We arrived back in Athens in the early evening. We had arranged to be met at the pier in Pireaus and driven to our apartment. The best we could say about the apartment was it was inexpensive (only 30E per night). But you get what you pay for! The apartment was little more than a bedroom, and a small one at that. The bathroom was a decent size and had a tub, which was a nice change from the islands. There was a kitchen, but no place to sit down and eat, or do much of anything else. It was, however, very well located, within walking distance of the metro, a supermarket, and a few restaurants.

Athens is Athens: dirty air, heavy traffic, over-crowded. It's also fascinating with all its history and the many archeological sites. The addition of the metro for the 2004 Olympic Games has made a big difference in getting around in the city. We also took advantage of the Athens Sightseeing Bus. For 5E, you get access to the bus for a 24 hour period. The price of the ticket also includes unlimited metro access for the same period. The bus stops at 19 different points in the city, several of which we would never have visited otherwise, like Keramikos, the city's cemetary. You can get on and off as many times as you want during the 24 hours. Of course we visited the major sites: the Acropolis, Lycavittos Hill, the Plaka, the Archeological Museum, the ancient Agora, Syntagma Square, Monastriaki, the National Gardens, and much more. We were disappointed to find that the 1896 Olympic Stadium was no longer open to the public and that there was no tour of the 2004 Olympic Games sites. The Greeks have learned to charge for everything and we found admission tickets to many of the sites were a bit high. The best bargain turned out to be the 12E admission to the Acropolis which also included admission to 5 other sites (a 24E value). There is considerable renovation activity on the Acropolis; many of the photo ops are obsured by scaffolding. The Parthenon is almost totally covered. The good news is that when it's all finished it will be fantastic. We think we'll wait to come back.

The temperature was well over 100 degrees every day and after a while the air quality got so bad, you could see the brown haze. It was pretty uncomfortable, especially considering the amount of walking we did. The nights weren't much better. Our mistake was not doing all of Athens at the beginning of our trip; returning only for a night before catching our flight out.

No matter how good the Greek salads are (and they are wonderful), after 7+ weeks, it was good to be finally on the way home!

To get the most out of the photos below, we suggest you check out our Athens journal. Otherwise, just click on any photo below to enlarge it. (Note that they are not necessarily presented in the order they were taken.)