Some very expensive gin palaces and lunch alongside Arsenal fans

We hadn't made firm plans to visit Athens. We are not great fans of cities and having experienced the packed and often narrow streets in places like Thessaloniki, we knew it would not be the best place to take a motorhome. Athens is also one of the worst cities in Europe for air pollution which didn't encourage us. However, the need to pick up the replacement laptop meant going to the Apple store in the city and we had also ordered some spare parts for one of our toilet cassettes and that shop was in Athens too.

A small but bijou parking spot

One of the issues we face when in a city is finding a secure place to leave Florence. This was particularly important in Athens as dogs are not permitted on public transport, so we would need somewhere secure to leave the van and the spaniels if we wanted to explore. We had seen rave reviews for a parking area in the port of Piraeus, so on Monday morning, having walked the spaniels from our overnight spot near the town of Nea Peramos, dodging guard dogs and a few hairy bastards (see blogs passim) on the way, we took the motorway into Piraeus. Neri skilfully took us down a narrow side street jammed with cars, into a small parking area where we received a warm welcome from the owner, Maria. The area had CCTV and was gated at night so we knew we would be secure. It also had the advantage of being a five minute walk from the Metro.

These are the small ones

Ferries in every available space

We had planned to stay for two nights but things changed when Maria told us that there would be no public transport on Tuesday because of a strike.This meant we would have to spend the Tuesday in Piraeus and go into Athens on Wednesday, so we extended our stay. The first task was to collect the new laptop so I left Neri to do a bit of food shopping while I got the metro to the shop in the north of the city. Although it was an Apple reseller, rather than a full-blown Apple store, it was still full of geeky types testing the goods on display and  staffed by earnest youngsters in tshirts, none of whom looked older than twelve. Having been warned that pickpockets were common in Athens, I spent the journey home tightly clutching my expensive purchase and looking out for suspicious characters. In the event, none appeared.

People here make it clear that Piraeus is NOT Athens

The next morning we set off with the pups to explore Piraeus. It is the main port for Athens so naturally our walk took us down to the harbour. There we were confronted by more ferries in one place than I can remember seeing, Greece has a lot of islands. There were also millions of pounds worth of yachts from the reasonably small and practical, in the affordable one to two million pound bracket, up to an Arab-owned monster which was well out of the price range of someone on a BBC pension. It rather amused us to find space was still reserved for somewhat more down-market and definitely grubbier Greek fishing boats, which happily bobbed alongside the gin palaces. Many of the latter were British registered and we concluded they probably belonged to Russian oligarchs resident in London. Having returned the spaniels to the van we set off in search of a car charger for the new Macbook having discovered that since buying the original one only some two years or so before, Apple had changed all the connectors. 

The metro station at Piraeus is rather splendid

Wednesday morning saw us taking the spaniels for a relatively short walk before leaving them in the van and boarding the metro to go and explore the Acropolis. The Athens metro system is the second oldest in the world after the London Underground. The service to Piraeus was opened in 1869 but it was some 130 years later before they got round to adding two further lines. But the system is clean and efficient and about a third of the price of the Underground. Visiting Athens in February is a real bonus. The weather is pleasantly warm, more like a Lancashire summer, and the number of visitors relatively low. We were therefore able to enjoy a stroll up the hill to the Parthenon, shrugging off the attempts of a guide to rope us in to an organised tour. We hate being organised. 

It fair takes the breath away

I was astounded by the Parthenon. We have been to many archaeological sites in Greece but nothing compared with the sight of this amazing building on the rocky outcrop high above the city. The presence of cranes and scaffolding, it is in the latest phase of restoration, could not take away the grandeur of the place. Quite why it failed to make the list of Wonders of the Ancient World, is a mystery and it is incredible that so much of it has survived. As a visiting Brit I felt a touch of guilt that the Elgin Marbles, part of the frieze around the pediment, were lodged in the British Museum. The fact that they are there probably saved them from the damage pollution has done to some of the stonework. but maybe the time has come to restore them to their rightful place. 

The Ancient Agora

We took time to walk to the viewpoint where we could look down on the Ancient Agora, the former administrative, philosophical, educational, cultural and economic centre of the city. The site dates back to prehistoric times but its zenith came during the Greek Classical period in the 4th and 3rd centuries BC. Our minds sated with ancient history we walked back down to the city street where we were accosted by a young lady waving a couple of menus. It seemed rude to refuse so we had a nice lunch in a small restaurant. It was a little noisier than it might have been because of a group of loud Brits on the adjoining table, two of whom were wearing Arsenal shirts. A little Googling revealed the fact that their team was playing Olympiacos in the Europa Cup the following evening at the stadium less than a mile from where were were overnighting and which we had passed on the metro. 

The Erechtheum, an ancient temple by the Parthenon

We were greeted with rain on waking on Thursday morning, the first we had seen for some weeks. After Neri's run we walked the pups around the ferry port, the only place nearby where we could get off the crowded streets. Then it was a case of saying goodbye to Maria, squeezing out past the gaggle of parked cars and heading back in the direction of Ancient Corinth. After three days off-grid we decided to return to the small site where we had stayed before. This will give us a day to have a bit of a clean and replenish and empty things. After three and a half months in Greece, our time here  will soon be over as we make our way across the country to Igoumenista  where we will, in a couple of weeks, take a ferry to Italy. 

The biggest challenge is identifying which bits go where


What remains of the ancient odeon of Herodes Atticus 161AD.


Whose lion is it anyway.