Today we do a walk about - a lot in the hills, and a bit around town.  We're looking to make our way to several waypoints - the old town, a "remote" church, and a high village.  It begins with a short tunnel.

Traditional fishing rig - the old man retired from his sea?

Hanging blossoms and eucalyptus trees.

Making our way to the old town.

We're very close now....

This must be it.

The town is old, but only by our standards - it was established at the end of the 1600's by families that had returned from the deep in the hills after having been forced there by pirate attacks during the previous handful of centuries.  These fortifications gave them defensive advantage to withstand pirates.

We typically only learn the details just as we stand on these very spots of history reading the tour guide.

Onward and upward the trek moves onto the next way-point - the high church.  The trail is well established, and perhaps very old (hundreds of years?).  The touring is as much about the getting there (the trek), as it is about finding things.

Gerri pauses and contemplates the next destination, high on the hill at the not so far horizon.

There's even an occasional yellow/black trail blaze to assure us we're tracking rightly.

E-gads, this is a sporty trek.

Kardamyli seen from above - all the zigging and zagging is as much gaining altitude as it is distance.

The trail is solid, yes, it's paved with baby boulders, not the smoothest - Tim is happy with his boots vs. shoes on previous travels.

Mercury (Mighty Mouse to some), swift of feet, rockets ahead.

Here's a wide view - modern people find some solitude today living in the hills - and escape from our time's version of piracy - hustle/bustle stealing our time.

The next goal attained.  People were inside doing restoration, so it was closed for access.

Hmmmm, figuring out how to get to yonder village, we access the internet for help, and our intuition.  We find the village on a distance ridge, and make a strong guess as to the best way, not the dusty road, but a trail that seems to dive into the gorge in the desired direction.

Gerri has doubts, Tim is ready to go-for-broke and presses ahead, his only lead today.

Now looking down onto the bottom of the gorge, hoping the trail will go up the otherside.  We encounter a German couple we'd seen at the church looking a bit confused, we never saw them again, hmmmm.....they were seeking a historical water cistern, which we think we encountered later on in the trek and trust they found it also.  Oh well, it would be hard to get lost, you just need to eventually walk down hill, and hope it doesn't take you too far from "home" up or down the road.

Yay, this seems right, going up the slope of the gorge in the correct direction.

Just a little further now...

And yellow-black blazes reappear...

We made it, was there any doubt (okay there was a bit at one point).

New stuff, old stuff, all in harmony, more or less.

The final stage of the trek, getting home begins.

We find the village path continues out and down towards Kardamyli.

An awesome view with Mount Profitas Ilias (7,895 ft) in the distance - our trek will not go there today (or tomorrow either).

At the outskirts of the village, not that this tiny village should really qualify to have outskirts, but it does have beautiful spring blossoms.

We're starting to think we opted for the donkey trail, perhaps if we had backtracked to the entry trail to the village, we could have found a smoother way down the interior of the gorge, and coming out closer to our next event.  The labor involved to build this thing, all those years ago, is impressive however.  Walking on baby boulders, not so much, says our feet.

Imagine the man/woman/child hours, to put up more than a mile of this stuff.  The history I'm guessing is long forgotten, but we might guess it brought a massive pride of accomplishment.

The end brought a certain level of relief to our feet.

It's "Fix" time, hanging out on the square back in Kardamyli.

We finish the days' touring (oh yeah, trekking) doing the Rick Steve's town walk tour.  Here's the newer church, where Rick points out the loud speakers high on the corners, used for holiday overflow, especially Easter, when some people have to take in the services from outside the church.

More eucalyptus trees on the main square, where on New Year's Day they dump snow from high in the mountains to make a temporary Winter Wonderland.

A very nice looking villa...

At the small town wharf, where before the winding combustion engine vehicle roads were laid, was the only access to the town.

Back "home" - a toast to a successful trek.

We were kicking back all the way past 8pm, when Gerri remembered we needed to find this very cool pub in town as pointed out to us by a couple California women we met on our last night in Athens.  It was worth the short walk and going back out-on-the-town, with a very personable bar keep and good conversation with a British pensioner couple from York, England, who have come to this little town for years, and are again on a multi-month stay here.

