Where We Have Been - Europe - Greece

We arrived in Athens and did what we always do in a new city: headed straight out for a wander.

Not long into that first explore, we turned up a side street and suddenly found ourselves face-to-face with a chanting crowd marching towards us. For a moment it was a bit of a wait—what’s happening here? kind of situation, until we realised we (and they) were approaching the US Embassy from opposite directions. We never did work out what the protest was about, but we took it as a cue to sidestep and let the moment pass.

That ended up being a pretty accurate snapshot of our time in Athens—fascinating and full of curveballs. There were strikes while we were there, so buses and ferries (including some heading out to the islands) weren’t running, which made getting around more of an adventure than we’d planned. And we had a couple of those “did that really just happen?” news moments too, like hearing about small explosions involving rubbish bins near the university. Nothing that stopped us enjoying Athens, but it definitely kept the trip feeling lively and unpredictable.

While it’s pretty hard to miss the Acropolis—sitting up there on its rocky perch like it’s keeping watch over the whole city—we decided to save it for later and start somewhere else.

First stop was the Panathenaic Stadium. It’s one of those places that feels instantly special, partly because it’s so striking, and partly because of the history. Built entirely of marble, it’s also known as the birthplace of the Modern Olympics, with the first Games held there in 1896. Even if you’re not especially sporty, it’s hard not to get swept up in the “imagine the atmosphere” factor.

Next up were a couple of the other “big hitters”: the Temple of Olympian Zeus, and the nearby Arch of Hadrian. The Temple of Zeus is all about scale—those towering columns (what’s left of them) still feel enormous, and it’s easy to imagine how jaw-dropping the whole thing must have been when it was complete.

Just a short stroll away, the Arch of Hadrian makes a surprisingly memorable marker as you move through that part of the city—one of those places you keep turning back to look at, almost without realising. It’s not as vast as the temple, but it has this satisfying “threshold” feeling, like you’re stepping between two different Athenses as you pass through.

And tucked inside the Ancient Agora, we visited the Church of the Holy Apostles. It’s a small 10th-century Byzantine church, and it feels like a calm pocket of time in the middle of everything—quiet, cool, and grounding after the scale and bustle of the ruins around it.

From there we took the funicular (cable car) up Mount Lycabettus, which is a very easy way to get a big reward for not much effort. The view over Athens from the top is incredible—city in every direction, with the Acropolis still managing to steal the scene. Right at the summit is the little Agios Georgios Chapel (also called the Chapel/Church of St George), and it was absolutely worth a look too. Small, bright, and quietly beautiful against all that open sky.

After having a lovely dinner at a small cafe under the floodlit spectacle of the Acropolis, the next day it was finally time to go up and explore this ancient marvel properly.

Rome has some pretty impressive “very old” buildings, but the Acropolis puts history into a whole different perspective. Some of what you’re looking at up there was already more than 2,000 years old by the time the Colosseum was built—and honestly, it’s hard not to feel a little bit humbled. Beyond the beauty, we kept coming back to the how of it: the skill, the ambition, and the sheer audacity of building something this magnificent on such a steep, exposed rock.

We didn’t rush it. We spent a good chunk of time lingering over the artefacts and details, trying to take it in rather than just ticking it off.

Entering the Acropolis precinct, we wandered through the lower-level ruins as we climbed, stopping often to catch our breath and look back out over Athens. From up there, you get those sweeping views that make the city feel like it’s stretching forever—and we loved spotting the Temple of Hephaestus in the distance, sitting solid and serene below.

The Acropolis isn’t just one building—it’s more like an entire ancient precinct gathered on top of the hill, with ruins and monuments appearing around corners as we climbed. The Parthenon is the obvious star, and it really does have that “we can’t believe we’re actually here” effect in real life, but what surprised us was how much there is beyond it.

On the way up, we kept stopping to take in the sweeping views across Athens—there were moments where the whole city seemed to fan out at our feet, right to the sea haze on the horizon. We also loved those perfect sightlines to other classics, like the Temple of Hephaestus below, which somehow looked even more impressive from above.

One of our favourites was the Erechtheion, one of the most sacred buildings on the Acropolis, mostly because of the Caryatids—the famous porch where the columns are carved as women. Even in the middle of a busy site, that spot felt oddly calm and reverent, like everyone instinctively lowered their voice. And then there’s the Odeon of Herodes Atticus on the southern slope: a stone theatre tucked into the hillside that’s still used for performances today, which made it feel less like a relic and more like the city is still in conversation with its past.

The Acropolis Museum was the perfect follow-on—like stepping straight from the ruins into the “okay, now let’s actually understand what we’ve just seen” part of the day. The highlight for us was seeing how the Parthenon sculptures are laid out to match the building itself, with sections reconstructed so you can picture the whole story, and casts filling the gaps where originals are elsewhere.

We also spent time lingering over smaller pieces we might’ve rushed past if we were tired—marble reliefs connected to the Theatre of Dionysus, and a mix of bronze finds (including weapons) that made the ancient world feel oddly immediate and practical, not just grand and mythic.

And because Athens has a way of spoiling you for choice, we ended up going deeper into bronze masterpieces too—like the Artemision Bronze (the one that’s famously debated as Zeus or Poseidon) and the Jockey of Artemision, both recovered from the sea near Cape Artemision. Even after a day of marble and columns, those bronzes stopped us in our tracks.