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Athens: ancient magic and modern charm

Route Details

Route Distance

16.6 km

Route Duration

3 h 38 m

Route Points

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Athens is a city where you can have breakfast near the ruins of a 2,000-year-old temple, and in the evening drink coffee in the trendy bar around the corner. Here everything exists at the same time: ancient history, lively street rhythm and real Greek hospitality. The city doesn't try to seem like a museum — it just lives, and that's bribing. Three places that impress: The Acropolis is a hill that can be seen from almost anywhere in the city. The Parthenon on top of it was built without any mortar: the marble blocks held only thanks to the precision of the processing and the metal staples. The columns of the temple are deliberately made slightly convex — to make them appear flat to the eye. Panathinaikos Stadium is the only stadium in the world completely lined with white marble. It was here that in the one thousand eight hundred and ninety-sixth year the first modern Olympic Games were held, and it still hosts the finishing straight of the Athens Marathon. Philopapou Hill offers one of the best views of the Acropolis — and yet there are hardly any tourists there. A quiet alternative to noisy viewing platforms. By the way, in Athens there are more than three hundred sunny days a year. This means that the chance of seeing the Parthenon in beautiful light is extremely high. This route takes you from the morning coffee to the evening climb to Lykavit — and the whole city fits between these two points. It is worth going through.