Athens Day 4

Today was a semi-leisurely morning. Everyone, except Pam who was still dealing g with a cold, got on the bus and went to the Street Market....a beautiful purple blooming tree lined pedestrian walkway that was adjacent to a park. We'd admired it several times while passing by on the bus. Lots of interesting vendors were set up. At the end of the lane we rested on a bench in the shade. We saw 2 parakeet nests...one was hidden in a tree and another hung down from a tree with no protection. There was also a Red Bull fan celebration going on that Diane and I walked through. As we headed back up the lane, Dad bought us all ice cream. Raspberry Twist was awesome!

Janet and I left the group to make our way to the Parthenon since we missed it the day before. We walked to Syntagma Square and got a closet look at the soldiers standing guard. They have big black pompoms on their shoes. Their skirts have 400 pleats, which they personally have to iron, and one skirt takes 8 months to make. We walked across the square and ate lunch.......yep....McDonald's!

The taxi strike was over at 6 a.m. today so we were able to Uber to the Parthenon. We made it up the very sloped hill with over an hour to spare. We found a shaded area to have a seat while we waited. Janet was walking around looking for birds....as she came back the guy to my right was whistling When The Saints Go Marching In...he quit whistling and Ja et picked up where he left off.. .it startled him and we all had a good laugh as Janet poked him in the arm! Oddly enough, about 10 minutes later an American family was at the bench over from us and the Grandfather said to the Granddaughter ".....when The Saints Go Marching in"....very weird to say the least.

We had already asked what time we could enter on our 4 o'clock tickets and were told 3:45. We were a bit impatient, read bored, so Janet pulled up her ticket on her phone and walked right by the 2 attendants...not to be outdone, I did the same and 5 steps past them got yelled at and had to go back out. Janet didnt leave me stranded and came back out. . 3:45 on the DOT they started letting us in.

The Parthenon did not disappoint! We used Rick Steves audio tour and thoroughly enjoyed it. We were so high up that the view was farther than we could see. It's so hard to imagine what that looked lime in its prime!

Afterwards we rode back to the apartment and met up with the group. We went to dinner at Oroacopo Restaurant. It was very good! The waiter said we were all Brilliant! Janet tried to repeat the word back to him in Greek but apparently a lot was lost in translation as the word she used meant bright.....lol

Played some cards again tonight and we were all very tired so it became very comical! Or it could have been the ouzo some tried that our apartment manager left us. Ick!

Tonight is our last night in town....we board our cruise tomorrow.Read more