We were set for a long drive today, expecting 5 1/2 hours drivetime, with stops at a cave and a mountain village.  First up was a tall bridge, then a tunnel, and then a toll to pay for it all.

More unexpected views of the mountainous terrain of Greece.  We'd heard of Mt. Olympus, but that is well to north.

Snow capped in Winter, with snow pack lingering into May.

We then descended back to the coast to take in the Caves of Pyros Dirou.  Although known some years before, the caves were set up for tourism back in 1963.  This is the view just outside the caves.

We were anticipating beginning the cave tour riding small rowboats from one entrance, but we found out they're temporarily down for maintenance, so for a reduced fare (7 euro vs. 12) they allow you to walk the last half from the end and back out again.

Still lots to see...we have done caves on boats (Thailand) and tubes (Belize), so that bucket list item is already really checked.

At the end of the walk inward, where the boats would have dropped us off.

And now at Kastania, after a long drive up through the lower part of the mountains.

She'll be coming around the mountain, when she comes....also, notice the large wild fire burned areas - we learned from a villager that the fire was just last year.

Before we enter the village, we toured the cemetary and adjacent church.

And now in the village to take up the tour guide points of interest.

We're having much difficulty finding the points - although finding hidden keys to enter several churches does match the story.  Where is the town square, it doesn't seem to exist.

If Lamborghini made tractors this would be one of them, oh wait, they did make this tractor!

Another cool church, not accessible however.  We give up on finding the "points", and depart town, hmmmm, the road that goes westward is now a jeep trail, and we back track to ponder the sudden change of events.

See the Kastania below, the one we went to, it's not the right one.  Turns out, at the "red balloon" is another Kastania, the one we were supposed to visit.  We were gonna be at least an hour late to Kardamyli, our overnight town, where the host said, yes there're 2 Kastania's, and she's never been to the one we toured.  To play it safe and not find ourselves trapped on dirt road our car couldn't negotiate, we needed to backtrack back towards the caves to the south and come back up the west coast. 

After burgers and fries at a local eatery, we relax at sunset on our porch, pet the cat, and enjoy the scenery.

We cross the big bridge onto the Peloponnese peninsula...

...and were introduced to a new style of lane management.  We witnessed many a driver riding the line, and allowing overtaking cars to share the lane with them.  Hmmmm, when all cooperate, this seems more efficient and alleviates the possibility of head-on tangles.  Just need to keep an eye out for shoulder obstacles, especially bicycles.

Now in Olympia - adjacent to the site of the ancient Olympic Games

The ancient Olympic site was rediscovered in 1766, with early excavations starting in 1829, and extensive digging in 1876-1881.  The site had been buried in what was thought river flood sediment to over 26 feet in places, but recent studies suggest large tsunamis inundating the area.  Digging is ongoing to today, as we witnessed at the beginning of the tour (and the end).

We walk along the remains of the gymnasium, following along with our tour book.  I did Grecco-Roman wrestling in high school, and now here we are, where the early (first?) organized competitions were held.

In a workshop, where the sculptor created sub-parts of the colossal statue of Zeus, before he was assembled inside his temple.  Tools and molds were found here during the excavation.

Fragments of written tablets, just lying around, dating from somewhere in the Olympic history, 700 B.C. - 300 A.D.

Lodging remains, where judges and notable athletes resided during the games.

Indigenous fauna - Mr. Lizard.

Rubble-ized parts from the destroyed Temple of Zeus.

What Zeus' temple once was....

The area below and what it likely looked like in the photo above (lower right area).  This spot is where champions were crowned, while they stood on the podium.  A winged female statue stood atop the column, and the remains we would see later in the museum.

And now we enter the stadium, where the competitions took place - this is the formal entrance where all competitors entered.

Next to the Olympic complex, and especially prominent as seen from the stadium is Kronos Hill, where the ancient Greeks thought Zeus to have been born and where he escaped his father Kronos who tried to eat him.

Gerri preps for her sprint, at one of the 20 starting gates...then runs towards the West...and is crowned the victor in a race of 1 against 1 (I couldn't run it, I'm the photographer).  These are the actual original starting/finishing lines - it was surprising they let you make contact with them - about 600 feet apart.

