(And its museum)

When in Athens, visit the ancient sites.

Luckily, we didn’t try to visit the Acropolis on our first weekend in Athens. I say luckily, because I probably would’ve just gone up to the gates and expected to be let in. But with a week’s worth of being-a-tourist-in-Greece experience under my belt, I was smart enough to look online and book tickets ahead of time.

The museum was fine, but we didn’t take a lot of pictures or spend all that much time there. Having seen the Archaeological Museum the week before, and being tired, we didn’t feel like it was so amazing. There’s a marble sculpture, and a horde of gold coins somebody unearthed. That certainly caught my metal detectorist eye.

Now we’re headed up there…

We stood in a poorly managed line so that we’d be where we needed to at our allotted entry time. It was hot.

Despite the complex crowd control strategies in place, the half hour walk up to the top ranged from crowded to jam-packed to mosh pit.

There were various ancient things.

And views aplenty.

Finally, the big one. The Parthenon. It’s impressive for sure. But it’s also in a quasi-permanent state of renovation, and they don’t let you anywhere near the actual temple building anyway. I was interested to read that it had been knocked down and rebuilt a few times over the centuries.

Worth the $100? Well, obviously, given that we’d come more than halfway around the world. But without spending more time and energy to understand it better and appreciate some of the details we surely missed, once is definitely enough.

On the way down, there’s guys dressed up as Athenian (or Spartan or Roman) soldiers, and you can pose for pictures. When some poor tourist succumbed to the heat, the hoplite hopped to it and helped with the ambulance doors.

Onward!