5/5/24 Athens Hop on off bus

 

  After a good nights sleep , we had our improvised breakfast and headed off for a walk to clear our heads. Down one street , into an alleyway / walkway , more graffiti greeting us .

   Some of the apartments are quite grand , it's a shame the graffiti has spoiled some .

   Today was getting interesting early , we walked past what looked like riot police , further down the street we were confronted by another 10 complete with perspex shields , battens , protective gear , vests and helmets , coming straight at us . We stopped and let them pass - what were we about to get into ????

   As it turns out , absolutely nothing ! 

  Continuing to Amonia Square , we found a shop to get a sim card for the phone - and were told they couldn't connect it , come back tomorrow - not much point having a shop open and not being able to do anything !! It was Sunday , and also Greek Orthodox Easter Sunday , so most shops were closed and all the locals had headed off for a long weekend !! So there we are in the middle of the city , very few shops open and not sure what to do . Walking around the square , which is a roundabout , we got to the Hop on Hop off bus stop , and proceeded to buy some tickets for 3 days of sight seeing on the bus . Hopping on to the next red double decker open top bus that arrived , we proceeded to make our way round the circuit , getting off at the Acropolis stop . Public holiday today , so it's closed - Plan b/1 . Opposite the Acropolis is some parkland with various ruins etc that can be viewed , so we trundled up a very uneven marble cobblestone road that led to a church . There are signs about the place with Greek and English , but can be a bit hard to understand - we took a photo to assist our navigating . After the church (that you couldn't enter ) we headed for a walk up towards the Nymph's Hill , and found an excellent viewing spot for the Acropolis and the city sprawled out all around us . This is looking to the Acropolis .

   This is Lycabettus Hill , there's a church and 2 restaurants up there , also a ropeway / cablecar to get up & down ( that's if you don't want to walk up ).

   More views of the Acropolis .

    From there we found our way up Philopappos Hill to the monument for more views over Athens .

   

   After finding our way back down , the bus was not far away , onwards to our next stop . Stopping outside the National Garden , we wandered up to the Greek Parliament and stumbled across the changing of the guard . They are in full dress uniform , which they have to look after . It takes 80 hours to make these uniforms apparently , there are 400 pleats in the tunic which they have to iron !! They wear hob nail boots and all the accessories and are on guard for 1 hour , before they are replaced by another 2 guards . They stand guard over the tomb of the unknown shoulder . There's also a heavy police presence all around the parliament building .

  The building itself isn't that remarkable .

  We jumped onto another bus ( they come every 15mins ) and took it to the National Archaeological  Museum stop , as it is only about 10 - 15 mins walk from the apartment . 

   Day done , we got back and checked the time - 7pm . The sun doesn't set till 8:20pm and rises around 5:30am . Here's a map link :- https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=19ZeiYZtFQo2PLxdJbLgFOHzQ083IkYg&usp=sharing