Days 2 & 3 in Athens

 

Tuesday and Wednesday: I’m combining these 2 days because we didn’t do much to write about.

Tuesday

The big plan for today was to go early to the Roman Forum and Tower of the Winds. Of course, we didn’t get up early so ended up getting to the Forum by noon. My advice is to go earlier if possible as it gets quite hot in the sun. But then if you are like us, it is impossible to go early because we stay up so late at night.

The Forum is a place where the Greeks would gather to talk and shop. We were free to walk about much of the area. http://odysseus.culture.gr/h/3/eh351.jsp?obj_id=2402 is a site with good descriptions.

At the back side of the Forum is a tower, Tower of Winds. This was an early version of a clock and weather station. http://odysseus.culture.gr/h/2/gh251.jsp?obj_id=1839

Tower of Winds

Ceiling of the Tower of Winds

Floor in the Tower of Winds

From the Forum we decided to go up the road back to the coffee shop next to the Central Market. Unfortunately, we didn’t realize that the coffee shop closes at 3:30 so we were out of luck. But this gave us a chance to try a different coffee shop closer to home, and that was acceptable.

While walking back home we went by the Cathedral and thought, maybe we should get some dinner. We went to a restaurant that we had seen before and found that they only had fish for main entries. They did have other side dishes on the menu but we like fish so thought we’d try it. I had cod in a lemon/fish sauce and dale had grilled sardines. This was truly the best fish ever.

Wednesday

Our friend from home, Kim Bergman, was on her way to join us, she was supposed to be here on Tues but then flights went to hell and she couldn’t get here until Wed.

I looked at the transportation options for me to fetch her and found that there was an express airport bus that left had a stop about 1 block away and was only 5.5 euros. A taxi would be 40 euros. That made the decision easy. Dale and Zaya walked up to the stop with me and off I went.

I got to the airport, found that Kim’s plane was late, went to the Departures and got some Greek Coffee then went back down to Arrivals to wait for her. I was glad to see her walk into the waiting area.

After Kim had time to clean up a bit, she was willing to see a little bit of Athens and walk around. We wanted to go to Hadrian’s Library and pick up our combo tickets. The combo tickets are only good for 5 consecutive days but would get us into various sites including the Acropolis. While we were there we went thru the library.

We thought that we’d take Kim to the fish restaurant since it was so good the day before. We were told yesterday that the restaurant would be jam packed so we should reserve a table but we didn't. In reality the restaurant was open with only a few tables filled. Then we were told that they were out of the fish we’d had the day before. Unfortunately, they were out of all of the fish we’d had the night before and only had the fish of the day, which we knew was super expensive. We chose a couple of filets and a filet of the fish of the day. The various filets were good but we had not wanted to spend so much money. I don’t think we will go back there again.

Red Mullet

As rain had been forecast for this afternoon, we thought we’d head home. But before we could get home a thunderstorm hit. Since it was nice out when we left, a little cloudy but nothing more, we did not bring raincoats or umbrellas. The rain dumped on us, we could see the lightening and the thunder was explosive. I was concerned that the pavers would get slick. We walked as fast as we could but without slipping. As we got to our street the water was up to the height of the curb.

Dale had stopped at the store and by the time he got out of the store, the water was over the curb, sweeping signs along as it ran down the street. Dale stood with others, under an awning and waited for the storm to pass. It did not take long for the water to subside and he was able to walk back to the apartment.