Rhodes: Saturday 24th October

Today is a last day in Rhodes - we are flying back to London later this evening. Of course the day that we are due to go home the weather improves and we have blue skies and warm weather after two grey and dreary days. We had our room up until midday so we made the most of it, swimming in the pool (cold but bearable!) and relaxing in the garden. We then went to have lunch before relaxing by the main pool.

My view by the pool!

We have both enjoyed our time in Greece - with a preference more to Athens as we enjoyed going to see the sites, the weather and the food. We have been unlucky with the weather in Rhodes so couldn't do all that we wanted and, although our room at the hotel was lovely, the food has been disappointing (not great quality and ranging from luke warm to cold!) and staff not very friendly.

 

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Rhodes: Thursday 22nd & Friday 23rd October

On Thursday, as it was due to rain on and off we decided to relax in our garden for the day. I had the fright of my life first thing - I had opened the curtains to get some natural light and was sitting on the sofa when suddenly a man appears in our garden! It was the pool man - He saw me and waved, luckily I still had my pyjamas on and wasn't just sitting there naked!!

It actually didn't rain at all in the end but the temperature definitely dropped and it wasn't as warm as the day before.

Today we got a taxi in to Lindos, a small picturesque town about 20 mins drive from where we are staying. The town has lots of little white houses and small lanes to explore, with lots of little shops, cafes and tavernas.

Lindos town

One of the small streets

Once we had a look around the town, we made our way up the hill to the Lindos Acropolis. We could have taken a donkey but we preferred to walk!

Poor donkeys taking people up the hill

Once at the top there were a few ruins to look at, and the views were amazing. It was quite windy but it was still quite warm.

We made our way back to the hotel and it pretty much rained all afternoon so we relaxed in our room for the remainer of the afternoon.

 

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Flying to Rhodes: Wednesday 21st October

Today we left for Rhodes for the relaxation part of our holiday! When we got on our flight we realised that the man next to Peter on the plane was a giant, and a big muscly one at that! Peter was not impressed and was sitting there muttering and moaning under his breath. Thankfully there were 3 free seats a couple of rows behind us so I asked if we could move and he was a lot happier once we moved, especially as he got a window seat!

Although the flight was short - just under an hour - it was pretty turbulent and I thought I was going to be sick it was so bad - I was glad to get off! We had a car waiting for us once we got out of the airport, and an hour later we arrived at our hotel - however to get to the hotel we had to drive through the worse thunderstorm you have ever seen! It was raining so hard you couldn't see out of the window, the roads were flooded, and there was thunder and lightning all around us! By the time we got to our hotel the sun was shining and the roads weren't even wet.

Our hotel is lovely - it is set out like a little village so the rooms are in individual buildings rather than one big block, and we were taken to our room on the back of a golf cart!

Our room is on the ground floor

Our private pool!

Our living room

Our bedroom - massive bed!

After a late lunch, we relaxed out in our private garden and I had a swim in our pool. It was freezing when I got in and I had to edge my way in slowly but once I was in it was fine!

Cooling off in the pool!

Unfortunately the forecast is not looking good for our time in Rhodes - see below! We are hoping it will be occasional rather than all day rain!

 

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Athens: Tuesday 20th October

Today is our last full day in Athens before we head off to Rhodes. We decided to head out of the tourist areas to the Psyrri district, a gentrified area in the old part of Athens which, up until the early 1990's, had quite a dangerous reputation. Nowadays it is a good place to come and see everyday life, with people going about their daily business.

Our first stop was the Central Market - a hectic, noisy market where the locals go to do their shopping. We first walked through the meat market, where carcasses and animal parts you didn't even know were edible are hanging from hooks all around you, and the floor is wet and bloody - not somewhere that you want to be wearing cream trousers like I was! It really smelt so we were glad to get out of there and on to the more civilised part of the market!

Anything you want - this man probably has it!

A lot of Athens is covered in graffiti but we saw the more artistic graffiti in this area.

We then visited the Ancient Agora which is situated below the slopes of the Acropolis. During ancient times the Agora was the centre of political and public life for Athenians - everything from law courts, state prisons, shops, schools, theatres and even the city mint was found here. Although many of the buildings were little more than a pile of stones (to put it bluntly!) there were a couple of ruins that were more intact and gave you an idea of what the agora used to be like.

Stoa of Attalos

Temple of Hephaestus

We also went into the Agora museum which housed statues and relics that were over 2500 years old!

The weather has been very humid today, and we really felt it at the ancient agora and walking back to our hotel so we were glad to get back in to our airconditioned room to cool off!

This evening we went to a restaurant that was down one of the small streets near our hotel. The restaurant was nothing to look at but had rave reviews on Trip Advisor so we thought we would give it a go! It was definitely our best meal in Athens - we shared Moussaka, fried baby squid and stuffed pepper and tomato and it was delicious!! And we shared a half litre of wine which was only 3.50 euros - the wine is so cheap here!

We have really loved our time in Athens - you don't feel like you are in a big city, there are lots of areas to explore and the food has been delicious! And the people that we have met have been so friendly - whether it be the staff in the shops and restaurants, or people stopping you in the street to help with directions.

