Fred Hart

The centre of the village is entirely pedestrianised. The bus dropped us by the main road close to the barrier. We wandered down the main street, past all the tavernas, bars and cafés. At the bottom we found the main beach. By the time we arrived it was lunch time so we found a café to get something to eat and drink.

Dessimi/Δεσίμη was our chosen beach for the day, just a short drive towards the South. The beach has a couple of trees towards the back, lots of little boats and a café serving hot dogs, pita gyros and drinks just off the beach.

After breakfast this morning we checked out of the hotel, leaving our luggage in their store room to collect later. We headed down on to the Underground to go and spend our last morning in Central Athens.

We left the Underground at Syntagma/Σύνταγμα and walked through the Kolonaki/Κολωνάκι district, going up Ploutarchou/Πλουτάρχου Street until we reached the cable car which goes up the mountain.

We spent the afternoon down on the “Athens Riviera” coast, down by Glyfada/Γλυφάδα.

The most famous building on the site of the Acropolis is the Parthenon – a building which dates back to 447 BC.

Porto Rafti (and Avlaki) both have a selection of bars and tavernas; listening to people talking around me they were mostly Greek and because of the proximity to Athens many Athenians come here for their days out to the beach.

One interesting site I went to last time I visited Athens was the Panathenaic Stadium/Παναθηναϊκό Στάδιο. Built of marble, it dates back to 330 BC and the stadium hosted the first Modern Olympic Games in 1896.

As 11am approached police officers started getting their whistles out to move people away from the guards so that they are behind the cordon. Then, as crowds started to grow, we heard the sound of the music as the band approached.

We are staying in the Neos Olympos Hotel/Ξενοδοχείο Νέος Όλυμπος which is the same hotel I stayed in 2 years ago. In fact it is exactly the same room with an interesting view over the city.