We’ve been struggling to find a decent forecast while here, so I decided just to go with the synoptic. Despite all the crappy wherever-you-are forecasts saying it was going to pour today, I insisted that it would be fine. Cloudy, but fine. To my immense relief, I was right.

We set the alarm for 7.30am (which is actually 6.30am real time for us) and got to the Acropolis for 8.40am. We sauntered up via the longer southerly route, past the Theatre of Dionysus. They still have some of the original seating – not just the standard stone tiers, but actual stone seats, with names on them. Once we got up to the hill, we realised what a great plan it was to go early. It wasn’t too busy and you could point at land marks without stabbing someone in the eye (unlike last time I was there in July 1988). As we walked back to the site entrance a wave of visitors came flooding towards us.

We decided to walk across to the Philopappou hill to see the momuments and the views of the Acropolis. I managed to get us successfully up the hill, but then got distracted by views and got us hopelessly lost getting down the other side. Let’s just say we went off the beaten tourist track… through hedges, over fences and up and down some very minor paths. We eventually did make it to Kerameikos, site of the ancient walls, gates and cemetery of the city. It was a really interesting place, but we would have made more of it if we hadn’t missed the introductory information in the rush to get to a sunny bench to stuff our faces with delicious spinach pastries for lunch. Once again we were turfed out of the place by 2.45pm, having not seen it all.

We ambled back towards the hotel via a sunny beer in the square, had a rest and then headed out to see the changing of the guards at the parliament. If I described the soldiers as ‘ministry of silly walks’, they were just dilettantes – this lot are the real inspiration for John Cleese. And Monty Python was actually a pale imitation of the real thing. See here for just a snap shot of the whole malarky. It is very bizarre – partly that people will join something which forces them to act like that – but also, whoever thought up the silly walks in the first place, must have been really, really strange.  

Next up was the Acropolis Museum, the only archeological thing open in the evening. It’s purpose built and really well done. The building is on an excavation site, and the floors are made of glass, so you can see the dig happening live. Most impressively, the building is a similar size to the Parthenon on the Acropolis, and they have displayed the friezes, metopes and pediments as they would have been seen in-situ. And the building is high enough to get an amazing night-time illuminated view of the Acropolis while you walk around.

And yesterday, I thought the sleeping dogs were just coincindence, but they’re everywhere. I have no idea what they get up to at night, but they seem to need more sleep than cats. Everywhere you look there’s a sleeping dog!

See photos of today.

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