Athens is the home of the Acropolis, which means "City at the top". It sits up on a rocky hill and can be seen from the entire city. Up top, there really is only three buildings - Parthenon - which is a huge temple dedicated to Athena, the goddess of wisdom; the Propylaea which is the gateway/entrance to the Acropolis; and the Erechtheion which is a smaller temple dedicated to Poseidon and the temple of Athena Nike.
These were built in marble from far off quarries and the Parthenon was built in 447 BC with the others soon after.
Our guide told us we were lucky as we were there on an "uncrowded day" so we should be grateful for that! Remember how I said Santorini was crowded? Times that by 10 and you get how busy the Acropolis was in the "off season". Oh. My. We could barely walk in there. It was crazy!!
Most of Athens downtown sidewalks are made of marble
There's a little walk up the hill
Down below the Acropolis, is this huge theater which is still used today for performances
And then the crowds appeared! Everyone has to funnel through the 'Propylaea' which is the only way in and out
The Parthenon is HUGE!
Yep..there even was a geocache here!!
Athens is a big city!! 3.1 million people live here
Don't let this photo fool you, this was way at the end - where the crowds were not as bad
After, our tour visited a few places in the city
Ruins are everywhere....in the middle of neighborhoods and even streets
Some videos:
View of Athens
Up top:
Crowds!!
We got back to the ship to relax and play some mini golf
It was pretty cool to be up close to these huge ruins and glad we went!
The blue roof churches. That's what Santorini is best known for. Instagram and TikTok heaven. But it's busy..so busy...so very very very busy....and the city sits on top of a collapsed volcano, but the ship tenders in at the bottom. And there's 2 ways up (plus a semi-secret way up). There's a gondola, that carries about 40 people at a time up 2 minutes to the top, with a line that can be up to a 2 hour wait when there are several ships there, which is like every day, OR you can take the stairs up - 588 of them, taking about 20-30 minutes. However, donkeys also take the stairs up (which you can ride up) and what do donkey's do? And a lot of it? Yep! POO all over the stairs! So you're either waiting in a line of 2000-4000 people taking the gondola, or walking/riding up the poo covered and smelly slippery stairs.
But wait! There's also a semi-secret way - which is of course the way we did. If you know what you're looking for, walk past the stairs and donkeys, skip the endless gondola line and keep walking. You'll see a small shop selling boat tickets to a neighboring city, which happens to be the city with the most blue roofs that everyone wants to go see. So you get a boat to another part of the island, a BUS takes you up the hill and there you are!! Walk around....find the blue roofs with the other 1,000s of people, and another bus will take you back to the top where the gondola is.
Everyone still has to go back down to the ships via gondola or stairs though, because the boat only operates one way, so don't dilly dally and be the last ones to the gondola or you'll be waiting hours and might miss your ship. We timed it pretty good and waited about 15 minutes to go back down via the gondola.
Did I mention it was crowded? Very very very crowded?? And it was the "off season" too!
We hurried through both cities because it was so crowded and we wanted time getting back down to minimize waiting.
The water was crystal clear
Both cities are about 15 minutes apart by bus and sit atop the volcano ridgeline
Yep, we did find the blue roof churches and had to dodge all the tik tockers and instaram poses
There was a geocache at this sign
These round houses are "luxury villas" on the hillside
