Athens, Greece- The birthplace of democracy and Western civilization! It’s hard to believe the Greeks did all this 5 centuries before Christ and set the table for us to follow…. a republic with Individual freedom. Athens is spectacular….and that’s the gospel truth!

The city of Athens- is much larger than I expected, there are homes in every direction as far as the eye can see. With the many hills and mountains you can get a better understanding and viewpoint of this. Unfortunately there is graffiti everywhere including the historic spots but what larger city does not not have this issue. At least the Greek alphabet has atractive looking words and letters so it is a little less offensive.

The Acropolis- is the name of famous high hill in Athens and old temple that sits on top of that hill is “The Parthenon”. I had this confused at first although I feel I should have knew that.

Herodes Atticus

Widely known by locals as simply “Herodeon”, it was built between 160AD – 174AD by the wealthy benefactor of Athens, Herodes Atticus. It was rebuilt in 1950 and now is an amphitheater that holds about 5000 and performers from the Food Fughters to Sinatra have played here.

Acropolis Museum-Is a must either before or after exploring the Acropolis, an argument can be made for which comes first but I chose after.

You will find most the great art sculptures are missing hands, feet and heads……any guesses why? When Athens was sacked by the muslim invaders of the Ottoman Empire they pulled everything down with ropes and those were the first to break and they are fond of taking heads off for some reason.

Athens Parliament Building- The changing of the gaurds is worth seeing and it happens every hour on the hour. The Evzones is a special unit of the Hellenic Army, also known as Tsoliades, who guard the Monument of the Unknown Soldier in front of the Hellenic Parliament

Temple of Zeus- A lot of Athens famous landmarks were under construction but that’s a good thing, not for picture taking but in general. Not to worry because I still got see everything I wanted.

Map of Athens

Map of Greece