Today was the day we had planned the whole trip around.

It may seem crazy, but all the other amazing stuff we had done to this point was just filler.  When Singer Girl chose this trip, it was all because of Athens. She had fallen in love as a preschooler with the Disney movie Hercules.  It’s still her all time favorite.  So the chance to visit the famed ruins of the Acropolis was a bucket list item (we’re saving Mount Olympus for the return trip!).

I booked a tour guide for this, as I knew we could never do it alone.  Our wonderful guide with Athens Walking Tour (https://www.athenswalkingtours.gr/). I wanted to see not only the Acropolis, but the Agora as well.  An argora is an ancient marketplace, and the ruins of this one in Athens are quite spectacular — and not on everyone’s list.  But they should be.

I won’t bore you with too many details — but the pictures!!!

These shots below are of an amphitheater still being used; Sting performed here a few weeks prior. If you ever see a show advertised as “Live at the Acropolis,” this is where it happens:

It’s pretty cool to me how much marble is everywhere.  Can you imagine the cost today to make all the streets and sidewalks marble?

Of course, thousands of years of feet trampling the ground makes for some slippery spots, so the boot was on high alert.  But we made it!

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Our group split up, and now our smaller (smarter) band of travellers headed to the Agora.  On our way, we went back through the marketplace we were in the day before, stopping for a little snack…

and to visit with some locals…

The Agora includes a very small, but very charming and jam packed little museum of some  of the treasures unearthed during excavation there (including the actual remains of an infant in hits burial urn!).  The site offers beautiful views of the Acropolis from below, and another glimpse into ancient Greek life.

We went back home to relax, and changed for our last night in Europe.  We found a beautiful, charming restaurant with incredible food — but we were done.  We were so tired, and we just couldn’t eat another bite.  It was symbolic of the trip. We had tasted all we could of Croatia and Greece, and we were full.  We will give the restaurant another try in the future — and would love a second helping of these beautiful countries some day!