Get Away to Greece: Part II

11/8/14
Day 1:
When I pictured Greece in my head, of course it always looked ancient and had beautiful ruins all over the city with quaint little cafes dotted around full of delicious Greek food and strong Greek coffee.  Here is what I imagined seeing at every turn....

Happily, I can say it was a little like what I had imagined.  Not entirely mind you, it was actually dirty, run down, and full of graffiti.  Almost to the point that I felt really sad about it a time or two.  The strange thing was, that it was also not without real charm.  The city is very much alive, and from what we experienced, the people were very nice.

Mike and I started our adventure driving to Munich to catch the first leg of our flight.  I really enjoy the German Airports.  They are always so clean and while the service might not be super friendly, the food is pretty great.  We flew from Munich to Rome then on to Athens.  It actually wasn't as bad as I thought and we weren't terribly tired by the time we got to Greece.  We checked into our hotel and went out searching for food!

I think the restaurants didn't expect so many people for the marathon.  The place we chose was super cute but they couldn't get their beer tap to work and they were pretty much out of everything except plain pasta with a little cheese.  No worries though, it was filling and we were just happy to eat.  We knocked on our friends, Jessica and Seth's, door and got the plan together for the next day and called it a night.

The entrance to our room.  Nothing special but fine for a place to rest our heads.

Home sweet home!

11/9/14
Day 2:
The guys had to get up really early and meet up for the race.  They were shuttled to Marathon, Greece and started their race a couple hours later.  I believe they had well over 30 thousand runners!

The ladies and I met up for breakfast then headed to the Athens Market for a little shopping before we tried to go to a place we might catch a glimpse of the guys running.

The market was already pretty busy.  They had great little shops and some pretty inappropriate ones as well!

Ummmm...apparently they are really into signs of fertility.  These are key chains!

Yep, guns and knives...just what every tourist needs...

The Library of Hadrian was right in the middle of the market area.  We didn't try to go into the building but we took lots of pictures and got to walk around the outside.

Hadrian's Library

Just because I like foliage!

Hadrian's Library was created by Roman Emperor Hadrian in AD 132 on the north side of the Acropolis of Athens.

The building followed a typical Roman Forum architectural style, having only one entrance with a porpylon of Corinthian order, a high surrounding wall with protruding niches at its long sides, an inner courtyard surrounded by columns and a decorative oblong pool in the middle. The library was on the eastern side where rolls of papyrus "books" were kept. Adjoining halls were used as reading rooms, and the corners served as lecture halls.

Next we took the metro to the Parliament building to watch the Changing of the Guard since it was on our way to see the guys.  It was pretty interested.

The Parliament Building

The new guards coming in

Guards changing

After the Changing of the Guards, we rushed to a spot we figured we would see the guys run past.  Seth ran past pretty soon after we go to our spot.  About 8 to 10 minutes later Noah ran past.  Megan got a picture with Noah.  We didn't see my guy yet but in order to be at the stadium to see them go through the finish line, we had to head on.

Megan & Noah during the race

The guys ended up at the Panathanaic Stadium.  It was pretty crazy with thousands of people around trying to catch a glimpse of their loved ones.

The Panathanaic Stadium from afar (picture from the internet)

The Panathanaic Stadium empty (picture from the internet

Noah right after the race

Jessica had to run to find Seth.  He finished in 3 hours 35 min, so he was pretty darn speedy!  Megan and I found Noah pretty fast.  He finished in 4 hours 10 min.  Not to shabby!  I found Mike after he passed the finish line and around the area the let the runners out of the stadium.  He finished in 4 hours and 12 min.  Pretty impressive for a 41 year old guy!!!

Our handsome fellas after the race

After our guys were done, we made our way back to the hotel and had a little down time before we all got back together and went out for a well deserved dinner.  The food was pretty good and the service was great.

I might like Uzo... 

Dinner was pretty fun with our group.  Not everyone liked the Uzo so I took one for the team and drank what I could!  ;)  Jessica kept hers and periodically tasted it, hoping it would grow on her...it didn't!

11/10/14
Day 3:
We started our one day of exploration by having breakfast together at the hotel.  It wasn't too bad and at least it filled us up for the day ahead!  Our first stop was the Acropolis!

The start of our trip up to the Acropolis

The Theatre of Dionysos.

The Theatre of Dionysos, looking up towards the Choregic monuments.

Megan, Noah, Jessica, Seth, and my Jack sitting in the Theatre of Dionysos.

Looking towards the floor area of the Theatre of Dionysos

It's amazing that this area has been around for thousands of years...

The very wealthy got to sit in these!

Looking back up towards the floor area of the Theatre of Dionysos

Looking out past the Theatre of Dionysos and towards the Sacred precinct of Dionysos Eleutherios

Look at the detail in the walls!

He was considering taking a stone from the Theatre...

