Saturday March 20th..Athens City Tour

After breakfast this morning we started our guide tour of Athens and then we had a tour of the Acropolis. We climed the Acropolis to view the majestic Parthenon which is known as possibly the worlds greatest architectural feature. Athens is named after Athena, the goddess of war and wisdom. We also had a chance to see the Presidential Guards in their traditional costumes and we passed the stadium where the first modern Olympics were held in 1896. During our walking tour we got aquainted with the endearing Plaka district, strolled past Hadrian's Arch and the Temple of Olympian Zeus, built to honor the most powerful of all greek gods-contruction began in 515 B.C. We had a walking tour and some free tome for shopping in the city. Today was a great day, we all got maps from our tour guide and took off to explore the city, we broke into small groups and settled in fine Greek restaurants for an amazing lunch. The food overall was ok, but we were missing some of the simple things from Canada, the restaurant we chose was fabulous we had Club house sandwiches, fries and Greek salad. During our hours walking downtown Athens we did some shopping, sat in the centre of the city and drank coffee while the kids played soccer in the centre of the sqaure. We witnessed many gypsy's here and the kids thought it was pretty cool to watch them run whenever the police would show up to bust them. No one in our group was a victim of pick pocketer's, it was pretty safe. The tour company really prepares you, they explain to you what to look for and how to be safe. We all felt fine, there were no problems or concerns. Tonight we have the option to go to a group Greek night, featuring entertainment and dinner. Colleen, Kayla, Kailey and I opted out. We have to get up at 3am to catch a bus to the airport at 4am. Instead of going to that dinner, and not getting in until midnight, we decided to walk to the beach, eat at a restaurant close to our hotel and then have a quiet evening just talking with one another and discussing the highs and lows of our trip.