Seeing the Sites of Athens

Yesterday was an uneventful trip from Tel Aviv to Athens. The flight was less than 2 hours and we zoomed through immigrations with the other couple of wheelchair users. Our driver was waiting for us and less than an hour later we were settled into our flat. Easy breezy.

Since we’re in Athens until next Sunday, we’re in no rush to see everything at one time. So, we enjoyed a leisurely morning with breakfast at a cafe around the corner. We had a lovely omelet with HAM and fresh squeezed orange juice. It was very delicious. We headed out to the Acropolis Museum around 10am and enjoyed looking at the antiquities from 2400 years ago. The Acropolis, an ancient citadel, is the most famous site in Athens.

The museum was quite empty, so it was easy to push the chair around without bumping into anyone unlike at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam a couple of weeks ago.

There was an entire section of the museum where we couldn’t take photos but there was some amazing stuff. After wandering the museum for about 90 minutes, we headed to the patio for a bit of a snack.

The Acropolis Museum is built on pillars with a space beneath where archeologists are excavating an ancient city.

This is a model of what the area looked like over 2000 years ago.

After finishing at the museum, we walked across the street to see if we could access the Acropolis. Obviously, we couldn’t walk up but Petras, our driver from yesterday, told us that there is a lift to take people to the top. Unfortunately, the road to access the entrance with the lift was long, steep and cobblestoned. There was no way we were getting up there, so, unfortunately Peter won’t be able to see the top but here’s a picture I took of the Parthenon when I was here in 1993.

I did get a couple of pics of the lower ruins.

As luck would have it, though, the spot where we gave up on climbing the hill, is exactly where the hop on/hop off bus stopped. So, we hopped on for the 90-minute city tour. We had no desire to hop off anywhere as we were exhausted from walking and/or pushing up hills and over cobblestones. But we took note of places we might want to visit in the next week while we’re here. Here’s a few random shots I took out of the bus window.

We got off the bus at the Melina Merkouri Plaka which is a pedestrian area and the closest stop to our flat. Since we hadn’t eaten since breakfast, except for our shake and granita, and it was almost 4pm we stopped for an early dinner.

Peter took a walk on the wild side and had grilled chicken while I had lamb gyros.

Peter also had his first taste of ouzo.

Then it was an arduous 10-minute walk back to the flat. Peter had to walk a little bit but mostly it was me pushing the chair, with the help of a couple of kind strangers. Athens is not terribly wheelchair friendly. Some corners have ramps, but most do not. Many of the sidewalks are narrow and most are filled with large cracks and potholes. And then there are the cobblestones. I’m already missing my friends from our Israel tour. I could have really used their help today, although, I don’t think even our driver (Sunni) would have gotten Peter up that hill at the Acropolis.

Once home, it was time to do laundry… again. I did a load last night and even though the machine is a washer and dryer, I couldn’t get the dryer to work, and I couldn’t find the dryer rack, so I had close strung out all over the house. Even though our host, Anna, sent a video of how to use the dryer, when I tried doing exactly what she did, it still didn’t work. Once we’re home, if anyone ever hears me complaining about doing laundry you have my permission to slap me silly. I think I miss my washer and dryer more than anything else. The real bad news is that I washed both pairs of my pants so I’m not quite sure what I’m going to wear tomorrow as there’s no way they’re going to dry overnight. I have a pair of sweatpants but they’re very old and not something I would normally wear in pubic. But since I’ll never see any of these people again, do I really care???