I remember YUL, but this time around, didn't enter the country

nicely done, they check where you come from and if you come from an untrustworthy country, you have to go through security again. Fair enough

finally made it to the lounge

even got Poutine!

the Lufthansa plane was nice, but the flight was too short, barely enough time to sleep before landing in Munich

of course landed 1h late, with a 1h30 connection. I had to run through the airport to make my flight with 1mn to spare, and my luggage didn't make it

planey of snow in Munich still

finally arriving in Athens, lots of Islands visible right away

The Corinth Canal, between 2 seas, while of more limited importance today, was hand dug apparently 2000 years ago by 6000 slaves and is a remarkable achievement. It was later re-opened 2 centuries ago, although today it does not serve a purpose anymore for bigger ships that can easily go around

that almost seems like a wonderful idea :)

you can see the sea on both sides, and it's the same level, so no locks needed

We stopped at a few more minor archeological sites on the way that were all closed, but still able to get a peek:

not overachieving hours

looked inviting inside

fantastic view from up there

After that 2nd stop, it was time to head to Nafplio to end a very very long day (considering the flights that took over 24H)

The grounds were wonderful at the time, but by now, unfortunately there isn't a lot left:

Of course it had a small museum with things that were found on site:

Day started with a yummy breakfast made by the pension:

Next to the pension, there was a very nice orthodox church:

So the day started with a side trip to the Ancient Theatre at the Asclepieion of Epidaurus (click me for blog). Best preserved theatre in greece:

After that, and finding a parking spot downtown, which was a tad challenging, managed to get to port just in time for a bi hourly boat to Bourtzi fortress:

lots of friendly cats everywhere

Back in town, the city walk went by some small churches and minor museums:

museums closed quite early, some around 14:30, so getting an early morning was a good thing

After the bourtzi fortress in the water, the 2nd one was Akronafplia's Castle, which you could drive up to, but there is also an elevator to it:

nicer view from up there

even a cactus garden

more friendly cats ;)

you can see Palamidi from Akronafplia's walls

a godo picture of Akronafplia from Palamidi

You can't really see that fortress from the fortress itself, but it had great views. Of course, the most impressive one is clearly Palamidi Fortress (click me for blog), which you can hike up, but it's a long ass painful hike. I went with the 10mn drive around ;)

even better view from up there

While this could have been pushed into the end of the first day, to get a bit of rest, a nice dinner, and avoid an extra hour of driving to Mycenae and back to Nafplio for the night, I moved Mycenae to the next morning on the drive out (click me for blog)

Nice dinner to end the day

While this could have been pushed into the end of the first day, to get a bit of rest, a nice dinner, and avoid an extra hour of driving to Mycenae and back to Nafplio for the night, I moved

That was an interesing 1.5H+ visit, and then time to drive to Olympia, a longish 3h+ drive...

The Athens Archeological Museum had a good amount of artifacts from this location, including a nice overview:

The museum of the olympic games, was a good place to start and the archeological museum was next:

lots of things found in excavations

This is what the original amphitheatre that was used for over 1000 years, looked like. Yes, it's small and underwhelming compared to Roman theatres ;)

of course the area had fancy buildings which are now mostly gone

The archeological tour, showed what was left. Nothing much, if anything, had been restored

The tour ends with the arch to the main arena:

it looks quite flat

I went to compete for the original 2000+ years old olympics

It would have been nice if more had been restored, but even as is, it's a nice and peaceful area:

Before driving out, a quick stop in town to visit the very good Archimedes museum, showing all the excellent work he did, arguably one of the top geniuses of the world until Leonardo de Vinci, up to 1500 years later. He was sadly and mistakenly killed by a roman soldier. What a loss...

After leaving Mycenae around 11:00, arriving at Olympia around 14:00, the tour visit was mostly over 3H later, and with a 3.5H drive to Athens to return the rental car in time by 21:00:

So, I'll start by mentioning cabs. They have a monopoly and too many are crooks that refuse to use their meters. If you step in one, they'll decide how much they want to charge you (usually double or triple the meter rate). Also, they hang out outside monuments and wait for "customers" to fall into their trap:

The only way around is to uber which calls a cab, about half will refuse to take you unless you turn off uber and give them the same flat fee, but eventually one will be honest. Still, pain in the ass...

Athens Day1: Parthenon, Agora and Roman Agora, Pssyri, and Kerameikos

Some of the sights are on their own page, starting with the obvious:

View from the top to scope the next destinations:

After the Parthenon, a somewhat steep climb down through small streets, brings you to other sights included in the ticket:

saw multiple tortoises in the city

Lots of touristy streets:

The Rick Steves Book recommended a Pssyri and Central Market walk, so I did followed that:

they added nice murals to a run down area

food stops :)

On that tour, found this gem:

The spices and market area was very cool to visit:

lots of cats to pet :)

Ther other big site for that day was the:

A church or two on the way:

more museums, kerameikos cemetary and museum:

This is where I'll admit that it was only 16:00 and therefore there were 4 more hours of museums that could been done, but due to travels, lingering cold and short nights, the day ended here. That said, still time for dinner:

Athens Day2: All the Museums, and More

A short walk away was the Temple of Olympian Zeus. Honestly there is very little left of it and it's skippable (nice history, but there isn't much left of it, and the unfinished restoration didn't bring it back to its original grandeur). The Roman Hadrian Gate outside is more interesting in my opinion.

Hadrian's Gate still looks good today

From there, lots of museums to see:

From there, museum street was next, and five different museums to visit:

it's an interesting fork of christianity, with its own written language

ouch

also ouch :)

Athens Day3 Evening: Walk Around the Parthenon

A walk down Anafiotika

more cats :)

checked out a few tourist stores:

AFter finishing the loop of the Parthenon, ran into an easter parade, so I knew it was time to get the hell out before everything got blocked. By then many streets were already blocked and the uber had a hell of a time to get us back (took more than twice as long):

And that was it for Athens, time for bed and an eearly 07:00 ferry to Mykonos the next morning

found lots of cats all around athens, many on this site, and they were friendly

more cats :)

christian church added later

Good views from the site, of course:

parthenon doesn't look nealy as good

The museum was good:

this was actually a sensus counter for voting

The temple was in pretty good shape:

Also found that athens had wild tortoises roaming around

took the less busy south entrance, got in a few mimutes

While expectations were probably higher than they should have been, overall the place had suffered too much damage over the years and looked a bit disappointing to me. The fact that it used to house a church for a while, and was also used a munition depot and that a lucky shot during a war, ignitied and exploded all the black powder, causing a huge explosion, did not help. I was disappointd that after 40 years of renovations, it still looked like mostly pile of rubble, but was told later that there is apparently some rule that says you can only add 30% of missing materials, beyond that you're supposed to leave things alone. This is not my field, but I'd have been happy to seen it rebuilt, even if other material, to get a better feel for it. Of course the fact that the british stole half of what was left of the 2 triangle roofs and are keeping it in the british museum, did not help.

what is left of the decorations, the rest were stolen by the british

michoko bird!

The side temple, Erechtheon, looked a bit better:

One big plus of that location is that you can see all of athens from it and see many other sights:

what left of the temple of Olympian Zeus

and the rebuilt Panathenic Stadium where the 2004 olympic games were held

So maybe it was a bit bittersweet, but still very nice to see this site that was on my bucket list for sure

storing black powder and ammunition there during the war

turned out to be a big mistake and responsible for most of the damage seen today

We was available of the collection, though, was first rate:

Let's start with Delphi, though. It was another one of those pretty impressive places back in the day, of which there is only so much left today, so you have to read the descriptions and use your imagination along with the audioguide:

found a beautiful and probably poisonous spider on the way ;)

For comparison, thi is what the site used to look like back in the day:

The highlight was the top forum that is still in good shape:

From there, the rest higher up was apparently closed, but I managed to miss that and went to the top:

the top arena was not well maintained and probably hadn't been for a while

From there, I felt I saw all that could be seen, so I went to check out the museum which had a decent collection:

Once done with the museum, took a cab to nearby beautiful Arachova:

super colorful church

Lots of yummy and cheap shopping:

Cute little museum inside town:

The town was full of friendly cats

and after about 2H in town, walked to the bus pickup area, for the IG crowd ;)

and then, longish ride back to Athens, but so happy I didn't have to drive :)