We just returned from an amazing trip to Greece with my parents. They came to visit us in Belgium, but thought it would also be fun to travel somewhere else while they're here, so we decided to head to warm, sunny Greece. We battled coughs, sniffles, fevers, teeth, and shingles, but we still had a great time!
My parents arrived on Friday morning, and we turned around and left for Athens on Saturday morning.
After arriving in Athens, we settled into our apartment, got some groceries, and headed to bed.
Sunday was Zoe's first birthday! We celebrated with a cake at the end of the day, but we had a mellow morning enjoying her before we set off for the day.
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| Such a special, precious gift to our family! |
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| Waiting for a taxi to take us to town |
We started with a hop on and off bus tour of Athens.
Our first stop was Acropolis. Before we went to the actual site, we took a short waking tour around Acropolis to see some of the lesser known and visited areas.
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| Acropolis! |
The boys had fun running around, climbing, and pretending to be statues while we waited for the tour to begin.
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| Birthplace of democracy (508 B.C.) |
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| Ancient pottery found on the ground amount the ruins |
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| It was super windy! |
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| Pnyx - meeting place of the people of Athens (508 B.C.) |
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| Pnyx |
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| More ruins |
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| Diaper change at the base of Acropolis |
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| Heading up to Acropolis |
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| The Odeon of Herodes Atticus - theatre right outside Acropolis |
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Mars Hill - Apostle Paul delivered a sermon here
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| Propylaia - entrance to Acropolis |
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| Parthenon - former temple dedicated to the goddess Athena (Construction began in 447 B.C, opened in 432 B.C.) |
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| Athens! |
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| Erechtheum - temple dedicated to Athena and Poseidon |
After exploring Acropolis, we headed over to Mars Hill to climb to the top. Apostle Paul delivered a sermon here written in Acts 17: 22-31.
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| More Acropolis |
After spending time around Acropolis, we took a taxi back to our apartment for some rest before heading to Lykavittos Hill for sunset and dinner. We took a funicular to the top of the hill.
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| St. George Chapel at the top of the hill |
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| Acropolis |
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| Eating dinner overlooking Acropolis (can you see it in the background?) |
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| Singing "happy birthday" to Zoe |
We decided to walk back down the hill, which proved to be precarious at times, but we made it to the bottom and took a taxi back to our apartment to celebrate Zoe's birthday with cake.
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| Lykavittos Hill |
Party Time!
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| Delicious chocolate cake! |
Zoe LOVED the cake. We gave her a small piece to eat, but when she was finished, she crawled around the table to other plates to try and score some more.
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| Stealing from grandma |
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| On to Cameron... |
We had a great first day in Athens and lots of fun celebrating sweet Zoe. Unfortunately, she did a little too much partying (and maybe ate too much cake) because she spent most of the night awake crying.
The next day, we continued with our bus tour through the city. Our first stop for the day was Acropolis Museum. Inside the museum, we saw archaeological finds from Acropolis. There were ruins under the floor of the building (seen through a glass floor) and lots of other amazing artifacts.
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| View of Acropolis from the museum |
After the museum, we hopped back on the bus and headed to Hadrian's Arch and Temple of Zeus, Olympia.
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| Orange trees everywhere! |
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| Hadrian's Arch |
The Temple of Olympian Zeus was built to be one of the biggest temples in the ancient world and was for a short time. It was attacked in the 3rd century AD and never repaired. Since then, it has been extensively quarried for other projects in the city, but there are still substantial remains there.
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| Temple of Olympian Zeus - built between 472 and 456 B.C. |
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| Ruins everywhere! |
From the Temple of Zeus, we walked to the Panathenaic Stadium, site of the first modern Olympics in 1896.
After the stadium, we walked to a cute area of town called Plaka for a late lunch. We really enjoyed some refreshing Greek salads and other yummy greek food.
We didn't have time to visit much more after eating, so we decided to just ride the bus around Athens and get a good overview of the city before heading back to the apartment to pack.
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| Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the Parliament building |
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| Monastiraki - Flea market area in Athens |
We stayed very busy in Athens and saw a lot of amazing things. As always, we probably could have used a bit more time to explore, but we had a flight to Santorini the next day. So we went back to the apartment, packed, and prepared for the next part of our trip.
