Woke up pretty early on Friday to get ready to head to Athens. Finished cleaning up the house and then we boarded our little mini bus! Took about 3 hours to get to Athens. Checked in at the Holiday Inn near the airport and relaxed for a little while. Then climbed into 3 cabs to head to the Acropolis.
Visiting this site was one of my Must-Do things while in Greece. I couldn't imagine going to Greece without seeing it. We were a little worried earlier in the summer because there were a lot of riots going on in Athens with people protesting the government and its handling of the country's finances. We were all monitoring the situation to decide whether or not we'd be able to tour Athens or not. Luckily, most of the protests had ended already by August. The Acropolis, Parthenon, Temple of Athena and Theatre of Dionysis are all next to each other. We spent a couple of hours walking around. It's amazing! I've always been in awe that these buildings have managed to still be there. The stones are huge and it's truly crazy to think of the effort...and time...it took for these building to be made. They have been in the process of renovating the structures for a while so, unfortunately, there are cranes in most of the pictures of the Parthenon but I'm still so glad we went. As with all touristy sites, there were women selling their services as tour guides. Of course, having Greg with us, we didn't have a need but the women didn't realize that he was related to us. They thought he was some rogue tour guide trying to steal their customers - LOL!!! Greg had a little "discussion" with one of them to set them straight. The kids, of course, didn't realize what an awesome place they were in. I'm hoping that in the future, they'll look back at these pictures and realize how cool it was that they were able to see these sites at such a young age!
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