Athens

Our first full day in Athens was packed and wonderful. We went to the Acropolis Museum first thing in the morning. It was full of stunning artifacts found on the Acropolis as they excavated it. The museum building itself was cool; they found ruins beneath the spot where they were building the museum, so they built over the ruins, leaving the ruins accessible on the basement level and visible from the ground level through balconies and plastic walkways.

Midday, Jason (our Athens tour guide) took us on a walking tour of Athens.

We loved wandering through the spaghetti-bowl streets of a neighborhood called Anafiotika.

We stumbled upon this darling outdoor restaurant just as we were getting really hungry. It was in the middle of the neighborhood and so away from the Athens crowds, and was delicious. 

More ruins were scattered around town:

And lots of stunning churches.

We all spent an hour or two resting:

And then it was the main attraction: The Acropolis! The Parthenon was stunning, of course, and so iconic. But I didn't realize there was a whole complex up there! 

Last, but not least, we searched a bit and finally figured out how to get onto Mars Hill (of the Book of Acts and Paul's fame!).

And then, that evening, we decided to take one more trip back to town to see the Acropolis lit up at night. It was quite an amazing day!