Here's the layout of the complex - stadium at upper right, gymnasium at upper left, the workshop at mid-left, the "hotel" at lower left, the Temple of Zeus in center, and the Temple of Athena at top-middle.

Here's a structure, excavated more recently than the rest of the complex, dating to 3,000 years ago, predating some of the Olympic structures by 1,000 years.

For the modern Olympics, the preliminary event, the running of the torch to the chosen site every four years, starts here, near the Temple of Athena.  See demo by Gerri.

Temple of Athena - now with a few more columns than what Zeus is left with.

Mrs. Lizard, hanging out in the Temple of Athena, "ha ha Zeus".

The Philippeon, after 340 B.C., built by Philip of Macedon, who conquered ancient Greece at this time.  The Games would continue for another 600 years after that, and while part of the Roman empire.  The transition of the Roman religion to Christianity doomed the games, as the powers that be deemed them associated with the non-Christian pagan gods.

The skinnier columns on the Philippeon marked a change in architecture to a more graceful look.

And now exiting the complex, seeing some current excavations ongoing, as we walk a distance to the museum.

Offerings found on the grounds, and now displayed in the museum.

Various bronze ornaments...

Bronze warrior's helmet.

And more...

Nike of Paeonius (statue of victory, 421 B.C.), originally stood atop the Pedestal of Nike, next to the Temple of Zeus, at the location where victors where crowned.

An artist's rendition of the colossal statue of Zeus, sitting on this throne, within his Temple.  Below it is a model of the workshop where archeologists think he was created.

A model of the Olympic complex.

Statues from the Temple of Zeus, previously adorning the lintel, the triangular roof ends.

Our feast of victory over having completed the great tour of the Olympics. The mushrooms, at middle-left, were especially good.

At the center of Olympia, the small-modern town where we stayed the night.

A parting photo of an amazing mosaic depicting athletes doing their thing - "it was an honor just being selected for the competition", the athlete in the center appears that he can say more.  And this illustrates why there was no need for contracting Gucci sports clothing with Nike logos, or what not, this was strictly a clothing-is-not-an-option event.

Today we toured a major ruin complex and 3 additional nearby ruin sites.  The sites were just a 15-min walk adjacent to the town, sprawling up and down the slopes of a mountain.

Along the way we get another good view of how the modern town hugs the cliffs over a river valley and hundreds of acres of olive trees.  We also see a kitty assuming a statuesque pose.

Wikipedia:   Delphi in ancient times was a sacred precinct that served as the seat of Pythia, the major oracle who was consulted about important decisions throughout the ancient classical world. The ancient Greeks considered the center of the world to be in Delphi, marked by the stone monument known as the omphalos (navel).  Delphi took its name from the Delphyne, the she-serpent (drakaina) who lived there and was killed by the god Apollo. It is now an extensive archaeological site, and since 1938 a part of Parnassos National Park. The precinct is recognized by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site in having had a great influence in the ancient world, as evidenced by the various monuments built there by most of the important ancient Greek city-states, demonstrating their fundamental Hellenic unity.

Our guidebook tour begins:

The reconstructed Treasury of the Athenians, built to commemorate their victory at the Battle of Marathon.
(reconstructed from original remains)

The site truly lies among towering slopes and mostly wilderness (save for the highway passing by):

Our first look at the remains of the Temple of Apollo - not much much left of something that used to resemble the Parthenon:

A wider view from higher up - the Oracle did her stuff from within this temple.

We posed from within the amphitheater, one of the best preserved in Greece, as much of the original seating remains in place.  The backdrop for the stage, however, is mostly gone.

And now the athletic stadium, at the top of a short climb, in amazing condition after all these centuries have gone by.

Going back down to the exit, another fine view of the Temple of Apollo.  See that gentleman in the lower right, he has some sort of handicap, but was moving slowly and with determination along the tour path, going up up up - not missing a thing.

Zoomed in shot of partially restored columns of the Temple of Apollo.

We then moved along to see the Tholos, among the ancient structures of the Sanctuary of Athena. The circular temple shares the immediate site with other ancient foundations of the Temple of Athena Pronaia, all located less than a mile east of the main ruins at Delphi.

And now the "gymnasium", seen from above along the highway - the site was closed for some unknown reason - maybe for restoration work, or simply is too unstable (see the steel props along the wall).

