, trying to catch what our guide is telling us in the headsets we were given.
Our tiny corner just below the Propylaea, so the guide could give explanations to what we were seeing and what we would see once we were at the top of the Acropolis.  This served as a temple, but also as grand entrance to the area and probably as a marketplace for gifts to the Gods.
Views of Athens
Views of Athens
Best picture of the rock/hill at Areopagus (Mars Hill) that I have.  This is the place where the Apostle Paul preached his famous “Unknown God” Sermon, some 40-50 years after the death of Christ.

The Acropolis/Parthenon:

The Parthenon is actually the Temple of Athena (originally the Temple of the Virgin) and the inner sanctum (gone/fallen over) was dedicated to her worship and divinity.  But while the Parthenon is the largest, tallest and most well known structure on top of the Parthenon….there are many other structures on the hill, most with stories and legends of their own.  I cannot tell you all of them here in this single blog post, but we were able to see some of the structures….with the limited time we had.

I’ve already shown you pictures of the very first buildings on top of the Acropolis that you see….the grand entry to the Acropolis…pictured above as the Propylaea.  After this, you either get fixated on the Parthenon or go right….to see the Old Temple of Athena or the Porch of the Caryatids.  This is what we did.  This whole complex is a bit of a juxtaposition of Temples and buildings….the literature even kind of spells this out.

Explanations about the Porch of the Caryatids (remember the ones in the pillars are not the real ones), the olive tree and it’s legends and the far side porch where you can see the marks left by a God’s Trident.

Porch of the Caryatids marked with the arrow + around the corner marked with the arrow is the legendary olive tree.
This actual tree was saved during WWII by students from the American University who snuck in and took a cutting of the much older tree, fearing it would be destroyed by the Germans. That tree was destroyed, but the the cutting was planted in the same spot and grew into this tree.
Same building as I walked around.

The Parthenon.

Temple of Nike Athena which was torn down by the Turks to use the material in a watchtower then the same material was used to rebuilt the temple to look like this.
On the way out.
On the way down the Acropolis.  BTW, there’s literally only one bathroom for the whole Acropolis down in this area, none on top at all.
The outside (ground level) of the Odeion.

The City Tour:

In this short slide show I’ll let you see famous sights from our bus tour:

From our bus, we were able to see the original Panathenaic Stadium. With an original capacity of 50,000 seats, it is the only stadium in the world built entirely out of marble. Started in 330BC, the stadium was refurbished in 1869 and hosted the first modern Olympics in 1896 and was used for the 2004 Olympics. It is still used on a regular basis today.

Our bus tour of the city:

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

A Night Out:

A friend of the family flew in from Germany to see us, having time for lunch….and then take off from the group to have dinner.   So the kids stayed with the EF Group for dinner with their friends, while we took the evening for a date night and dinner out with our friend in the trendy/touristy Monostiraki area of Athens just below the Acropolis.  Our friend simply led us into a bit of a building hallway where we caught an unmarked elevator, getting off at the top level to a sign telling we had arrived.  The restaurant, Okra has unrestrained views of the both the Acropolis and the Parthenon….which proved as great as the food.  Serving well prepared food with a good wine list, this was a treat for us all….especially for us folks who don’t get to Europe very often.

Hallway….down to the unmarked elevator. Up to Okra.

And the view from my table, really can’t beat this one….no matter the price.

 

If you do this with kids…..even just seeing the Acropolis and the Parthenon will most likely be a crowded walk up and onto the hill.  Take this in stride, cause it’s normal business and just needs to be endured if you want to get on top to see the sites.  

I’m so thrilled that we had the chance to see everything that we did on this day AND our friend made the trip to come see us just for a short time…..thank you.  I don’t even think she reads my posts, but that’s ok, I still appreciate that she came all the way to Greece.  

Thank you for reading and have a great weekend! 

 

If you like our writing, FOLLOW our site and maybe give us a LIKE every once in awhile. 

Wanna read more of my stories about travel with kids in Greece?  Click on these links:

Overview: Chasing The Odyssey, An American Family Visits Greece

Chasing The Odyssey- Day 1, Getting On The Ground In Greece

Chasing The Odyssey- Day 2, The Corinth Canal

Chasing The Odyssey- Day 2, The Sanctuary Of Asclepius At Epidauros

Chasing The Odyssey- Day 2, Mycenae And The Tomb Of Atreus

Chasing The Odyssey- Day 3, Greek Independence Day, Nafplio- March 25th

Chasing The Odyssey- Day 4, Olympia

Chasing The Odyssey- Day 5, Delphi

Chasing The Odyssey- Day 6, Temple of Poseidon at Cape Sounion

Chasing The Odyssey- Day 6, The Acropolis Museum

Discover more from Live Free 2 Travel Slow

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

Wanna reach out to us with comments or discussion...use the comments button:

Follow Our Adventures

Categories
Top Posts & Pages

Keep Reading!

Discover more from Live Free 2 Travel Slow

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading