Our Tuk Tuk guide was interesting.  He said right away that he didn’t like working for his boss and hoped the job was temporary.  He wanted to fly and eventually be a flight instructor.  He knew a lot about Arizona as it related to history, aviation and Air Force Bases.  He had strong negative opinions on Trump and America’s obsession with guns. It was quite an interesting beginning!

When we got around to talking about Athens, he drove us by the Academy with the pillars of Athena and Apollo.

He stopped at the relatively unimpressive (in comparison to many other churches) Greek Orthodox Church of Saint Dionysius.

This view was tucked under the entry.

Our impression changed immediately when we went inside!

Dionysius converted to Christianity by the teachings of Paul, as told in Acts 17:34 in the Bible.  He became the first (or second) Bishop of Athens and is the patron saint of Athens. 

He is viewed as the protector of judges and the judiciary. 

Our guide took us to the top of Mount Lycabettud for a view of Athens.

Getting artsy!

Always there are street kitties- and they look in good health.

We watched a member of the ceremonial guard march in front of the parliament building and the tomb of the unknown soldier.

We passed one of the Athens 2004 Olympic venues.

This door was the entry to Turkish jail where Greeks were kept and tortured for 400 years. It is left as a monument to the victims.

We visited the grounds of the Roman agora, that being a gathering place.

There were Roman baths.

These are ruins of Hadrian’s Library.

Hadrian was a second century AD emperor, one of the good ones according to our guide.

He took us to a site to view the Acropolis from a distance.  There was a planned city wide siren alert while we were there.  Everything worked as planned. Our tour would have normally ended at the Acropolis but we had a private tour later in the day. He showed us where we would meet our next guide.

It was in interesting tour with an interesting guide.  I hope, almost three months later, that he has gotten a job he enjoys more – or at least that he owns his own Tuk-tuk so he can work for himself.

We were on our own for lunch. We ordered 2 gyros, 1 coke, 1 glass of wine and paid the equivalent of $10.94. We found every thing in Athens to be very economical as a tourist.

As a tourist, I noticed when I walked into a store, the sales person would great me in English while greeting others in Greek. They can tell!

We were in Athens on October 2, 2023.

Next up: The Acropolis