Athens - The Ancient Athenian Agora

Another busy day exploring Athens!
First up this morning we walked 10 minutes up the road to The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, it is a representative tomb of Greek soldiers. This is guarded by the Evones, an elite corps, 24 hours a day. Every hour, on the hour, the two soldiers that have been standing motionless for an hour are relieved and two new guards come. They do a synchronised march to get their circulation going, lifting their legs and arms, it was pretty cool, especially with their uniforms.
After that we went for a walk in the adjacent gardens, which used to be a palace gardens, we wanted to see the pond full of turtles, we also saw goats and a large orangerie.

Next we took the metro up towards the Acropolis to see the Ancient Athenian Agora (AD 50) which used to be a town a couple of thousand years ago. On the way we passed a market and couldn't resist a large punnet of strawberries and a gelato! The gelatos were pistachio, which was very good, but overshadowed by the very dark orange bitter chocolate, mmmm.
The Ancient Agora is sited underneath the Acropolis and is full of ruins of public buildings and sacred temples, but primarily it was the marketplace of Athens city. Very similar to Palentine hill in Rome, we spent hours walking around the ruins and looking at a reconstruction of the Stoa of Attalos, the main building, which was lined with shops around 2 BC.
Farewell Greece!Read more