#2800 a walk through Athens

Let’s wander through the ancient streets of Athens, like Lizzie and I did on a beautiful Friday morning in October. We booked a small group tour that was called something like “Mythical River Walk in Athens.”  (Spoiler: there wasn’t much about the river, but there was a bit about mythology.) We walked from our hotel to the meeting place at Monastiraki Square to meet our group and the guide. It ended up that Lizzie and I were the whole group, so we had a private tour with a very nice young man called Alex. 

The area where we met Alex, our guide

Monastiraki Square

One of the (many) interesting things about Athens is that there are all this little Byzantine churches scattered about, and the city has just grown around them. I wish I had taken a photo of a church that had sort of been engulfed by the giant, modern hotel, but I didn’t. Here is a little church that is tucked right into Monastiraki Square. A note: most of these little churches are still in use. One of the churches we passed by was having some type of ceremony.

Very old Byzantine church in Monastiraki Square

Alex started the tour in Monastiraki Square. The square is a central meeting place in the city, and it has many, many second-hand shops. He took us to a few of them and explained that there is a shop for just about everything. One shop sold chairs only. Another shop sold lamps. Several shops sold art, and some had tables full of tchotchkes. It was interesting and all that, but Lizzie and I are not big shoppers, so we were ready to see some ancient sites. 

This being Athens, we didn’t have to walk very far to start seeing some ruins. Oh look, here’s Hadrian’s Library.

Hadrian’s Library

A few steps away, we see the Roman Agora. 

Gate to the Roman Agora

Roman Agora

Alex talked a good game and kept us entertained and interested. I know there were at least a couple of times when he didn’t get the history exactly right, but I was okay with all that. It was pretty fun having a guide all to ourselves. 

It doesn’t take a lot of walking to get from the Roman Agora to the Ancient Greek Agora. We didn’t go in to any of these sites; we stood outside the gates as Alex told us a bit about each place. The one place I do wish we had time to walk through was the Ancient Greek Agora. It is huge and has several temples, including the Temple of Hephaestus, seen here through the gate on the other side of the railroad tracks. 

Temple of Hephaestus

Like I always say, you gotta leave something for next time. So next time I’m in Athens, I’m going in to the Ancient Greek Agora! 

We walked along the tracks until we came upon another large field filled with ruins. Alex told us it was part of an ancient cemetery. We sat on some steps and listened as he told us about the old city wall and the cemetery.  From there, we walked up a hill and through the Thissio neighborhood. Seeing this beautiful neighborhood made me fall a little bit more in love with Athens. I enjoy walking through neighborhoods where people live and work. I like to see the local restaurants where the menus are not covered in photos, and stores that sell goods, not just postcards and souvenirs. The tourist areas are wonderful, because that’s what we go to see, but a little glimpse into Athens real life, or any city’s real life, is a treat to me.

A street in the Thissio neighborhood 

We walked up a hill to the observatory, which gave us a grand view of the Acropolis.

The Acropolis and the Parthenon

You can see all the people going up the steps there in front. This is in mid-October, shoulder season in tourist talk, and I thought there were a lot of people. I can’t even imagine what it’s like in high season.

Lizzie and I were enchanted with the trails on the observatory side of the Acropolis. The trails were shady and wide. Some were paved, and others were packed dirt. The views of the Athens valley were gorgeous and it was easy to see the mountains surrounding the city. From some places, the sea was visible. 

A shaded path

A view to the sea

A little more walking led us to this:

The Prison of Socrates?

It is marked as the Prison of Socrates, but it may or may not have actually been where Socrates was held while he awaited trial. It may be that some ancient treasures were stored in these caves during WWII to protect them from the bad guys, and it might have been a prison as well at various points in history. You can’t go in there, but I imagined Socrates stomping around in the caves while he waited for his fate.

At this point, we are basically at the foot of the Acropolis. Again, we didn’t go into the site, but Alex took us along the fence line and pointed out some sites I had read about and wanted to see. There is just so much history in those ruins. I thought Rome was old. Athens is ancient. 

Our time with Alex ended at the New Acropolis Museum, which we had visited the previous day on our bus tour. (I haven’t told you about that tour yet. I will, though!) After an ussie with Alex - on Lizzie’s phone - we parted ways. Lizzie and I went in to the museum to visit the gift shop, something we hadn’t had time to do the day before, then it was time to find some lunch. 

We didn’t want to eat too much since we were doing the food tour that night, so we found a cute restaurant on the Plaka steps and ordered a couple of appetizers and a beer. It was a nice snack.

After lunch in Plaka

Since we were in Plaka, we decided to shop for some souvenirs since it was our last chance to do so. We picked up a few things and wandered around a little more before we decided it would be a good idea to have another little break. We found a cute cafe and ordered coffee and cake. This might sound silly, but it felt so civilized and awesome!

I had a traditional Greek coffee drink called an espresso freddo. It is espresso over ice with a frothy milk top. I had it sweetened. It’s pretty strong. I don’t think I would like it without sugar.

Freddo

Here’s Lizzie, looking super cute with her cappuccino, (or was it a mocha?), and the lemon cake we shared.

After our coffee break, we went back to the hotel to relax for a few minutes before we went out on the food tour that night. Fun fact, this was one, if not the, biggest step count day of our trip. We walked 8.9 miles, and I had nearly 21,000 steps. We saw a lot of Athens on this day, and we recognized many of the places we’d seen during the day while we did the food tour. It was cool to feel kind of like we knew where we were and how to get around to the places.

It was truly a great day. If you can manage it, physically, I highly recommend a walking tour of the cities you visit. You see so much more and really get a feel for a place. If you are lucky enough to get a guide in a small group or private tour, even better. Lizzie and I walked around the area behind Monastiraki Square before we met up with Alex and we were kind of able to figure out what we were looking at, but Alex did a great job filling in details and giving good perspective. 

I hope you enjoyed this little virtual tour as much as I enjoyed reliving and writing it.

See you tomorrow!