Slightly lazy day as all we did was walk up to the top of Lycabettus Hill.
To be honest it wasn't actually very far, but it is the highest point in Athens, with great views from the top.
Although I really enjoyed the walk through the hillside covered in prickly pear cactus and giant agaves.
There was also a cute little church at the top that I was going to say was quite modern for Greece, but then I looked it up and it was built on the site of a much older Byzantine church.
Of course it was.
The day started with another run, this time further than the last one, and expanded to include loops of the National Gardens.
Feeling quite tired we limited our sightseeing today, and were lucky because on the first Sunday of every month most of the ancient sites are free to enter.
We started with the Agora, which was the ancient marketplace.
It was the political heart of Athens from about 600 BC, and elegant residents shopped among the marble pillars. It all became ruined 2,000 years ago but was restored in the 1950's.
Most of the rest of the area is still ruined, apart from the Temple of Hephaestus which is the best preserved classical temple in Greece.
It looks very good from a distance, but the pillars are a bit out of line and could do with being pushed up straight.
After a quick stop for a gorgeous dark chocolate orange ice cream, we reached the Temple of Zeus. This was the largest temple on mainland Greece and 16 of its magnificent columns survive out of the original 104.
Unfortunately it was disappointingly mostly covered with scaffolding, and one of its columns was lying along the ground looking like a giant caterpillar.
We also popped into Hadrian's library, which required a lot of imagination, but we managed to line up a shot of the Acropolis in the background.
After the fun of the National Gardens we went across the road to the Panathenaic Stadium.
The stadium was originally built in the fourth century BC, was used for hundreds of years for elite sporting events including fights with wild animals, but eventually fell into ruin.
It was rebuilt and restored ready for the first modern Olympics in 1896, and is also the finishing stadium for the annual Athens Marathon.
It is an enormous place that seats 68,000 people and obviously nearly everyone who visited today felt compelled to run around the track, and we were not exceptions to this rule.
We also sat in the best seats in the stadium that belonged to the king and queen of Greece in the 19th century. I pretended to give the thumbs down sign that they do in gladiator films, but that is probably in bad taste.
Today we went to the National Gardens and Darren saw that they had a virtual reality exhibition taking place. Basically he had to download an app, and then follow the instructions to find the exhibits.
If you get it right you can then see the art on the phone's camera app, but not in real life. However, if I crouch, sit or stand in the right place then it looks as if it's real.
Does that make sense?
Lots of fun to be had and seen, this one is an exploding vase of flowers.
Best by far though was the floppy dancing Japanese man, and I tried my best to copy his moves without actually seeing him.
The gardens were okay too.
After researching the route yesterday, this morning started with a run that included two laps around the Acropolis.
It was a lovely mostly pedestrianised route, with views of the Acropolis on one side and the Agora (ancient market place) on the other.
It was hard work on an undulating course, but obviously not as hard as the run by Pheidippides in 490bc. He ran the 26.2 miles from Marathon to Athens to announce victory in a battle, and was so exhausted when he arrived that he dropped dead. He then accidentally became the first of many millions of marathon runners.
Afterwards we went down to the port of Piraeus for a look around.
It had a huge working port, but also a couple of lovely harbours. I particularly like this photo taken by Darren. I think that if any artist actually drew reflections of masts in the water like this, then people would think that they had drank way too much ouzo.
Much better weather today for our trip to the Acropolis. It is on the top of a huge rocky hill and can be soon from all across Athens. We walked up to the ticket office where enormous queues form in the summer, but there was no one in front of us and we got straight in.
On the way up we passed the Odeon of Herodes Atticus. Mr Atticus was born in 101 ad, was very wealthy and built a massive outdoor theatre. It has been restored and hosts concerts with very famous artists.
What I am finding interesting is how many ancient Greek words are still in use today.
Then it was up to see the Parthenon, one of the world's most famous buildings.
It's about 2,500 years old, so not too surprising that it's having a few repairs at the moment.
There are quite a few other buildings on the Acropolis, and my favourite was called the Erechtheion. The best bit is the columns holding up a corner of the building in the shape of beautiful ladies, and called the Porch of the Caryatids.
It's a much more manageable size than the Parthenon and could even almost be called cosy.
Side view including pose by Darren and an ancient olive tree allegedly planted by the Goddess Athena.
After our visit we climbed a hill opposite to get a great view of the whole area.
Finally, we went to see the hourly changing of the guard at the tomb of the unknown soldier.
It's a strange ritual in interesting outfits. Apparently the slow march and raised legs are to get the circulation going again after standing totally still for an hour on duty. I don't know the background of the shoe pompoms, but it makes for a very nice photo or two.
