Athens

We made it to Athens and will spend our last week here. This feels more like a big city to me than Rome did. I think it’s because in Rome, no building can be higher than St. Peter’s. Here, the apartment buildings alone are taller than anything we saw in Rome! Also, the ancient sites are all clustered together here, whereas in Rome, they were more spread around. In Rome we traveled between cities by train which gives you a different feel for a place than traveling between cities by bus.

Our first major visit in Athens was the Acropolis. What I learned is that the entire area on top of the hill is called the Acropolis and the most famous building that is up there is the Parthenon—the temple of Athena. When I thought of Athens in my head I would always picture the Parthenon. (Just like when I thought about Rome I would always picture the Colosseum.) There are other buildings up there too—the Propylaia (the gateway), the Temple of Athena Nike, and the Erechtheion. Also, down one of the slopes is the Theater of Dionysios.

Getting to the entrance of the Acropolis was not an easy walk. It’s steep and it was already hot and humid. I was having a hard time, but I am blessed with a husband who has great patience with me and my meltdowns. If he hadn’t been there, I never would have even made it to the entrance and missed out on a great opportunity to see one of the world’s most famous ancient buildings. Once we had our tickets and went through the entrance, we still had to climb a lot of slippery stone stairs. Again, without Gary I wouldn’t have made it to the top. And boy was it worth it. The views of the city are amazing up there! The ruins are pretty cool too.