2010 Return to Greece
Arwenofbosham
Rob and Jacky Black
Sat 27 Mar 2010 19:49
|
22/03/10 - 24/03/10
Flew into Athens today and after being met by a
very friendly taxi driver (courtesy of Georgios taxis found on the
internet)
we were whisked to our hotel through the melee of
down town Athens in the rush hour which starts around 1500!
The hotel was great - very close to the Acropolis -
(Acropolis Museum Boutique Hotel - booked through roomsnet.com).
Our room was very comfortable with a good bathroom
- the beds were special with a fantastic type of mattress system
incredibly soft (not so good for our backs); the
breakfast was very good indeed and as it was included in the price excellent
value.
We walked up to the new Acropolis Museum in the
late afternoon only to find it was closed on Mondays! However we discovered a
very convenient pedestrianised street two minutes
from the hotel with plenty of street bars and cafes where we whiled away an
hour
sitting in the sun and imbibing our first Mythos
(local Greek beer) of the year. Later we walked to the Plaka district to a
restaurant
recommended by our friendly taxi driver it was in a
superb position on the north side of the Acropolis - we sat on the roof
garden
facing the flood lit Parthenon and enjoyed a lovely
meal at very reasonable prices. It was called the Old Tavern of Psara's a long
established
taverna dating originally from 1898 the English
translation of the name means fisherman and needless to say there was plenty of
'fish' on the menu.
The following day we checked our bags out and
vacated our room (luggage went into the hotels secure area until we returned
around 1845) before
heading for the Acropolis the aim was to be there
before the crowds. It was a thirty minute uphill stroll around a well made wide
plaza to get to the
ticket booth and then we were in. It is an amazing
place and we were fascinated to see the various temples and ruins (although
there is a great deal of
renovation work in progress so loads of scaffolding
on different sections.) By the time we left the place was filling up fast with
tour groups of Japanese
and Americans! We decided to have a well earned
drink so returned to our cafe near the Museum (first visited on Monday) and
again sat in the warm sunshine
'people watching'. The Museum was next on our
agenda and this was truly fantastic - recently opened it has been designed to
replicate the layout of the
Parthenon with the foundations exposed to show
various sections of ancient buildings through glass panels. Some of the
treasures within are in amazingly good
condition whilst others have been expertly
restored. The panels taken from the buildings on the Acropolis were displayed
with plaster of paris replicas of those
that had been removed by Lord Elgin - surely it's
time for them to be returned now?
We finished our visit to Athens with a walk to the
main square Syntagma where the Parliament building sits - however we were
informed there was to be another
demonstration and to avoid going further than the
edge of this - so we didn't see the fancy soldiers changing the guard! We did
wander off into the the Monastiraki
district and popped into the Cathedral before
finding a noodle bar for a late lunch in one of the back streets in the Plaka.
On our way back to the hotel we took in
the ruined temple of Olympian Zeus and the
partially ruined Hadrian's Arch. Our taxi arrived in good time to take us to
Piraeus for the ferry to Leros and we were
soon onboard ensconced in our very comfortable
cabin replete with a double bed, bathroom and working fridge! The Anek Line
ferry was a 'slow' one designed to get us
to Leros at a reasonable hour the next morning
(0930) as apposed to the fast ferry which we could have caught but we would have
been in Lakki around 0300!
The journey was fine - our only complaint was the
food in the self service restaurant looked indifferent so we settled for a
toasted sandwich from the bar and didn't
bother with breakfast on Wednesday morning. On
arrival we were met by Mr. Giannakos from the car -hire company and loaded our
extensive luggage into the car before
heading for the supermarket to re-stock the
boat!
|