Winter Solstice

I have never thought of Winter Solstice as being an event, but our lovely neighbours have and invited us along to theirs.

It involved a long walk in our wellies upwards through muddy fields and tracks to the highest point around - Kelston Round Hill.

We arrived a few minutes early and then at 4.03pm the sun set, although it was hidden by a rather menacing rain cloud.

The celebrations began and Simon cracked open a bottle of whiskey to be passed around. I don't actually like whiskey, but for some reason this one was very tasty, so I may have been converted. 

The whiskey was paired with strips of South African biltong and pieces of mandarin orange. I don't know if that's traditional or what they had in their fridge today. Embarrassingly we didn't know the etiquette for a Solstice outing, so took nothing with us.

There were other people on the top of the hill so Simon took his whiskey bottle to share it around while the rest of us had a cartwheel competition, and I managed to finish second out of three. 

On the way down the hill I refused to take part in the rolling down the hill event, and I think that was very wise. 

Afterwards we stopped for a couple of drinks in the pub and then strode home across the fields, avoiding the cow pats with the help of a couple of head torches. 

Acropolis museum

Oh no, not another boring museum you might be thinking. We wondered that on the way there, but actually no, it's brilliant.

It's modern with lots of shiny steel and glass, and glass floors so that you can see both above and below the room that you are in.

It's built on legs on top of excavations that uncovered ancient buildings dating back 2,500 years. There are mosaics, pipes, baths and even toilets.

On the first floor are the original beautiful Caryatids that held up the roof of a temple on the Acropolis site.

But the wow factor is on the top floor. Huge windows give 360 degree views of Athens and the Parthenon.

In the middle of the room is a full size recreation of the top of the building and all of the artwork and sculptures.

It is beautifully done, but what they really want are the Elgin Marbles back from the British Museum to fill in the gaps. 

Glyfada seafront and Exoni Theatre

Yesterday I took us on a walk up through Glyfada to see a disused outdoor theatre.

It was built in a quarry and apparently had very interesting lighting effects at the back on the rocks, and famous performers appeared on the very strange stage. 

Unfortunately it only lasted for a couple of years in the 1990s as it is surrounded by lots of houses and the residents objected to all of the noise. It's a shame as it looks like an alien spaceship and I would have loved to see it in its glory days. 

Today we wandeted along the seafront to the next town for a coffee. It rained overnight so the usually calm seafront actually had some pretty big waves on it, so I wimped out and postponed my paddling plans. 

Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Centre

I have been looking forward to visiting this building ever since I saw Monty Don feature it on one of his TV programmes.

Stavros Niarchos was an incredibly rich shipping magnate who died in 1996, but his name lives on in his foundation which sponsors and funds numerous projects in Greece.

This one is a fantastic centre that houses the national library and opera house underneath an artificial hill that is covered in a beautiful garden on a slope that is full of Mediterranean plants.

We admired it in the daylight, but at this time of year it comes alive after dark.

Around the garden are lighting installations, and in this one the lights twinkle in time with strange music as you stand underneath and look up at it.

The main building also lights up amongst the plants and is open until midnight every day.

There is also a lake with dancing fountains, which is always a favourite of ours.

It wasn't the best that we have seen, but still very nice.

The Athens Riviera

We are set up in an Airbnb apartment just slightly set back from the Athens Riviera.

Today we mostly ran and occasionally walked 18kms along it, and it is mostly beautiful. There are a couple of dodgy bits that need some work, and a big dual carriageway that gets a bit close at times, but that's a minor issue.

There are also lots of cats, and they gather round the fishermen who seem keen to give them a fish supper.

We are only five minutes walk from the Turtle Rescue Centre although it is difficult to find. From the outside all of the buildings are old railway carriages,

but once inside we were met by enthusiastic volunteers who showed us around. They explained that injured turtles are sent to them from all over Greece and they do their best to nurse them back to health and release them back in to the sea.

Last photo for today is from the centre of town, and is us sitting inside a giant Christmas bauble.

It's my birthday

 It's my birthday today, and we moved a few miles out of Athens to the coast. It was an easy journey on the underground and then straight on to a bus, and we were there in less than an hour.

We were a bit early for check in so stopped for a glass of wine that came with free sort of flakey pastry straws. They were lovely and difficult to describe, but the sort of thing that they do for the technical test in Bake Off pastry week.

We did ask for a menu, but the waitress said that it was not very accurate so we just pointed to the table next door and said that we wanted to copy what they were having.

This evening we walked to the highly recommended local Mexican restaurant and had today's special - four tacos each and a wonderful frozen margherita.