Day 11 Athens.

A full on day exploring Athens. We set off at 8am to meet half day tour group. We travelled by bus all around the main sights on the flat including the Olympic stadium, before heading up to the Acropolis, the Parthenon and the Acropolis museum. We got out of the bus half way up and then followed our guide who gave us a very informative tour via earphones. There were again thousands of people and we kept a very close eye on each other especially during the last hour on our own on the hill. The Acropolis is the entire fortified hilltop or citadel, while the Parthenon is the specific, famous temple located on top of that hill. We then boarded the bus for the very modern museum. The highlight was probably the glass floor through which you could see recent excavations underground. The were crowds everywhere and we moved fairly quickly through it. We left the guide at 1 pm and wandered to a really nice place for a Greek pizza lunch. Our next stop was a luggage shop- the saga of the suitcase. My good suitcase was in danger of losing a wheel by the time we arrived in Athens the first time. We foolishly bought a new one from a luggage shop near our hotel and after the rough treatment on the ferries going to the islands could see it had already developed some faults, including a broken handle!! Consequently with a lot of travel still ahead of us we bought a decent one today, exactly the same as David’s. An expensive mission but worth it. After time at the hotel organising ourselves for Rome tomorrow, we wandered into town for yet another walk, a drink and dinner. We leave Greece tomorrow. It has been a great start to our holiday. The biggest hassles here though are always buying water and the horrendous toilets- believe it or not, you cannot put toilet paper in any of them, even hotels. We will have a new appreciation of flushing toilets and tap water when we get home!Read more