Athens Tuesday 4th March

Apart from some olive and plum orchards early on, the bus trip from the airport into Athens felt as is we were travelling along Whitehorse Road in Melbourne. It was so unEgyptian and, apart from all the Greek signs, we could have been home.

I slept for about four hours and then we set out for a walk in the afternoon. It was amazing to be looking in a bookshop one moment and the next moment to catch a glimpse of the Acropolis complex or some other ruins. We visited the Zappeio gardens which were once private, belonging to Konstantinos Zappas, a wealthy Rumanian Greek, who left his gardens and his palace to the state when he died.

There are many garden beds with orange trees in them and lots of plants not yet in leaf or in flower. The National Gardens continued on from here and they include sculptures, a turtle pond, a duck pond and excavations showing beautiful mosaics.

Really I was just dragging my exhausted body through them and by the time we returned to the hostel, I had a raging headache. Keith went out to purchase basic supplies for tea – rolls and salad.

You can be almost anywhere in Athens and come across a small site where excavations have revealed old ruins.