Greece, Athens

These photos uploaded in reverse order - so begin at the bottom of this page if you want to see them starting at the beginning.  The final miracle of this wonderful vacation was the spectacular sunset, clouds and mountains on the flight back to Sofia.  I chose this photo because these mountains are in Bulgaria.  I have others which show the amazingly intense colors with the progression of time. Words cannot describe.....
I will post photos from Crete soon.

Here are a few pictures of what we saw when walking the streets...

 Dancing to Penny and the Swingers.

This is a view towards the Acropolis and Parthenon from the summit of Lycabettus Hill with the Saronic Sea in the distance.

This was our last day in Athens - we had time to explore
a little more before our late afternoon flight back to Sofia.

St. Georges Chapel.  This dog's human set him on the chair and then later placed him on the ledge by the tall window. He gathered lots of attention by people visiting the site.

 

 Looking down on the neighborhoods below, I saw many private rooftop pools and gardens.

This is another area - where we saw the remains of the Temple of Zeus (the largest one in Greece) 

and Hadrian's Arch.  We met an American family here on vacation from Dubai where they are living/working for 2 years.

All we had to do was pull out a map and begin looking at it and usually a very friendly Greek walked up to us and asked if they could help - in English.  It was great!  All the citrus trees were full of fruit (in December!!).

We took the buggy ride half way up to the top of the Acropolis.

The buggy driver took us on a little neighborhood tour before taking us up to the Acropolis.
I liked this on the side of a very nice apartment building.

Patricia and Mary and a cobblestone street.

Up, up, up....
There is much scaffolding and several cranes in the photos of the ruins on the Acropolis. I think restoration might be a long-time thing.  They began major restoration before the 2004 Olympics in Athens - great walkways and stairs.  When reconstruction the ruins, they use a whiter material so it's easy to see the difference between the original and the new.

 

Joan has a companion traveling with her. His name is Stanley and he reports back to her grandson's 2nd grade class about his travels in Bulgaria and Europe.  I think he's pretty darn cute.

In the distance is Mount Lykavitos, with St. Georges Chapel on top. 

 Athens offers many, many rooftop gardens and restaurants to it's residents.

Joan, Mary, Patricia - this photo was taken by a young woman traveler who
was returning home to Iceland the next day. 

Patricia, Mary, Joan.

There are lots of stray dogs in Athen.  All have collars for ID and are available for adoption. This dog was giving it's full attention to the cat sitting in front of the open door in the distance.

Two types of wall art.....there was plenty of graffiti too,
but I really liked these.

A Guard in Ceremonial Dress.  This is a coat over a cotton kilt made from 30 meters (98 feet) of white cloth, with 400 pleats (Greek: πιέτες), representing the 400 years of Ottoman occupation.  Each guard who wears one, has to learn how to iron the pleats.

And the "normal"......

The National Gardens

 

 A view of the Acropolis and Parthenon from Monastiraki Square.

Christmas Lights

Wow a full moon - the most ancient
and best lighting of all!

You can see the Acropolis from all over the city.

Bus tour - it was a lovely day so we chose to sit upstairs and outside.

Stellar food - in both flavor and presentation!

A beautiful restaurant and setting.

Our restaurant "guide" on the left.

My first view of Athens.

Our plane bound for Athens as seen from the terminal.
We took a bus to it for boarding.
 Apparently the Sofia airport is commonly foggy
 in the morning.

Ready to watch The Life of Pi
on Christmas Day.

Ho Ho Ho in Sofia