Started the day with the guided tour to the Acropolis. Giorgio (our guide) showed us around the Parthenon and other sites and was a valuable source of important information about the ancient Greek civilization. Before the Acropolis, he showed us other key sites like Agios Eleutherios church, Choragic Monument of Lysicrates, Theater of Dionysius, Temple of Asclepios, Odeon of Herodes Atticus and more. Next step was the Acropolis Museum where were saw several artifacts that have been dug up and preserved to prevent destruction and/or degradation. Returned to the room for some rest.
Headed out at around 3pm to visit the Anafiotika district of Athens which is a quaint neighborhood with tiny, narrow streets that wind steeply up and down. Small, privately owned houses line these streets and there are usually a lot of cats (pets as well as strays) walking around or resting. You can get wonderful views of Athens from the highest points of Anafiotika. We started walking back down towards the hotel and decided to visit the Lycabettus Hill. We set off with a plan to use the funicular railway which would take us to the top of the hill, but little did we realize the torture we were going to endure! Our initial assumption was that the funicular would take us from the bottom of the hill to the top and started following Google Maps. The road started going upwards and we started getting a bit worried but still comforted ourselves thinking that it would still be saving us a lot of climbing. We walked upwards through steeply climbing streets and several steps until we felt that we had practically reached the top of Mount Lycabettus. Even now, we don't understand what the benefit of the funicular is if it only takes people from 3/4 of way up the hill to the top. We were completely exhausted by the time we reached the place where we had to buy tickets to board the funicular. As expected, it was just a short 4 min ride to the top because we'd already done most of the climbing on foot! Stupid funicular!
We spent a few minutes on top of Lycabettus Hill admiring the views all around and catching our breath. Then, we headed back down by the funicular. By then, we were ravenous and wanted to get a bite to eat. We picked Veganaki which is close the Hadrian Arch that we had visited the previous day. It was too far to walk, so we got into an Uber (a Mercedes Benz, no less!). Had some delicious vegan food in Veganaki and we had recovered enough energy to walk back to the hotel via the Plaka district. Bought a couple of souvenirs as we walked through the Plaka district.
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