Our first full day in Athens began with breakfast from the buffet along with orange juice as Ben (who had decided to give up the incognito bit) Suzanne Sarah and I enjoyed the views of the Acropolis at all resolutions knowing that this would be today's destination.

We walked through the public gardens before stopping at the conference center for a break and then moving on to this hero before stopping at the baths that were dug up during the subway construction and made some in our party feel like they'd like to be in a cool bath rather than continuing the journey past Hadrian's Arch which could be viewed from the side before we saw the sign giving our destination and began the walk pausing to look back while proceeding taking the obligatory phone booth picture and noting the Church of the Metamorphosis while continuing to keep our eye on the rock and sometimes the barely visible (and possibly not captured) moon in the blue sky as we passed the theater of Herod Atticus as we made our way up to the steps that led to the splendor as Ben and Suzanne took a break before we entered the temples that were ancient Athens

until Sarah and Suzanne broke away from tour groups and I could focus on taking many pictures of the parthenon at varying levels of detail

before we looked out at the hill where we were living and then Sarah Sarah, Ben and Suzanne posed and led us through the other temples

pausing occasionally for family photos from which point we could watch the reconstruction of the Parthenon leading to a block being lowered in place even as we wandered past the next temple not yet realizing how much a pillar cost

and we were careful to follow the signs (and so didn't touch the marble even if Lord Elgin had) as we made our way down and got our first view of the Agora and the remarkable temple of Hephastos and then climbed the rocks to get a better view of the agora though we couldn't read this sign while this sign sent us in the right direction and so we climbed the very slippery rocks to get back to views of the acropolis and the agora before heading down to the Agora and obeying the instructions before entering the Panathenic Way and the Ancient Stoa where we posed with many of the people who were memorialized there

including this elegant photo of Suzanne and her counterpart (my 2 goddesses) and this capital while meanwhile we looked out at a fire brewing in the hills around Athens which wasn't going to affect the current view but the fire kept raging

even as we admired the temple of Hephastos (perhaps he needed the fire for his forge)

which was described as follows and then we said good bye to Hadrian and admired the Brazilian pepper tree before heading to lunch at savvas in the Plaka where this was the menu

as Ben Suzanne me and Sarah enjoyed our Greek salad tsatsiki fried cheese and pita as the souvlakis came and then we began the walk back past this Greek Orthodox church with its founder and then back at the hotel, I took some picture of the room and of Ben reading until the battery died and the day ended.