VISIT THE ACROPOLIS, PARTHENON & THE SITE OF THE 1ST OLYMPIC GAMES AT ATHENS

We saw all these things during a Greek Island Cruise in July 2008 aboard this ship:

OCEAN VILLAGE 1 (Thomas Cook)

There were organised ship tours of Athens but we chose to share a taxi with another couple and get the driver to give us a conducted tour.

The Acropolis is the site where the Parthenon stands:

At the moment the building doesn't look like this because it is undergoing renovation. It was built in the fifth century BC in recognition of the Greek goddess ATHENA.

In 2004 the Olympis Games was held in Athens at a new stadium. We asked our driver to take us there:

He also took us to see the Greek President's Palace. We were just in time to see the Palace guards arriving.

We thought we were watching an episode of Monty Python and John Cleese's Ministry of Funny Walks.

Later in the cruise we docked at KATAKOLON and we took a 30 munute taxi drive to OLYMPIA.

This is where the first Olympic Games was held in 776 BC:

The Olympic Torch is always lit at this place before being carried to each country hosting the games.