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November 21, 2009

Room with a view — of Athens

the joy of travel

By Joy Crutchfield The McAlester News-Capital Sat Nov 21, 2009, 03:44 PM CST

Every evening in Athens we relaxed on the rooftop patio of our hotel.

The mesmerizing sight in front of us was the Acropolis, bathed in golden light.

Towering above us to the left, lit entirely in white, St. George’s Church perched high atop Mount Lycavittos, its Greek flag proudly flying.

As you can imagine, the entire world melted away as we absorbed these incredible views.

On day two, after completing our tour of Ancient Athens, our guide dropped us off just in time to witness the Changing of the Guard in front of the Parliament Building on Syntagma Square. The precise performance of these young men is a must see.

We meandered a few blocks until we reached the Plaka, the ancient shopping district of Athens. We were warmly greeted (all of the women were kissed and thoroughly hugged) by a lively restaurant manager who invited us into his establishment. After a delicious lunch of Greek salads, gyros, fries and drinks, served family style on the patio, we continued deeper into the Plaka.

You name it, and it’s for sale in the Plaka. There were linens, spices, jewelry stores, art galleries, and so much more. While the ladies shopped and the men leaned on the buildings, I bought several original oil paintings, T-shirts, a bust of Athena, and of course, limon gelato.

As evening began to fall we made our way back to our hotel. We simply looked up, located Mount Lycavittos, and began to stroll in that direction. We stopped for baklava along the way.

The next morning we grabbed cabs and made the hair-raising drive to Mount Lycavittos to tour St. George’s church. We were deposited at the funicular which departs every 30 minutes and takes you inside the mountain to the top.

From the top of the mountain Athens spreads before you in every direction. We spent an hour enjoying the incredible view of the Acropolis and the Port of Piraeus beneath us.

From the exit of St. George’s funicular we walked three blocks downhill through a gorgeous neighborhood and stopped at a sidewalk café. The pizza was the best I’ve ever eaten. Our waiter was Greek, but had been raised in New York City and was happy to help us hail cabs for our ride to the Ancient Agora (see previous column).

On our last day in Athens we went “all in” for a big adventure. We walked a few blocks from our hotel and took the subway to the new Acropolis Museum.

The subway in Athens is a museum in itself. It is immaculate, and beautifully displays innumerable archeological finds. The signs were in Greek, but English-speaking natives were happy to give us directions to the correct platform.

I will never forget exiting the subway, walking up into the sunlight, and being met with the overwhelming aroma of jasmine. The flowers were everywhere, enticing you down the narrow streets to the entrance of the Acropolis Museum, built to house every artifact of the Acropolis.

The museum opened on June 22, 2009. Situated directly beneath the Acropolis and over the top of ancient ruins covered by bombproof Plexiglass, we spent hours wandering inside for the visitor friendly entrance fee of 1 Euro.

Back at our hotel, we grabbed our bags, checked out, hopped into our motorcoach, said a sad goodbye to Athens, and away to the Port of Piraeus and on to Istanbul we went.

Joy Gawf-Crutchfield owns The Joy of Travel. See her pictures of Athens at www.thejoyoftravel.us.

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