Athens Greece – Bike Tour

The Athens skyscape is dominated by the Acropolis which is the old city center and sits atop a rocky hillside.  Around the base are shops and restaurants with pleasant views of the ancient ruins.  

One good way to get an overview of the sites it to take a bike tour around town.  It’s fun and if you are worried about the hills, the electric bikes make it easy to scale up or down the amount of assistance so the bike ride can be as easy or hard as you like.  The Zappeion Hall pictured above was built in the 1880’s for the first modern Olympic games.  Apparently, the fencing competitions were held in the center hall.   

Greek Orthodox Christianity is the primary religion in Greece.   This is apparent from the churches and cathedrals.  The Holy Metropolitan Church of the Annunciation to the Virgin Mary is a large cathedral that was constructed in the 1800’s and sits on a nice open square in the downtown area.  Next to the cathedral on one side is a tiny historic church from the Byzantine-era (395-1453 AD) called the Holy Church of the Virgin Mary Gorgoepekoos and Saint Eleutherius.   Sydney liked this one.  She said she was an old soul and anyway the little church was much more her size.  

The bike tour took us through the oldest neighborhood in Athens called the Plaka district or “Neighborhood of the Gods”.   This area was build up around the ancient Agora (central public space where business, athletics, and politics were conducted).   The district has been continuously inhabited since the times of Ancient Greece.  It’s a beautiful area with cobblestone streets and a plethora of cafes, shops, and restaurants.  

We also biked through the well manicured National Garden (previously the Royal Gardens.  Interestingly, in 1920 King Alexander of Greece was biten by a pet monkey while walking through the garden and died 3 weeks later causing a major upheaval in the political environment at the time. 

After the gardens we rode over to the Panathenaic Stadium which is was built by a Roman Senator in 144 AD and is carved completely from white marble.  It hosted the first modern Olympic games in 1896.     

The bike tour also took us past the Presidential Mansion where we watched the rather unique changing of the guards.  The pom poms on the boots used to hide daggers which were used in warfare to kick attacking opponents.