Off to Athens!

Today was a very early morning! We got up and were on the road by 5:30 to head back to Rome. Adam and I were flying out that morning to Athens and Katie and Andy had lots to see in Rome. We flew Aegean Air and I will say that it was really really nice.

It's Greek to me???

It's only a 2 hour flight from Rome to Athens so we landed, got to our hotel, freshened up, and headed to the Akropolis. This area is massive so we walked around for awhile and then finally found a ticketing area to get into it.

Walking around Akropolis Hill

Odeon of Herodes Atticus

The inside stadium seating of Odeon of Herodes Atticus

The person in aisle B2 come on down!!! The God Ares has chosen you for this evening's entertainment. I would not wanna be that guy 

The view from above

We hiked our way around and all the way to the top to see the Parthenon. This is definitely something I've always wanted to see. Ever since I took art history in college and learned about the making and significance of the buildings back then. It was very cool to be standing right in front of the Parthenon and see how huge this structure was.

The Parthenon

A view of the city from on top of the hill

The Parthenon up close and personal

More up close shots

This is how big the foot of the pillars are

The Erechtheum

The Erechtheum

 After spending a considerable amount of time there we walked back down and around the complex again. We saw a bunch of people walking up this huge rock so we figured hey lets go up too. It was far enough away and tall enough that  you could get a great picture of the Parthenon too. Later we figured out that was Mars Hill, where Paul preached to the masses. Had we known that we would not have wondered around for another hour trying to figure out where it was.

A view of the Akropolis from Mars Hill

Adam and I on Mars Hill

Adam and I again on Mars Hill

This place has been many things from possibly a storage area during wars to socrates jail cell

After our expedition around the ruins we came home to clean up and go get some food. Adam found a restaurant that was literally one block behind our hotel. Ummm that works for me. Less walking more eating. The restaurant was called Manh Manh and it was delicious. We started off with a greek meatball appetizer.

 Greek meatballs

Next, I had tenderloin pork served with grilled manouri cheese in a fig, honey, and almond honey glaze. Delicious!!!

My Pork Tenderloin

Adam had the Rooster Bardouniotikos, which was a stewed rooster leg in tomato sauce and pasta. It was also very very good.

Adam's Rooster Leg

Too much food that night, no dessert for us. But we hung out for awhile to relax, then walked back to the Akropolis for night pictures. Afterwards we headed back to the hotel. We had another early morning of travel ahead of us.

The Parthenon at night