Athens, Greece and the Acropolis Our first stop on our Greece adventure was Athens for 3 days while we waited to get on the sailboat. Jan found this awesome VRBO in Athens on top of the hill with views galore! Interesting artwork! Beautiful sunsets from up there! We did a little exploring and walking around downtown Athens. If you look close you can see the Acropolis on top of the rocks behind these buildings. We were amazed at how close they built stuff near the Acropolis! Mopeds and motorcycles are a very popular mode of transportation there! A very popular brand of coffee there! An open air market. the acropolis While in Athens of course we had to go see the Acropolis! The fact that much of the fine details are still intact after this many centuries is amazing! The Acropolis was built between 460 and 430 BC! The view of Athens from the Acropolis. This was an Amphitheater next to the Acropolis. Again, astonishing how well preserved it is considering how many millions of visitors have been here! A group shot in front of the Acropolis. Hard to get without any other people in the picture! Note the crane in the background; they are continually working on restoring and/or maintaining the structures here to preserve them. I saw this in the marble we were walking on. It appears be a hole ground into the marble; maybe grinding grains or corn? See the whiter marble? That’s some very meticulous restoration; replacing the missing pieces exactly as they were! This looks safe! Workers are constantly cleaning the Amphitheater seats. Another shot of one of the many cranes in use here. Workers measuring one of the thousands of loose pieces; maybe to figure out where it goes? This was before the peak season for visitors but there must have been a few thousand visitors while we were there! A little too many for our tastes! Amazing how these plants can grow so well in the cracks between stones! Another example of how well some of the fine details have endured! The marble all these millions of visitors have been walking on is worn very smooth and shiny; really treacherous when it rains I would imagine! Another amazing view of the city from the Acropolis! Not all the visitors were mesmerized by the history and amazing structures!