Now, to the Archeological Museum to finish up our tour...here's a model of the un-ruined complex.

The Sphinx of Naxos, 570-560 BC., and now as an image on some lady's 21st century camera phone contraption.

Strange fish-horse, and men playing musical chairs...

Like new, original paint, the ultimate book ends for your library...

Twin Kouros Statues from around 600 B.C.

And now a late lunch to get us through to dinner tonight - Tim gets his traditional Gyro from the Souvlaki place (2.50 Euro), and Gerri gets her Mushroom Gyro, and does window shopping for our dinner tonight (this is the place we decided to patronize for a sunset dinner).

Dinner - Gerri's whole grilled fish with beets and broccoli - we also got a taste of our first Ouzo in Greece (complimentary from the owner).  It was all very tasty.

Today is a dedicated travel day.  We took a 1.5 hour long ferry to Piraeus Harbor, then a 1.5 hour bus from the harbor to the airport, then a 10 minute van ride from the airport to the rental car agency, and then a 2.5 hour car drive to Delphi.  A crazy day, but necessary.

The ferry was pretty cool.  It was the Flying Dolphin, a hydrofoil ferry that goes 35 knots (40 miles per hour)...wow!

We arrived at the bus station, and the bus came in about 10 minutes.  The ride was supposed to be 1.5 hours, but the driver got us there in about 50 minutes.  Awesome...since we got to the rental car agency early we will be able to make it to Delphi before dark.

We picked up the rental (Volkswagen Polo), and drove the 123 miles (2.5 hours) to Delphi.  The driving wasn't bad.  We were able to avoid Athens so we didn't hit any traffic.  It was fairly flat roads, until it wasn't.  Delphi is 2,000 feet high, and to get here we had to drive through a mountain pass.  It was beautiful.

We made it to the hotel right at 8 PM.  There was easy parking along the street by the hotel.  oh...here is our rental car for the next 3 weeks.  Not a bad ride.

The room is really nice.  A comfortable bed, and check out the view from our balcony!  Amazing.

Tomorrow we visit all the ancient ruins here in Delphi.  We should also have plenty of time to walk around this beautiful town.

We had a great night sleep and woke up to a beautiful blue sky day.  The hotel provides breakfast, so we went down to eat.  It was a delicious spread that filled our plates and bellies which is particularly important today since we are going for a longer walk around Hydra today.  There is a 10 mile loop I would have loved to do, but we didn't wake up earlier enough for that long of a walk.  That is OK...we will do the loop that Rick Steves suggests in his book which should be plenty.

To start out, we headed down to the harbor. What a beautiful day...a perfect day for a walk.

We started up the walking path along the north coast of Hydra.  We first arrived at the first cafe outside of town that is right at the town beach.

We mentioned the beach in yesterday's blog as we had a view of it across the way.  Here it is a bit closer now.  Being a blue sky day, there are actually people hanging out on the "beach."  It seems Greece has a rocky coastline.  What makes a beach here (concrete slab with a ladder down to the water) is much different than our definition.  Maybe we will try out one of these "beaches" during our stay here in Greece, but today isn't the day.

As we continued along the coast, the views kept coming and coming.  How amazingly beautiful.

After about 15 minutes of walking, we arrived in the small village of Kaminia with a harbor housing small fishing boats....oh, and some donkeys.

Further on we reached Kaminia Castello Beach which at first looks very nice, but it isn't sandy, it is pebbly.

We walked a bit more and arrived to Vlychos and yet another beach.  This one looked inviting and I considered going in.  We walked down to it, but again, it was made of small rocks and pebbles with rocks under the water just off the beach.  Greeks must be rugged people to use these beaches.

We could have kept walking further, but we decided to head back to town.  Luckily, we didn't have to take the same route back, we could take a walking path that led across the island back to the main town allowing us to do a loop.  This was called the Hydra-Kaminia High Road.  This route did not disappoint with nice views along the way,

Finally, after two hours of walking for four miles, we arrived back in town.  Since the sky is blue today, we decided to head back up to the lookout point and take more photos.  Oh...we did stop and share a bottle of beer and a tuna sandwich first.

Wow...what an amazing island.

