Ionis Athens

... to "mimic" the actual Acropolis in many regards. We were surprised to find that the entrance fee was only 1 euro! The collection of artifacts was very extensive and descriptions of the items were very thorough. All in all we both agreed it was an amazing collection and is definitely worth the visit. We stopped at the café where were we delighted to find very reasonable prices and a great view. Now that the rain had stopped, we took some pictures and ...

... a few minutes of fruitless searching we decide to cut across the freeway which is highly illegal but what else could we do???<br><br>The following day I got up reasonably early (considering my second early night - i.e. in bed at 2am) and went straight to the new Pantheon museum which was built specifically to house the Elgin marbles currently residing in the British museum. I'll be very interested to hear whether the Brits finally capitulate as this particular ...

... an hour in the Acropolis, seeing the<br>sights, including the Erechtheion, with the famous 6 lady statues<br>holding up the building. After I had my fill of the Acropolis, I went<br>to another part of the hill, where supposedly St Paul spoke to the<br>Athenians and converted some of them to Christianity. I then took a<br>walk down the hill and ended up in the Ancient Agora, the social and<br>political gathering place of the ancient Greeks. It was outstanding.<br>Considering there ...

... the humorous sculpture of a naked Aphrodite about to slap a advancing Pan with a sandal with Eros or cupid pulling his horns. There was jewelry and swords of all kinds. We saw a Fork and a mirror though me and my mom could not figure out how they made it. Also in the museum there is are pots and vases of all kinds from Santorini before the volcano erupted more than 3,000. Tonight we fly to Tel aviv and then make our way to Jursalum. We will miss you Greece hope to be back soon. Esther

... of it look just like San Francisco or New York and there are apartments everywhere. I swear every building is apartments. It's a crazy city. It really is a mixture of all different cultures and traditions. East meets West. And luckily my Ancient Greek is coming in handy. I can read a lot of the signs and at the museum I could read some of the words on the artifacts which was really amazing. I got lots of good pictures but ...

... the streets. I was all too excited by the sculpture of Socrates and The Last Supper. Could not resist the urge to buy anymore. We met our first Albanian friends here at this shop. We managed to take the metro back to Omonia and had a walk at the all-too-familiar Zara before heading back to hotel for our much-needed sleep.

... I had learned alot about Ancient Athens and I can't wait until I come back to this very interesting city. At one I left for the airport and I caught the last glimpse of this city from my window. 1518.70 -644 ---------- 874 Euro left.

Tonight I will eat in Plaka and sleep in! The hotel has a ppol on the roof overlooking the Acropolis! Tomorrow evening I fly to Dubai...it is only 36 degrees today, so it is cooler. The new airport and subway in Athens is really nice, and is much more efficient than the disaster that it replaced...I think I will buy a hat...and I am getting quite dark now...

... although we missed dinner last night. Nice picture in photo gallery ... 2 so far... Mum keeps closing her eyes! Sea day today... Athens tomorrow. They are visiting a couple more cities before finishing the cruise on the 25th, then heading to Paris and on to London to visit Carol and Dick. This is Meighan, signing off!

... into the heat to explore Athens. First stop was the Acropolis. After looking through the ruins of the Theatre of Dionysus, we climbed the stairs to the top of the rocky plateau that overlooks the city. The star of the show up there is obviously the Parthenon, which was unfortunately in the midst of some major reconstruction, but impressive anyway, though not as big as you imagine it to be. After "admiring" the view of polluted Athens, we went to the museum ...