Last day

We were back and forth about whether to head to the archeological museum today, but ultimately decided that we were all set with museums for the trip. Instead we booked a guru walk free tour and went and walked around the Monstiraki flea market and Plaka neighborhood for a bit. We stopped for some delicious gyros (and cheeseburgers for the weirdos) before meeting the tour. It was a lovely 3.5 hour walk around Athens and really complemented what we did yesterday well, with local insight into the landmarks and culture and visits to places that we definitely would have otherwise missed. We saw the cave on the Plaka side of the acropolis, which was where the common folk would gather and worship, and a very special tiny Orthodox Church that receives the flame first for all of the churches in Greece from the central church of Jerusalem at Easter. We tried Fredo Espresso and stopped for gelato. We learned more about columns (which we already knew from Gid’s GT project a few years ago when we turned him into a Doric column) and the mountain where they harvested the marble for the ancient temples. We ended with a visit to the ancient stadium (originally built in the 5th century). that held the first “modern” Olympic Games after they were revived in Athens in the late 1800’s. We also learned a lot of historical timelines and that Greece has lost the location of many important statues:). The tour ended near our apartment in Syntagma Square which is right in front of Parliament. We grabbed jackets and headed out to shop a bit and have dinner, which was at a delicious little Italian spot. Back home to pack up properly and get ready for morning flight home. It has been a great week together, and much needed after a busy first half of Autumn term. We barely scratched the surface of what Greece has to offer and will definitely be back when we need island time again in the future!Read more