Incredible photos...right?  It was definitely worth going back up there today.  We climbed back down and went back to the hotel for a couple of hours before heading out for dinner.

Remember Angelo, from Blame the Sun Brewery, in Athens.  He sent us to an incredible restaurant in Athens.  Well, when we told him we were going to Hydra he told us to go to Giasemi Restaurant, which of course we did.  It did not disappoint.  The food tasted so fresh and homemade.

The first dish was eggplant & tomatoes.  It sounds so simple, and was so amazing.  How could something with such simple ingredients taste so good?!?

Next, I ordered fish and Tim ordered meatballs.  On the side we had tomatoes stuffed with rice.  Again, simple dishes with simple ingredients that tasted so incredible.  This might be our best meal in Greece so far.

We were full and tired from all the walking today, but we saw a walking path that lead up and for some reason we decided to take it.  We were rewarded with nice views along the way.

And...at the top....was a cemetary. 

We walked though the cemetary to the other end and found a road that lead back into town.

Speaking of town...we mentioned that there were donkeys all around town and the island, well, there are also cats.  Not just some cats, but supposedly there are 4,000 cats roaming Hydra.  I tried to greet and pet every one of the 4,000, but came up a bit short.

Here is a collage of some of the cats we saw during our 2 days on Hydra.

Anyway, back in town we stopped at a pub on the harbor, had a beer, and went back to the hotel.  Tomorrow we head back to Athens on the ferry, but the ferry isn't until 1 PM, so we can sleep in and have a relaxing morning.  Until then...

We woke up early and packed up our things.  We are leaving Athens today and headed to the island of Hydra (EE-drah) today.  Our ferry leaves Piraeus Harbor at 10 AM.  The ticket says we should be there 1 hour early, so we ordered an Uber at 8:20 AM and arrived at the port at 9 AM.  After some confusion, we found where our ferry will be arriving, and boarded right on time.  Check out our ferry.  It is a catamaran that travels at 28 knots (32 miles per hour)....pretty cool.

We made a brief stop at the island of Poros and arrived at Hydra right at noon.  As soon as we disembarked we were greeted by donkeys.  This is because the island of Hydra doesn't have any cars, so donkeys are used to transport peoples luggage to their hotels.  They are also used to transport groceries, building supplies, and anything else that needs to be carried throughout the island.  

Since we pack light, with only backpacks, we passed the donkeys and headed straight to our hotel. What a beautiful building right on the town square.

We dropped our bags and headed out to do Rick Steves "Hydra Harbor Walk."  First we have to walk to the start, just passed where the ferry dropped us off and climb up to the lookout.  Here are some scenes from the walk to the lookout:

We made it to the start of the walk, and tested out the iPhone's panoramic ability:

What great views up here.  Tim is pointing a view out.

After spending some time soaking in the view, we continued Rick Steves walk followed by more walking around the island and taking in the sites.  Hydra is beautiful with narrow cobblestone walkways and beautiful buildings.

We stumbled on a taverna and decided to have an late lunch around 2:30 PM.  Isn't this a cute looking place?

We shared a Greek salad.  Tim ordered his first moussaka in Greece and I had spanakopita (spinach pie).  Delicious!

After lunch we went back to the hotel to chill a bit.  During the walk, Rick Steves told us to to to Flora's Pastry Shop and order galaktoboureko.  If Rick Steves tells us to do something, we do it.  I ordered the galaktoboureko and Tim got a piece of baklava.  Holy cow...the were so good!!!

After the dessert headed to the harbor and found the perfect table on the harbor front to watch people and boats come and go.

Since we had an early morning, we called it an early night, went back to the hotel room, watched some TV, and went to bed.  Tomorrow we have more exploring of Hydra to do.

After yesterday's somewhat day of rest, we were ready to get out and visit the two major museums in Athens, the Acropolis Museum and the National Archeology Museum.  Before heading out though, it was time to check out the roof of our AirBnB which many reviews said it was one of the highlights of the apartment.  Well, check it out...very cool view!

OK...time to visit the Acropolis Museum.  The museum is a beautiful building that just opened in 2009.  The first floor is displays of artifacts found on the grounds of the Acropolis and the second floor is the re-creates the exact dimensions and floor plan as the Parthenon.

