Athens, The Acropolis and The Agora

[monik7]

We arrived in Athens last night. This is the view of the Acropolis from our hotel.

We made the climb to the top along with a lot of others.



Want to know why I’m so happy in this photo? I was standing on the exact spot on Mars Hill (just outside the Acropolis) where the Apostle Paul stopped to preach to the Athenians on his way to Corinth in 49 A.D. It was here on Mars Hill where he decried the Athenian’s altars to pagan gods when he preached here overlooking the Agora.

The largely green area is the Agora where just about all aspects of life in Athens occurred.

Paul also debated the pagan philosophers in the marketplace - likely the Agora. The Agora was important because it was where the community congregated to discuss events of the day, politics, religion, philosophy, and legal matters. The agora served the same purpose in ancient Athens as the town square and town hall in later societies.

We also visited the Acropolis Museum which was very interesting and spent time wandering among the little shops lining the streets of Athens. Of course a little retail therapy was required. That about does it as this chance to join my daughter on a trip of a lifetime is coming to an end. She’s given me a gift I’ll never forget and the opportunity to visit and learn more about places I’ve dreamed about since junior high school. We will leave Athens tomorrow (Friday) morning. Thanks for joining me as I’ve really enjoyed bringing you along and describing the wonderful places we visited.
Sandi

[Bethers]

Sandi, thank you for taking me along. Your information has been as invaluable to me as the pictures. What a trip!

[snowball]

you had a wonderful opportunity ... and have shared so much thank you so much
sheila

[JudyJB]

I loved visiting the Acropolis, but we were there on a Sunday so did not really see the city of Athens, other than a bus from the cruise line driving us around and stopping at a jewelry store that was opened just for our ship! And we only had a couple of hours on the Acropolis.

I am guessing you saw all the reconstruction at the Acropolis. They have been working to take apart and reassemble the columns for the past 20+ years because the iron clamps that hold the pieces together were put in during a previous restoration and were causing the stones to crumble. They are also supposed to be correcting the mistakes of the previous restorers and putting pieces that had fallen back into place.

The result is that the gold Parthenon charm I bought 15 years ago no longer looks exactly like the current building or the one that will be the final version when the current restoration is complete! Does that mean I will need to go back to Greece??? Wish some unknown relative would leave me a fortune so I could travel wherever I wanted to go!!

Are you driving from place to place, or flying, or are you taking a tour? How has this choice worked out? I was in Greece on a ship with a friend because we were afraid to drive, but next time maybe I will take trains or ferries so I could spend more time, especially on Santorini as you have done???? (Probably never go, unfortunately, but nice to dream, and your photos have put me in a travel mode.)

[monik7]

Hi Judy: We’ve driven just about everywhere by rental car. I think driving is the only way to go. You can control where you want to go, what you want to see and aren’t confined to a tour schedule. We’ve had no problem with driving at all. We did take the train to Naples from Rome because it was faster than driving. We then rented a car in Naples to see Herculaneum, Pompeii and everything on the Amalfi Coast. We then took the train back to Rome and flew to Santorini where we again rented a car and after 3 days flew from there to Athens. We walked in Athens and are flying home from there. The area we found where we had to be careful was the rental car agencies. You have to make sure you record carefully any damage to the car before you leave the lot. You also have to make sure gas stations (or any other place) doesn’t scam you by saying you gave them a lower denomination of money than you actually gave them. That happened to my daughter. She gave 50E to pay for gas and by slight of hand the guy switched it for 10E and said she owed more. Overall we’ve had a great experience. We learned a few lessons but are happy with all the planning my daughter did.
Sandi

[JudyJB]

What about road signs, especially in Greece? That was the one thing we worried about. Did you have problems finding your way around?

[monik7]

What about road signs, especially in Greece? That was the one thing we worried about. Did you have problems finding your way around?

We had no problems Judy and Google Maps was something we used all the time.
Sandi

[SoCalGalcas]

Sandi, I have enjoyed your tour more than I can ever express. I thank you from the bottom of my heart for this wonderful experience. Lyn