One of the Choregic monuments. This is the statue of Menander, one of the Greeks most loved dramatist

Walking up towards the Parthenon on the Stoa of Eumenes

Workers restoring parts of the Temple of Themis

The arches of the Odeion of Herodes Atticus

The Odeion of Herodes Atticus

The Odeion of Herodes Atticus

Looking over the gardens at the base of the Acropolis

The view of the Odeion of Herodes Atticus from the top of the Acropolis

Me & my love

Megan & Noah at the Acropolis

Noah trying an olive from the tree...not as tasty as we thought!

Look at those marble steps!

Overlooking the city from the Acropolis

Columns of the Parthenon

Looking through the top of the Parthenon

It was around this point that the gravity of what I was seeing and where I was walking finally took over.  I got pretty overwhelmed and couldn't help but get a little teary.  Thankfully Jack and I were alone and he gave me a few minutes to compose myself.  Every time I get to see, touch, and walk in the footsteps of history, I get a little choked up...I feel magnificently blessed most of the time, but especially so in moments like these.

The Erechtheion

The statues on the Porch of the Caryatids on the Erechtheion

The statues on the Porch of the Caryatids on the Erechtheion

The Erechtheion

The view of Athens from the area around the Erechtheion

The view of the city of Athens from the Acropolis

The view of Temple of Olympian Zeus from the Acropolis

The view of Hephaestus' Temple from the Acropolis

Massive aloe plants along the path leaving the Acropolis

Megan & Noah showing us how massive!

When we were done with the Acropolis, we headed to the Ancient Agora.  The Ancient Agora of Classical Athens is the best-known example of an ancient Greek agora, located to the northwest of the Acropolis and bounded on the south by the hill of the Areopagus and on the west by the hill known as the Kolonus Agoraios, also called Market Hill.  Agora was a central spot in ancient Greek city-states. The literal meaning of the word is "gathering place" or "assembly". The agora was the center of athletic, artistic, spiritual and political life of the city.

View of the Acropolis from the Ancient Agora

The Agora Museum

Fully intact ancient Greek floor

Inside of the museum

My guy

The crew checking out the Agora

Another view of the outside of the Agora Museum

Cool old church in the Agora

Trees outside the cool church

View as we were walking up towards Hephaestus' Temple

View as we were walking up towards Hephaestus' Temple

Looking out at the Ancient Agora

Looking up towards the Acropolis from the Agora

Hephaestus' Temple

Hephaestus' Temple

Looking through the columns of Hephaestus' Temple

Hephaestus' Temple

Once we were done at the Agora, we went to the Arch of Hadrian and the Temple of Olympian Zeus.  It was pretty much just ruins but it was still pretty cool to see.  The Arch of Hadrian most commonly known in Greek as Hadrian's Gate, is a monumental gateway resembling – in some respects – a Roman triumphal arch. It spanned an ancient road from the center of Athens, Greece, to the complex of structures on the eastern side of the city that included theTemple of Olympian Zeus. It has been proposed that the arch was built to celebrate the arrival of the Roman Emperor Hadrian and to honor him for his many benefactions to the city.

The Temple of Olympian Zeus, also known as the Columns of the Olympian Zeus, is a colossal ruined temple in the centre of the Greek capital Athens that was dedicated to Zeus, king of the Olympian gods. Construction began in the 6th century BC during the rule of the Athenian tyrants, who envisaged building the greatest temple in the ancient world, but it was not completed until the reign of the Roman Emperor Hadrian in the 2nd century AD some 638 years after the project had begun. During the Roman periods it was renowned as the largest temple in Greece and housed one of the largest cult statues in the ancient world.

The temple's glory was short-lived, as it fell into disuse after being pillaged in a barbarian invasion in the 3rd century AD. It was probably never repaired and was reduced to ruins thereafter. In the centuries after the fall of the Roman Empire, the temple was extensively quarried for building materials to supply building projects elsewhere in the city. Despite this, substantial remains remain visible today and it continues to be a major tourist attraction.

Arch of Hadrian

Contemplating the Temple of Olympian Zeus

When we were done at the Temple, we went to the National Archaeological Museum before going to the boat dock area for our last dinner in Athens.

The National Archaeological Museum

A clay bath-tub from 16th century B.C.

Bronze statue of Zeus or Poseidon. 460 B.C.

Statue of the princess - priestess Takushit. 670 B.C.

Statue of Aphrodite. 4th century B.C.

I was right about ruins being sprinkled around Athens though...sometimes right in the Metro stations!

Archaeological site of Roman Bath just outside the metro in Athens

Archaeological site of Roman Bath just outside the metro in Athens

Archaeological site of Roman Bath just outside the metro in Athens

Sculptures from the east pediment of the Parthenon inside one of the metro stations

Excavation of Monastiraki Square inside the metro station

When we were all done with the exploration, we all went back to the hotel to freshen up and then go to the boat dock area to find a place for dinner.  It was really beautiful at night.  I didn't get any pictures but the food was nice and as always, the company was wonderful!  We had such an amazing time in Athens.  We feel we saw all that we wanted to so even though we will go back to Greece, next time we will probably just check out the little islands.