Here is a great shot of one of the galleries on the first floor:

Here they are...the original Caryatids from the Erechtheion.  These five of the original six stood outside in their original location until the 1950's when they were finally brought inside after much weather and pollution damage.  It is pretty cool how these women are actual columns that held up the roof of a temple on the grounds of the Acropolis.

Here was an interesting relic.  Some sort of Magic Sphere.  We found the carvings interesting.  One side has what looks like the Statue of Liberty and the other side has some kind of alien hieroglyphics.  Quite odd.

Finally, we made it to the top floor to see what we came to see...the Parthenon Frieze.  As I mentioned earlier, this floor matches the dimensions of the actual Parthenon, so when you walk around, you can the location of the columns and frieze.  The frieze is along the wall, and what is left of the pediments, which are usually high up above the frieze and below the roof, are brought lower down so we could see it.

An interesting thing about the Parthenon Frieze is that most of the original frieze is located in the British Museum in London.  Between 1801 and 1812, Thomas Bryce, 7th Earl of Elgin, took the frieze and most of the pediments and brought them to England.  Greece hopes to have the pieces returned, but England has so far refused.  Anyway, the panels that are in London are reproductions and clearly marked.

What makes this display so cool is that right out the window is the Parthenon in all its glory.

We left the Acropolis Museum after about 1.5 hours.  We were tired, but we still have another museum to tackle.  We took the bus with a bit of issues (got on in the wrong direction, got off, and got back on in the correct direction) and made it to the National Archeology Museum by around 3 PM. 

Here we learned all about the four stages of Greek sculpture (Archaic (700-480 BC), Severe (480-460 BC), Classical (460-323 BC), and Hellenistic (323-30 BC).

There were many Archaic Kore (female) and Kouros (male) statues...very stiff and stoic with obvious Egyptian influence.

After many, many Kore and Kouros sculptures, we were finally seeing the more realistic ones.

Zeus or Poseidon was found in a shipwreck north of Athens in 1928.  Because he is missing whatever he was holding, it could be Zeus if he was holding a thunderbolt, or Poseidon if he was holding a trident.

Tim liked the little Athena (one-twelfth-size replica) of what stood inside the Parthenon.

The jockey was also found in the same shipwreck as Zeus / Poseidon.

I really liked Statue of Aphrodite, Pan, and Eros.  It is playful and fun.

Hello back to you Bronze Statue of a Youth who could be Perseus holding up Medusa's head or Paris awarding an apple to the winner of a beauty contest between goddesses.  Either way, this is typical of us walking around museums with me reading out loud the descriptions as Tim (and others standing around us) listen in.

We saw so, so many Grecian urns, vases, cups, plates, bowls, etc.  This is room 3 or 4 or 5 of many.

Well...we did it.  two large museums in one day.  This was not the original plan, but since everything was closed yesterday for May Day, we had to get it done in one day.  It was exhausting, but so worth it.  We learned about and saw so many amazing pieces of art.  By the way, we spent 3.5 hours in the National Archeology Museum...WOW!

After all that walking and standing all day, we definitely earned dinner.  Yesterday, when we went to Blame the Sun Brewery, Angelo (one of the owners) told us that we needed to eat at Ο Λόλος.  He started to tell us what we need to order.  Instead, I told him to write it down.  He wrote down four dishes and didn't tell us what they were.  Today, we stopped by the brewery for a pint before dinner and he added another dish making it 5 dishes to order.  Luckily we are starving after today.

When we arrived at the restaurant, we just handed the list to the waitress.  We had no idea what we ordered, so it was fun to see what was appearing on our table.  Here was our meal and what I think we got based on looking at the menu:  smoked herring fillet, marinated anchovies, fried blue whiting, grilled squid stuffed with feta, and mussels that were not even on the menu.  We also brought a basket of bread and we ordered 500ml of house white wine.  The mussels took a long time, so they brought us another 500ml of wine.  All of this cost around $50.  So delicious and so worth it.

We walked back to our AirBnB and decided to check out the roof at night.  Look what we saw...so amazing.  Also on the roof was two women from California.  They just finished their drive around Greece, so it was interesting to compare notes of where they went and were we plan on going.

