Twenty-six years today.  Can you believe it?  Where does the time go?  It seems like only yesterday we were on the Manteo harbor freezing to death while trying to find a witness for our ceremony.  How time flies when you are having fun. 

To celebrate, today we are heading to Athens on the metro.  We’ve hit all the big spots – Acropolis, Plaka, etc. – so we are doing a walking tour of some of the other ruins and interesting sights in Athens.  The walk to the metro is easy, although you know, Google maps sometimes takes you to weird places that seem to be the shorter route – at least in its little mind.  And today is no exception.  We get all the way down to the station area, and instead of taking us on the main roads, it routes us back down to right behind the tracks of the metro. Which would be fine, but we are on this narrow little street with hardly anywhere to walk and lots of parked cars, a few 2^nd hand stores and lots of dumpsters (one of which is being dived by a woman and her kid).  Sigh.

We do make it to the station without any incident, thank heavens, successfully buy our tickets and head to the train.  They’ve completely updated the ticketing system since we were last here, so you only need to use the ticket for the turnstiles, and you don’t have to validate it inside the terminal (which I’ve missed on previous trips).  The ride is pretty uneventful, but it does get slam packed by the time we get to Monistiraki station.  It is the main transfer point for a bunch of metro lines, so it is understandable, but it still makes you a tad uncomfortable – from a COVID perspective and a pick-pocket perspective. Oh well, you gotta do what you gotta do – and the Purel is in my hands before we exit the station.

Out on the square, which is really busy with people and vendors, we find the little roads that will lead us down to the Parliament house at Syntagma Plaza.  On the way we  stumble upon one of the many little churches that are smack dab in the middle of the modern commercial development.  They are really cool – but so oddly out of place – you’d think they would at least have left some green space around them. But no, they are like this everywhere in this city and also in Piraeus.  We also pass a little chapel almost built into a large office or apartment building..  And while we want to take a picture, this place is busy!  There are 2 people in line waiting to get in, and one more walks up as we stand there.  That answers the question of whether these things are still in use!

Next we walk past the Cathedral church of Athens, a 19^th century cathedral with soaring bell towers and lots and lots of gold-leaf inlay. 

A quick walk around, then we’re back out on the street heading toward Parliament.   We have the building in our sights when we realize it is 10am and the changing of the guard is happening now.  Darn it – we’re on the other side of the street and these lights are painfully long! Fortunately, we manage to get across there in time to see the end of the change.  I had no idea they did this here.  And so orchestrated and almost choreographed “tap” dancing.  The noise their shoes make when they move their feet is wild.  Ed found a primo place for pictures and videos – so we got lucky there.  I was stuck behind Ms. Pom-pom beanie – that pom-pom was not conducive to good pictures from the 2^nd row. 

Next up on our exploration is the National Garden, a lovely green space next to Syntagma Square with the botanical gardens museum, archeological remains and tons of walking trails.  Our goal was to make our way through the park to the Panathenaic Stadium, but once again, Google defeats us. Or at least tries!

Man, as good as those maps are, when they are bad, they are bad. It wouldn’t get us out a wet paper bag, all the good it did us in the park.  We ended up walking all over that park – which in and of itself wasn’t a bad thing, just frustrating because of the mapping directions.  But in the long term, it worked, because we walked through a lot of great garden areas, and the little Terrapin pond where the ducks were parading around.

We finally made our way past the Presidential palace and across the main road to the Stadium.  I thought it would only be a sight-seeing stop, but turns out that inside is a really good tour, with audio guides that explain the whole thing – how and why it was built in 1896 on the grounds of an ancient stadium that was built in the 4^th Century BC, the Royal boxes, including the throne chairs, original and moved (so the King and Queen could have a better view of the games),  the two-sided “Herms” that flank the end of the playing field (one face toward the stands, on face toward the field and ready to play), then the vaulted passage where the athletes came out.  It was really fascinating.

And totally cool to walk through the athletes’ passage!  You could pretend you were going to a competition.  Or not!  Also through the vaulted passage was an exhibit called “Memories of Olympic Games” which had a great display of posters and torches from 1896 through today.  That was really, really cool.

There were even the 3 champion pedestals where medal winners stand – which of course we couldn’t resist climbing upon for a photo opp.  And as a bonus, on the way out, there was a great long view of the Acropolis.  Nice little diversion I was not expecting at all.

As an unexpected bonus, on our way out of the stadium, there is a great long view of the Acropolis too!  Very nice.

Now we are heading back toward the old historic center of Thens, on a walk that should take us back to Monastiraki. We pass by the elusive Zappeio Hall, which we kept seeing signs for but could never find, and stop for a bit for photos of the garden and fountains out front. Then it is on to the Temple of Zeus and Hadrian’s arch – but as we near it, we see the entrance fee – which is pretty exorbitant if you ask us – and we decide to pass.  It’s just a bunch of columns and garden space, and most of it if underneath scaffolding.  We don’t see the sense – and also – as an added bonus here – we can take pictures through the fence that borders the property – sooooooooo – here you go….

Winding our way into the old section of town, on the little narrow lanes that are confusing on a good day, especially with all the Greek names I cannot even begin to pronounce, we do manage to find the sweet little St. Catherine’s orthodox byzantine church which sits down a few steps in a quiet little parklike square.  Inside the small church are startling bright white marble columns and gold filigreed ornamentation on the walls and around silver representations of saints.  It is one of the oldest churches in the byzantine architecture style in Athens and those columns are actually original to the first construction in the 11^th Century.  The funniest thing is that we were looking for this church – but with the more literal Greek translated name of Agia Ekaterini.  So when we stumbled on this – we didn’t realize it was our destination after all. 

From here a complicated walk will lead us into the maze of old streets past a few churches, the university building and a few museums. But first, we must find our way through the little touristy pedestrian area and into the Anafiotika quarter.  And since it is closing in around noon, we decide to just stop in the touristy area for lunch.  It’s here. We’re here.  There are plenty of outdoor options, one of which we choose at Kosmikon, on the corner of one of the many crossroads in the district. 

It is actually a lovely place to sit, relax and literally watch the world go by.  There is a mix of locals and tourists here, so we feel it is probably a decent choice for this area – and it is also our first experience with vaccination card requirements for terrace seating!  Yes, they check here. And yes, they are serious!  Lunch is great – Ed gets marinated octopus, and I get this enormous beetroot and citrus salad that could probably feed me for days.