The Parthenon - I made it!

Sunday 2nd July 

Early start this morning. Half day tour of Athens. First up we had to pick up all the passengers from their various hotels. I'm not sure why we aren't all at the same hotel - it would have been nice to have a group get together before we actually headed off on the tour.

A drive through the city on the bus pointing out the highlights until we ended up at the Acropolis museum. It's an amazing collection of antiquities. Some of the statues are just incredible. A lot were found deliberately toppled and buried, and they have been able to reassemble humpty dumpty. Our tour guide took great delight in showing us the second floor which is built the same length and width as the Parthenon and the same orientation. You look out the huge windows to see the Parthenon on the hill across the way.

Stadium of the first modern day Olympiad built in 1896.

Alexander the Great.

changing of the guard at the palace. This happens every hour on the hour, 24 hours a day. You can't see the pom poms on their shoes but we hope to get another closer look at this.

Oh no! Am I going to have to climb that? Yes! Even on the climb up, every lump of rock or marble was part of this amazing construction. So glad we weren't doing this in the rain because some of the marble was quite slippery just from the polishing received from the millions of steps taken through there. How many million people over the centuries have walked these paths?

The arena - Elton John performed here in 1997.

A lot of maintenance work going on - they won't rebuild the parts that are 'broken' as the marble would be different and heavier and would damage the old parts.

There is a copy of the Parthenon in Nashville, Tennessee.  I have seen it.

How amazing to be here at this incredible place.

Temple of Athena.

It was a very hot and arduous climb (for me who is very unfit and hip issues) but to get up close when you get to the top is just incredible. Lots and lots of people there today. There are 4 cruise ships in town. The crowds eased off a bit after 12 as the cruise passengers headed back to ships for lunch. We headed off after 1 and back to the hotel.