Our last stop on our trip was Athen's Greece.
The first stop and the highlight was the Acropolis.
This was a amphitheater that they still use currently.
There were a lot of people that were enjoying it with us!
One of our drivers on our trip told us that American's always love to come to Europe to see the really old things, and Europeans love to see the new things when they come to America.
The porch with the ladies was something that I always remember seeing in my history books as well.
After we were done there we asked our driver about a building that we saw way up on the top of a hill. He said "let me take you there".
It ended up being a little church at the top of the hill.
Normally people have to hike up the hill and then take a funicular to the very top. We were dropped off pretty close to the funicular so we didn't have too hard of a time getting to the top.
Our view from the top.
Our drivers took us around to show us more sights.
The original site of the Olympics!
The middle of the city.
The most interesting thing we saw in the middle of the city was the changing of the guards.
There was a history behind the interesting costumes, with the tassel that hung down to their waste and the big puff ball at the end of their shoes (which concealed knives that they used to use as weapons)
They would raise their feet up slowly and deliberately, and then march past each other with arms up high and legs outstretched. I should have gotten a video!
Our drivers pulled over and created a laurel wreath that we took turns wearing. I guess that was the "prize" that the winners of the Olympics used to get.
I wonder if it is also the origins of the phrase "resting on your Laurels" Hmm I'll have to look that up
Back on the ship enjoying our last dinner together on the ship.
Our last night on the boat and celebrating Jeff's birthday!
While we were waiting for transportation I noticed that this trash can looked just like Dean's minion backpack..ha ha.
We had one last day in Athen's before we were flying home so we thought that we would see a few more things we missed the day before.
The funny thing was now that we were on our own in Athens we realized that we had to figure out how to get around on our own and everything was written in Greek. We couldn't understand a thing or even read the characters! I had the idea to take a picture of our bust stop so we could ask how to get back to it and recognize it when we saw it once we came back.
I finally understood the phrase "Its all Greek to me!"
The first thing we saw was the museum.
This was a gold leafed face mask...
The people in the museum were pretty strict. They were very particular about nobody touching the glass, or getting to close to the objects or to talking too loud.
We took this picture with Taylor censoring the statue and we had one of the workers come over to us and scold us for taking a mocking picture of their artwork.
We didn't think we were mocking it but I guess they did.
It was amazing to look at this map and realize how large of an area ancient Greece covered.
Some more of the museum collection.
This cute little church was right in the heart of the city.
It's like the city built up around it and it was right there in the middle.
Our last church.
The kids were done looking at churches but I always thought it was interesting to see what was inside them. They were all beautiful in their own way.
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Our last night in Athens and we took a stroll down to see the Acropolis one last time. It ended up being closed so we just walked around it from the outside.
Our walk back to our hotel took us under the road and through this tunnel filled with graffiti. This is just a sample of the graffiti that we saw everywhere. I had never seen so much in a city.
After a fun, and adventurous trip all over Europe it was time to finally head back home. We flew from Athens to London and then waited a few hours and then flew from London to LA where we picked up Scott who then headed back to his house.
Joel and Virginia were still on for more adventures for almost another 10 days! We were happy to be heading home.
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