A week ago Saturday we decided that we would take it easy. We started by walking from our AirBnB to the National Garden. It is one of the few large green spaces in Athens, but it was not what we expected. We thought it was going to be a botanic gardens with curated displays of flowers and plants. It is not; instead, it is a lovely, shady park with a few small lakes and Roman ruins scattered about. We walked along the trails and enjoyed the shade and wildness of the place. Towards one end of the park there is a large conference center called Zappeion Hall that we wandered through and took some photos.

It was still pretty early so we decided to walk over to the Arch of Hadrian and the Temple of Olympus Zeus. They are just down the road from the gardens and somewhat across the street from the area at the foot of the Acropolis. We shot some photos and tried our best to avoid the crowds.

It was getting quite hot (35˚C or 95˚F) so we, of course decided it would be a good time to check out a lookout in a park called Philopappos Hill, because why wouldn’t we want to climb up a hill to get closer to the sun? We cut through the busy area around the base of the Acropolis, thought briefly about taking the Metro from the Acropoli station three stops to our air-conditioned and very comfortable apartment, then turned the other way. As we walked, the streets emptied quickly of tourists and, of course, started to climb straight up. We found our way to the entrance to the park, where we exchanged steep roads for steps (yay! steps!). Once we had climbed the steps we realized that it was absolutely worth the effort. The views of the Acropolis were stunning.

After taking a bunch of photos, we headed down a path towards the Prison of Socrates. It is a series of carve-outs in some cliffs that may have been the prison where Socrates was held (or a Greek mikvah, no one is really sure). This part of the hill is called the Hill of Nymphs and Mouses, although I think that the mouses is a mistranslation of muses. Once we continued on our walk (which was now thankfully going downhill, we went past an archeological site called Stenopos Kollytos where you can see the remains a a number of ancient villas at the foot of the Acropolis.

We continued to walk through the Monastriaki neighborhood, on the western side of the Acropolis, and found Indian restaurant called Dosa King for a late lunch. After lunch we headed through the narrow streets Psyrri, past Little Kook, a restaurant known for their amazing and outlandish decorations. From there is was a quick (because it was flat) 20-minute walk back to our apartment, completing our circumnavigation of the Acropolis.