Athens day tour

My wife, Margaret, and I, during a September ’05 trip to Greece, took a day tour of Athens with Dimitri from Spiros Taxi (Athens, Greece; phone 011 30 6944 285 686 or visit www.athenstaxi.net). Spiros himself was on vacation, but Dimitri turned out to be an able substitute who knew the area and its history and spoke excellent English.

Normally, Dimitri told us, he would take us to the Acropolis first, but because of an unfavorable weather forecast (which turned out to be erroneous) he suggested we drive down the coast first, to Cape Sounion. There we saw the Temple of Poseidon, high on the cliff above the village.

We drove back to Athens through some very heavy traffic in the suburbs and visited the Acropolis and Parthenon. Unfortunately, the tour buses had arrived by then and it was crowded. Nonetheless, we saw what every tourist to Greece must see.

After lunch we drove up Lycabettus Hill, the highest point in Athens. In general, the acropolis of any city is built on the highest hill (e.g., Acrokorinth above Corinth), but Lycabettus does not have enough area on top to accommodate a structure such as the Athens Acropolis, so it was constructed in its well-known location.

After a few more stops, we were dropped at our hotel, located in the Plaka area, which is near the central square (Syntagma) and is good for shopping.

The cost for the all-day tour was €230 ($291); this would be the price for two or four people.

BOB DEAR

The Woodlands, TX