Athens post #4 - the climb to the Acropolis

After lunch we made the surprising discovery that the Acropolis was indeed open despite the strike. Even though it was almost 2:00 we decided to make the hike since we were there and it was open. What a good decision it turned out to be! Everyone else must have still thought that it was closed because there were very few people and it made for a wonderful experience. No crowds meant that we could take as long as we wanted which was really nice because this was really a once in a lifetime experience. We walked up the South Slope and stopped at the Theater of Dionysus. It's in pretty rough shape. There are plants growing everywhere and there are a lot of loose rocks. It's hard to tell what is original and what has been cobbled together as "repairs" over the ages. It is neat that you can because you can climb all over the theater and sit in the seats. You can look down onto the stage and almost feel like it's 2000 years ago!
A teachable moment - Emmy seems fascinated:
priceless artifact or reproduction? Hard to tell...
Pretty plants doing a number on the seats:
Now if I could just get them all to look in one direction...
Back down onto the stage from the seats:
There were so few people around that I had to set the camera on a column and use the timer to get this photo!
Again - let's hope this isn't an original carving sitting here in the underbrush...
A theater that is being restored:
Caves at the base of the Acropolis - Aidan said there were monsters - Emmy pretended to cry - good times :)