Arrival in Athens - Friday, September 26
We landed in Athens at about 10 a.m. Immigration was super quick and we didn’t have to wait for bags, so we went straight out to find our pre-arranged driver. (Airbnb hosts can help arrange all kinds of services, of which drivers are perhaps the most useful.) It was a good hour’s ride into Athens, the traffic getting slower as we delved further into the city center.
Our driver agreed with my plan to route us from the Athens airport through the Isthmus of Corinth and Patras as the fastest and easiest way to reach Lefkada on Sunday. He also offered to have our rental cars delivered to us in the Plaka. He didn’t understand why we would go all the way to the airport first. I explained that if we had the rental cars delivered in central Athens, we’d then have to drive them OUT of central Athens - maybe not a problem for taxi drivers, but definitely unpleasant and time-consuming for us.
Ryan met us at the entrance to the Roman Agora when we arrived around noon. It was maybe two minutes walk (uphill) to our house, and we were there! A very easy transit.
That house truly is centrally located! The drawback is that it’s on a steep pedestrian road. There is no vehicular access to this place. Anyone who rents it should be prepared to drag all luggage uphill on cobblestones for a couple of blocks. Also to walk up and down a spiral staircase repeatedly.
The gang was all ready to go see the Acropolis, so we headed right back out. The Acropolis is just five minutes (uphill) walk from the house. We hadn’t bought advance tickets and were slightly dismayed by the lines at the ticket booths, so we pivoted to having lunch.
We ate at the Klepsidra cafe, just a block from our house. For a frantically touristed place, it’s quite good. The outdoor location is lovely.
And then everyone’s time lag caught up with them. Ryan bought online tickets for a 6:00 pm entry to the Acropolis (5 pm sold out while we were discussing the matter). Today, we bought. We could visit the site at 6:00 and still be back home for our private-chef dinner at 7:00.
Acropolis
When Chris and I last visited Athens in May, 2023, we attempted to visit the Acropolis on the first morning-and failed. We actually walked away from our tickets just below the Propylaea. The crowds of tour groups were so thick there was no bypassing them, and we couldn’t get past them to do touring on our own.
That afternoon, walking around the Acropolis before heading to Piraeus to catch our ferry to Crete, we noticed that the crowds up top appeared much thinner.
Perhaps it would be possible to enter near closing time?
It was, and it turned out to be far and away the best time to see the site. A week later, back in Athens the night before our flight home, we entered around 5:00 pm. We walked right in (well, we had to push past an Indian dude posing in the doorway, but we paid for the same site he did) and found the Acropolis pleasantly empty (by Acropolis standards), with a pleasant breeze and beautiful lighting to boot.
We thought we’d learned something!
Well, we were correct about the golden hour light and breeze. But Athens has solved the overtourism problem, so the impossible crowding may be a thing of the past. Now all tickets are for a particular hour-long time-slot. This limits numbers of visitors to manageable levels. There is reportedly still some crowding in the mornings. Between 8:00 a.m. and noon are the popular times, probably because tour groups want to get the site in before their all-important lunch stop. Evening is still a great time to go, both for lighter crowds and the lovely afternoon conditions.
It was a gorgeous visit and really great to be there with Casey!
What Chris did instead
Chris chose not to visit the Acropolis (he said he’d already seen it). He instead spent the time sitting on the roof deck flying the drone and trying not to crash it in the high winds.
That evening, a private chef named Nick came to our house with ingredients for a feast in the style of Mykonos. We dined on the rooftop, which meant he carried every single component of our meal up two flights of stairs.
