There were many steps and columns; it was most tranquil

I't's just after 5pm here, and we're exhausted.  Cas and I joined our tour group at 8:30 this morning for what promised to be an hour and a half long walk.  We went past some of the important sights in the city, starting with a statue of Pericles, who is credited with being the impetus behind the Athenian city state and many of the areas of focus, such as art and philosophy.

Good going, Pericles!

After that, we walked over to a spot where three buildings with neoclassical architecture were constructed n more modern times.  The three buildings from the 1800s were the National Library, the University of Athens and the Academy of Athens.  Guarding the Academy in statue form atop the building are Athena and Apollo.  

Farther down the road is the parliament building, checking in as downright youthful, having gone up in 1934.  That building is protected by two guards, which Charlie told us are called evzones.  They look a little like the Swiss Guard at the Vatican, in that they have funny shoes and pleated kilts, but this is entirely different.  Evidently, this is an old style military uniform, and there are 400 pleats on the kilt- one for each year of Turkish occupation.  

From there,we walked trough Syntagma Square and up- way up- to a viewing area where we could see the Acropolis just a bit higher than us and the whole city below.  After that, we were back down in the main square where Cas and I had lunch yesterday.  That ended our walking tour.  Cas and I were on our own from there. 

We decided to have an iced coffee for a moment before heading back up to the Acropolis.  

That was our starting point.  We went from the cafe to a street vendor who sold hats, then up, up, up to the Acropolis.  We did have to utter a few lines from Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, as they went to someplace just about like we were visiting to pick up Socrates.  There were many steps and columns; It was most tranquil.  

I tried a selfie.  Cas usually takes our selfies, but this isn't bad: 

Here's my best angle on the Parthenon: 

Cas has plenty of other photos in the album he's keeping, and he posted a link when he jumped on here this morning.  

We went from there to the Acropolis Museum, which had air conditioning (hooray!) but didn't allow us to take photos (boo!).  We tried to eat in the attached cafe, but after reading menus for 15 minutes with nobody bothering to see if we were hungry, we decided to try some other local restaurant.  Good call, too, as we ended up with some really nice sandwiches and a glass of Ouzo each.  

We kind of needed to have the Ouzo.  There is no more Greek beverage I could think of but Ouzo, nor is there a more Greek thing to go and see than the Acropolis.  

After that, getting back to the hotel took a bit of work. We got turned around a little, and the weather wasn't cooling off.  

We have each just had a shower.  Totally necessary...  I think we may lay flat and relax before making any firm commitments about dinner this evening.  Tomorrow, we take a train to Meteora.  Certainly, I will appreciate going somewhere via a different mode of transportation than our feet.