- We caught an 11am ferry from Milos arriving in Piraeus about 14:30. Headed to our hotel in Athens city. We were staying in the Makrygianni district, just south of the Acropolis. It has good restaurants, cafes, bars and bakeries, some happily filling more than one role to keep the cash flow positive.
- When we arrived it was a lovely afternoon so we walked up to the Acropolis then down to the Ancient Agora. It felt great to be back in Athens again. Wandering around the Temple of Hephastus in the golden light of a summer evening is a delightful experience. It makes you appreciate the efforts made to preserve cultural World Heritage.
- Next morning we headed to the National Archaeological Museum for a day. We hadn’t been here since our first trip to Greece in 2006. In three subsequent trips we’d been to many of the places associated with artefacts in the museum and thought it was time to revisit. It was a fabulous experience. As hoped, the fact that we’d now been to so many of the places referenced in the exhibits provided depth and resonance to what we were looking at on the floors and walls and in the glass cases.
- We always visit the Temple of Olympian Zeus when in Athens. It defines the word ‘monumental’. We then walked what’s known as ‘the triangle’ in Athens city, defined by the three squares of Syntagma, Omonia and Monastiraki. We’d read that this was an epicentre for rebounding from austerity and it felt like it on the ground. There was a gritty, can-do energy about the place. Visited Hadrian’s Library before it closed at 15:00. It was very hot by then so we retreated to the hotel for a while before an evening visit to the Acropolis. It was glorious, and we ended up being kicked out of the Theatre of Dionysos at 20:00 closing time.
- Next day we took it pretty easy, sourcing presents for family and friends from shops at the Acropolis Museum and Benaki Museum. On our last night of the trip we had a great dinner on a rooftop terrace looking up at the Acropolis. Only in Greece.
- On our last day we visited the Acropolis Museum then checked out the Temple of the Winds. Headed out to the airport around 20:00 for a 23:00 flight home.