Tomorrow we take a ferry from Athens to Hydra.  Our ferry is at 10 AM, so we have to get an Uber before 8:30 AM.  It will be an early morning, but should be another amazing day.

Today is the May Day bank holiday in Greece, so everything is closed.  When I was planning the trip, we planned 3 full days in Athens to allow us to slow down some and have 3 easier days, but with today being a holiday, we had to have a full day yesterday, and a full day tomorrow.  Today we do nothing.

We slept in, found a fast food pasta place down the street for lunch, and hung out on the couch watching TV, blogging, and planning future travel.   It was a rainy day anyway, so we didn't feel to bad spending the day in the apartment. 

While sitting on the couch, I happen to type "brewery" in Google Maps, and two breweries popped up...and they both are only 10-15 minute walk from the apartment.  We left at 5 PM and walked to the first brewery, Blame the Sun.

We hung out there for a bit and talked to one of the owners, Angelo.  He suggested a restaurant for us to check out tomorrow.  Now I can't wait for tomorrow's dinner.

Next we walked to Strange Brew Brewery...a very competent brewery.

As we were walking back to the apartment, we saw people sitting outside a cafe and all of a sudden felt very hungry.  They just only 4 small plates, so we order all of them...Oh they also had peanuts that they kept refilling for us.

The first dish was strawberries and cheese.

This was followed by peppers and pita bread, a fish pita sandwich. and a sliced meat & cheese plate.

It was all really good even though it was after 10 PM while we were eating it.  After the snack, we walked back to the apartment, watched some TV while digesting some, and then went to bed.  Tomorrow we have 2 museums to tour, so it will be a long day.

On the way to the start of our city tour (self guided).

We see a glimpse of the Acropolis we'll visit later in the day.  Since tomorrow is a holiday (May Day Monday), we'll be touring the city and two ancient monument sites in one day - oh boy.

Some well done graffiti - maybe commissioned in this case.

Passing through the May Day celebrating crowd - being in a place we really shouldn't be in these turbulent times - but we made our way quickly by and nothing happened.  Greece's Parliament building is in the background.

Well worn streets of marble - okay today, but we would find out how slick they can be in rain tomorrow.

Readable street names on the corners of buildings - you even get to try to pick up some Greek with the language matched with the English version.  Tim still said "it's all Greek to me".

Church of Kapnikarea - classic 11th century Byzantine.

Well preserved mosaic.  We're presuming original, but cleaned up and maybe recolored.

Statue memorial to a Greek Orthodox priest who gained fame by standing up to Nazi oppression of Jewish peoples during WWII.

Church of Agios Eleftherios - newer than earlier viewed one at late 12th century.  There were interesting incidences of reused ancient Greek structural stones incorporated into its construction - you can see some it on either side of the arched door.

The city is old and sprawling, and still recovering from its recent financial crisis (2009-2017), but we saw nicely remodeled and being remodeled structures everywhere we walked (albeit a tiny slice of the city in the central district).

The tour continues - "Orange cone with restaurant fronts" - "Tourists shopping the tourist's stores".

We noticed a purposeful, maybe too visible, organization of trash collection points - far better than piles of trash in some other European cities - look there's even recycle bins in the typical blue colored dumpsters.  The city we saw was reasonably clean and tidy.

We stumble upon a sub-street level spot of preserved ancient ruins.  All the "modern" buildings around are likely built upon structures from 1,000-2,000 years ago and maybe older.

A view of a calm empty wide boulevard on the middle day of a three- day weekend - it'll be different come Tuesday.

Ruins being made less-ruined.

These rings of sesame bread (Koulouri Thessalonikis) are sold everywhere - to the tourists, and to the locals.

Believe it or not, the Rick Steve's tour then took us along narrow pathways through villas hanging onto the lower slopes of the Acropolis plateau.

Tower of the Winds - 1st century B.C. - a combo weather vane, clock, and astrology guide.

Tim's first Greek souvlaki sampling - not the shaved Gyro meat, but tasty skewer chunks in an otherwise Gyro-looking assembly.  And finding a handy eating place, alongside other souvlaki eaters and pigeons waiting for some dropped souvlaki.

Then we found more interesting market stuff, near the tourist stores, but offering what appeared to be authentic flea market goods.

