The Verbose Traveller

This morning we walked to the National Archeological Museum of Athens. It wasn’t a short walk, around 40 minutes, but eminently do-able, and the worst of the few hills were right at the start as we ascended to the Acropolis and around. Our walk took us through what seemed to be the business district, which was an interesting change from the more touristy areas of town. We have a new favourite coffee place, which we discovered yesterday morning - called Coffee Island - and their coffee is even better than Gregory’s. So it’s off with the old, on with the new, and we were looking for another Coffee Island this morning, and ignoring all the poor old Gregory’s along the way. Oh well, needs must, as they say. The National Archeological Museum is the largest archeological museum in Greece, and one of the most important museums in the world devoted to Ancient Greek art. It was founded in 1829 to house and protect antiquities from all over Greece, displaying their historical, ...

Back in Athens. More walking!! More steps!! But not as many, and not as steep as some of our walks on the islands. Still, Athens is quite the hilly city. We arrived last night, after an enjoyable and smooth three and a half hour ferry trip and an uneventful taxi ride to our Airbnb apartment, where we were met by our host Helen, who was lovely and helpful, full of great suggestions, gave us a great map and marked some of the sights on it for us, and then left us alone to get settled. Our apartment is in the Makrigianni area, a hop, step and jump from the Acropolis Museum, and just a short hike up a sloping street to Dionysius Areopagitou, the pedestrianised street that runs along the southern border of the Acropolis site, so it’s a very convenient location for us. This morning we joined a walking tour of Athens, which was a great way to get our bearings. The pre-arranged meet-up was at 9.45am at the Ekklisia Agii Asomati ke Agios Georgios, a teeny weeny Greek Orthodox church in ...