The guys went to get croissants so we had a great start to the day. We decided the best way to get a good introduction to the city was to do Rick Steves’ city walk. We walked by walking through Syntagma Square, the main square of Athens and then by the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier where there was a changing of the guard. I didn’t take a video but here is one from YouTube.
Then we went on to see several famous churches and several famous streets. We saw Hadrian’s Gate from the first century AD which was the transition from the old Greek Athens to the “new” city, Hadrianpolis, which was built by, you guessed it, Hadrian.
We continued the tour until we ended up in a nice courtyard where we decided to have a coffee. Here are pictures from our walk.
The next stop on the Rick Steves tour was the Acropolis. We had a tour scheduled that afternoon for the Acropolis so we decided to stop the tour and go back to the apartment. I took a nap because I’m still fighting my cold. We went out for a late lunch and then came back to our apartment to be picked up for our tour.
Our tour guide, Nina, was waiting for us in front of the building. Our first stop was the Acropolis. We learned how Athens got its name.
Cecrops, a strange creature, half-man half-snake, was the founder of a city. Cecrops had named his city after himself, Cecropia. However, the gods of Olympus saw this lovely piece of land and wanted to name it after themselves and become its patron. The most persistent rivals were Poseidon, the sea god, and Athena, the goddess of wisdom. To solve their dispute, Zeus decided that each of them would make a gift to the city and king Cecrops would decide which gift was the best and therefore which god would be the patron of the city. One sunny day, Cecrops and the residents of the city went up to a high hill to watch the gods giving their gifts. Poseidon was the first to present his gift. He struck a rock with his trident and caused a spring of water to gush forth from the ground. This signified that he was assuring the citizens would always have water and therefore they wouldn’t face any droughts. However, the people were not enchanted with his gift because the water from the spring tasted salty, just like the waters of the sea over which Poseidon ruled. Next was the goddess Athena’s turn. She planted a seed in the ground, which grew up to be a lovely olive tree. The citizens liked this gift better because it would give them food, oil and firewood. With one voice they loudly acclaimed Athena as their benefactress.
We went up to the Acropolis which means a fortification on a hill. Over the years the Acropolis had many different functions but it started off as temples to the goddess Athena. The Parthenon is one of the temples. It was very impressive. Here are pictures of the Acropolis and from the Acropolis.
Then we went to the Acropolis museum and Nina showed us around. Many of the sculptures are in the British museum and Greece has been trying to get them back but haven’t yet been successful. Our driver then picked us up and Nina gave us a driving tour of the Athens. Many of the sites we had seen during our wandering. After awhile we said goodbye to our driver and Nina give us a walking tour through the city. She was very knowledgeable and gave us a lot of information but by now it was about 9:00 in the evening and we were all very tired. We thanked her and said goodbye when we arrived at our apartment. Everyone fell into bed after a long day.