 

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Athens: Monday 19th October

Today we visited the main attraction in Athens - the Acropolis! It was a long, slow, hot walk to the top but it was definitely worth it.

Our first stop on the way up was the Dionysus Theatre which was originally a 6BC timber theatre. It did have 64 seating tiers but only 20 tiers have now survived.

Remains of Dionysus Theatre

We also passed the Herodes Atticus Odeon which was built in AD 161 and was huge!

Herodes Atticus Odeon

Once we got to the top, there were several ruins to view but the main attraction was the Parthenon which was amazing to see up close.

The Parthenon

The Erechtium

The views over Athens from the Acropolis are amazing but many of the photos we took just didn't do it justice - you had to be there!

View over Athens from the Acropolis

Once we had made our way back down we went to the Acropolis museum to learn more about the Acropolis and to view the surviving relics from the site.

We stopped to have lunch at the museum, and on the way out one of the guards stopped me, asking for my ticket, which threw me a bit as we were already in the museum, but also when I realised that Peter, who of course had walked off ahead, had my ticket! Peter said he turned round to see me being apprehended by the guard with a 'deer in the headlights' look and me shouting 'ticket' at him so he showed the guard his ticket and he let me go - the annoying thing was I found my ticket in my trouser pocket so I had it all along!

After lunch we walked over to the ruins of the Temple of Olympian Zeus, passing Arch of Hadrian on the way.

Arch of Hadrian

The temple is huge at 41 metre high - construction on it started in 6BC but took over 700 years to build!

Temple of Olympian Zeus

Our final stop of the day was the Panatheniac Stadium. The original stadium was built in 4th Century BC, and was rebuilt in marble in 144 AD. The first modern Olympic Games was held there in 1896.

The Panathenaic stadium

We made our way back to our hotel walking through the national gardens which where a nice quiet retreat against the busy Athens traffic!

This evening we went to dinner at a small restaurant close to the Acropolis museum - we sat outside and enjoyed some homemade Greek food whilst listening to the buskers - it was a really nice buzzy atmosphere. And we got a free dessert to share too! We came back to the hotel and had a cocktail on the roof top terrace to finish the evening off.

Cheers!

 

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Athens: Sunday 18th October

It's my birthday! After opening my presents in bed and a leisurely breakfast we made our way down to Syntagma Square to see the changing of the guard. There was quite a crowd when we arrived and it was definitely worth seeing for the uniforms and pom-pom slippers of the guards, and the funny walks that they do!

For the rest of the day our plan was to do a walking tour of Athens that I had in my guide book, which took you past some of the sights, and also through the winding streets.

We then walked through the streets of the Plaka area, which has small cobbled streets with lots of restaurants and little shops, and then on to the Anafiotika area which is right at the base of the Acropolis and has a small Greek island feel with all its whitewash houses and tiny path like roads!

In Anafiotika

The views from there over the rest of Athens was lovely.

We then stopped for lunch where I had the biggest Greek salad ever - it was nice but I couldn't finish it! In the afternoon we stopped off at couple of places that have ruins and we both thought we had seen better but it was still very interesting.

In the evening we went out to one of the local restaurants. We sat outside and had a starter of dolmades (rice in vine leaves) which were quite nice but I don't think we will have them again, followed by meatballs, potato frittatas and a spicy beef stew type dish. We shared a half litre carafe of wine which cost 4.50 euro - they are practically giving booze away in this country!

 

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Athens: Saturday 17th October

This morning we were up at 5:30am to get our early morning flight to Athens - we stayed at a hotel at Heathrow the night before to minimise getting up any earlier than needed as we were only a short walk from Terminal 5 to check in - it was literally get up, get showered, get dressed and go!

After an uneventful 3.5 hour flight we landed in Athens and got through the airport very quickly. We are not sure where the rest of the people on our plane got to but there was hardly anyone in the queue at passport control, and we got through without queueing, and didn't see the other passengers until ages afterwards at the luggage carousel!

We got the metro in to town and eventually arrived at our hotel at around 3:30pm. The hotel is on a very busy noisy street but luckily our room is looking over one of the side streets. It is a very nice room - with unusual art on the walls and a chair that looks like a ladder!

Our bedroom

After unpacking we went for a walk through the lovely cobbled streets near our hotel - as we hadn't eaten since breakfast, and it was nearly 5pm local time, we had a late lunch/early dinner and chose to share a platter of local delicacies which included moussaka, stuffed peppers and tomatoes, slow roasted lamb and patitsio which is like a Greek lasagne. It was quite a feast but delicious and a good introduction to Greek food!

Our first meal in Athens

Peter had a beer and I had a wine with our meal, and after we had finished our food they brought us another drink each and said it was on the house to welcome us to Greece which we thought was very nice of them, especially as the meal had been pretty cheap bearing in mind how much food we got (we couldn't finish it!). I said to Peter no wonder the Greek economy isn't doing well if they give away free drinks!

We then went for a walk where we got our first glimpse of some of the ruins including the Acropolis.

Ruins in Athens

Glimpse of the Acropolis

In the evening we went up to the rooftop terrace at our hotel for a coffee and to enjoy the view of Athens at night.

Views from the rooftop terrace

Acropolis at night

 

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