Road to Athens and the Acropolis

On July 8^th we left the beautiful Greek Island of Corfu to make the trip to Athens. We took a 1.5 hour ferry to the mainland, and then a 5 hour bus ride.
From the bus we had the most amazing view of the Gulf of Corinth:

We made a stop at the Corinth Canal, which was built in the 1880s to connect the Gulf of Corinth with the Aegean Sea. Without the canal, boats would need to travel down to the bottom of the Peloponnesian peninsula in order to cross to the Aegean Sea.

Once arriving in Athens we were dropped off close to our hotel. Our hotel is a beautiful 4 star hotel, which happens to be in a very sketchy area of the city. Our tour manager and bus driver devised a system for us to remove the luggage from the coach while keeping it protected from the Greek thieves who apparently prey on tourists with large heavy luggage. We formed a large circle around the opening of the luggage area of the coach, and 5 of the “strong” guys on our tour unloaded the luggage into the protected circle.
By the time we arrived in Athens it was dinner time, so we all went out for an excellent Greek dinner. After dinner we walked back to our hotel in a large group, as we were pretty scared of the strange characters on the streets surrounding our hotel.
The next morning we went on a tour of the Acropolis. The Acropolis is on a hill, and consists of the Parthenon (the famous temple to the God Athena), The Temple of Athena Nike, and The Theatre of Herodes Atticus.
We first walked past the Theatre of Herodes Atticus, built in 161 AD and still used today for outdoor concerts.

We then walked up the Propylaia, the entrance to the Acropolis, which was built in 437-432 BC.

We finally reached the top of the hill to see the Parthenon:


Construction began on the Parthenon in 447 BC, and it took 9 years to complete. It is built using no straight lines. Each column is wider at the base and becomes narrower closer to the top. Also, the distance between columns vary, as it was believed that our eyes are so used to seeing perfection in architecture, that if it was made slightly less perfect by varying distances and widths it would give an illusion of perfection and our eyes would not become “bored” of looking at the temple.
We had a chance to walk around the Acropolis hill and see all the sights on the hill and the view of the city:



From the Acropolis we went to see the Olympic Stadium:


We then made our way over to the Parliament to watch the changing of the guards. It was really interesting. The changing of the guards happens once every hour on the hour, and the two guards that stand post outside the building are replaced by two new ones. The ceremony consists of three guards entering the area: one guard to accompany them and two to take over the post. The two guards who are leaving and the two new guards do an interesting series of marches and steps during the changing process. Once the two new guards have successfully taken their positions the two old guards march out with the accompanying guard.

The three guards marching in (the two new ones stand on either side of the accompanying guard):

The three guards waiting while the two old guards march out of position:

Finally, the two new guards marching into place:

I spent the rest of the afternoon walking through the streets and looking into the shops.