Then we finished the walking tour, and entered the first of two ticket-requiring, extensive preserved ruins - the first is the Agora - Rick Steves says "the real heart of ancient Athens".

This mall had become just a ragged foundation, but was reconstructed in the 1950s by the American School of Classical Studies.  It hosts many articles and statues found nearby, but now presented here protected from the elements.

An original temple in ruined state, but still reasonably preserved, and nearby churches and mosques from later times.  The grounds of Agora had become "overrun" by later peoples in the subsequent centuries until the land was purchased by those that removed the housing, excavated, conserved and rediscovered the original Greek grounds.

Model of the Agora in its heyday.  Yeah, much of it is gone from ancient invasions - all the sacking and looting and destroying - or otherwise taken away by builders over the centuries to make "new" structures.

The Acropolis, the second ancient complex we'll visit today, looming above us, still touring within the Agora grounds.

Cool Corinthian column top, or capitol - its column parts either strewn around nearby or carted off to become part of some later construction.

Making our way to the Temple of Hephaistos - started in 450 B.C.

And here it is!

Some column parts appear to be "jittering" out of center - apparently from various earthquakes over the centuries.

Ahh, we still have that climb to the top of the Acropolis, and the mighty Parthenon, coming better into view.

Yeah, yeah, way up there we must go...oy vay.

Finishing up at the Agora - remains of a wall hastily constructed after 267 AD in a last stand scenario as Roman Athens succumbed to foreign invaders and marauders.

We found a convenient pit-stop restaurant along the way as we climbed up to the Acropolis.  A perfect offering to get us through the last tour of the day - a Greek salad (not the kind you might find in Peoria, this time of year we think the tomatoes here would taste much much fresher) and fresh caught and fried squid.

Still hanging in there - we made it to the beginning of the Acropolis tour.

Amphitheater.  Odeon of Herodes Atticus, built 161 A.D.  Mostly a venue where music was enjoyed - originally had a roof covering and seated 5,000.  They still hold concerts here - Yanni played here.

Mars Hill - a lower hill just outside the Acropolis - showing the urban setting for all this ancient stuff.

At the final gateway to the top of the Acropolis.  Gerri is examining the left overs of the original staircase.

Finally, after all the long views from below - there she is, the Parthenon, bigger than life (and certainly looming larger than a tiny Mona Lisa painting in a tiny frame).  If you miss all the other worthwhile stuff in a visit to Athens, just seeing this in person would be reason enough to make the trip.

Remaining pediment sculpture - we will be seeing more remnants preserved within the Acropolis Museum on Tuesday.

The Porch of the Caryatids - another object seen by most everybody in photos at some point - here they be!  Of course the maiden statues are reproductions, as the originals were removed away from the weathering elements - we will see them also in the museum tour.

Big Greek flag, at a nice viewpoint at the far end of the Acropolis.

Other than tour guides, there's hardly any staff-like people to be seen - but there are a smattering of whistle wielding over-watchers tasked with keeping people from falling to their death, going where they could damage stuff, or otherwise doing disrespectful things.  We only saw them doing the "falling to their death" prevention whistles.  Note the woman in red hat and blue jeans, she was a bit busy here with goofy tourists being goofs.

A high view of earlier seen ruins and an ancient athletes' stadium peeking around the hill.  Notice the fallen  column, it fell during a wind storm in 1852.

"Tourists doing tourist stuff".  We happened to be seated just behind, so this picture I took just kinda happened.  They then overheard Gerri reading from our tour-book and had questions.  We found out the mother (from India)  is now living in Philadelphia and the daughter lives in Sacramento.  They were interested in finding Mars Hill, so we became temporary tour guides and took them there.

Oh feet, so tired.

View of surviving ceiling/roof vaults on a temple adjacent to the Parthenon.

On Mars Hill, photo taken by our new friends.  A long day is nearly complete.

A last look down onto the Agora, with the restored, circa 1950s, mall and old church in front.

Now it's dinner time - we came across a casual come-as-you-are place on the way back to lodging - and decided to just drop in and get it over with - it turned out pretty good with grilled octopus, sardines, chicken with rice (we shared the octopus, but not the others), and bread with taziki and table red wine.