Athens, Greece – Oct 2025

After six nights in Montenegro, we flew to Athens where we spent a week. We spent three days of that with some close family friends who were passing through enroute to join their cruise ship. We stayed in a hotel smack in the middle of the old part of the city, with close-up views of the Acropolis and right next to Monastiraki Square. We watched the changing of the guard ceremony at the Grave of the Unknown Soldier, walked the National Gardens, visited the Acropolis Museum, climbed the Acropolis hill to view the Parthenon up close, visited the incredible Benaki Museum, rode the funicular up and down Lycabettus Hill, strolled numerous charming streets, shopped in a mall for some clothes, and rode the entire circuit of all three routes of the Hop-on-Hop-Off double decker buses.

We traveled to Athens from Montenegro via Air Serbia airlines, which surprisingly required printed boarding passes. We had a 3-hour stopover in Belgrade, which was unremarkable except for the fact they don’t use the Euro in Serbia. Instead they use Serbian Dinars (RSD). Both flights were on time and we made it to our hotel in Athens without any major issues.
We joined up in Athens with our dear family friends Jeep and Larry. They flew across 13 time zones from their home in Maui to join their cruise ship in Athens. We had over three days with them and it great fun to run around together. We should see them again in Malta later this month when their cruise ship pulls into Valletta.
The Acropolis, which is the name of the rocky outcrop hill in the background, dominates the skyline from all over Athens. This is a view of Manastiraki Square, next to our hotel, with the Acropolis and its famous 2,500 year old Parthenon temple looking down over it.
Just before we climbed the Acropolis, we went into its museum. This photo is taken from the third floor, where the entire floor is a simulation of the ancient Parthenon temple. This allows you to see what it looked like when it was built almost 2,500 years ago. You can see the actual remains of the Parthenon out the window behind us up on the Acropolis.
The four of us climbed the Acropolis to take in the Parthenon up close. It is really enormous. The steps and the path up are fairly trecherous, but we took our time. Seeing the ruins of the Parthenon up close is very impressive, as are the efforts to preserve this 2,500 year old edifice. Because we were up there in the last couple hours before sunset, the marble had a beautiful golden glow.
We visited the Benaki Museum, which has over 100k artifacts spanning 26 centuries of Greek history. Credit to Jeep for suggesting this place.
Jeep and Larry practiced their selfie skills in the Benaki Museum.
The Tomb of the Unknown solder is in front of the National Parliament building in Athens. Every hour at the top of the hour, a solemn ceremony is performed to change the guards.
We used the Hop-on-hop-off buses to go all over the place, including all the way down to the Port of Piraeus and also south along the coast that they call the Riviera. We always rode on the upper level of these double decker buses. It was a great way to see a lot of the city and figure out where we wanted to spend more time later.
Panathenaic Stadium was built in 330 BC and was the site of the original Panathenaic Games, which were the ancient version of the Olympics. Along the way, the stadium fell into a cycle of disrepair / rebuild for many centuries. When the modern day Olympics were revived in 1896, this was where they were held and it continues today as the last venue in Greece from where the Olympic flame handover ceremony to the host nation takes place.
You can see the Acropolis and the Parthenon from almost anywhere in Athens, and it is well lit at night.
Because we stayed in a hotel, rather than an apartment, we ate out for most meals. The prices were reasonable and the food was usually delicious.
Central Athens is great for strolling around.
Susan loves her mid afternoon coffee, sitting down in a sidewalk cafe.
The view from Lycabettus Hill, looking southwest toward the Acropolis (in the green area) and the Port of Piraeus in the far distance. Lycabettus Hill has a funicular that you can ride to the top to enjoy these views and where there is, not surprisingly, a cafe.
Unexpectedly, in the middle of the National Gardens, there is a small pond with a lot of turtles in it. These are about 10 inches in length and probably members of the Painted Turtle species.
It has been a long time since I have seen a dinner check that is not electronic. Throw in a few Greek letters and this one is a work of art. It was the best meal we ate in Athens and the four of us had a great time.
We used the Athens subway a few times, which was clean, frequent, and easy to navigate. This is the view of Syntagma Station, which is by the Parliament and the National Gardens.
Scooters are everywhere in Athens. Susan found the color of this one to be very pretty.
Susan’s obsession with old world doors continues…
We saw stores devoted entirely to rubber ducks, just as we had in other parts of the Balkins. This store specialized in Greek God ducks of Zeus and Athena.
The rooftop restaurant of our hotel had a view of the Acropolis and the Parthenon. Athens is considered the birthplace of democracy over 2500 years ago. If you would like to know more about ancient Athens, there is a video we highly recommend. Click this link to view the video: https://youtu.be/zrq0wMoggI8?si=v9ivNPTW_SdI1QYr. The first one hour is about Athens.
Our next blog post will be from Malta.

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6 Comments

    • LOL – I was exhausted too! And we miss you guys too. But now that we have been in Malta for the last three weeks I have recovered and am getting excited for the next destination on Nov 16th. We have done some more planning too and I will be updating our schedules page soon. Take care and we will talk soon.

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