Gardens and Stadium

We walked back to Monastiraki Square for lunch. We grabbed a take-away souvlaki at O Thanasis (part of "Souvlaki Row") and headed down to the metro, destination: Syntagma.

The Syntagma metro station was big and airy. When Syntagma station was being built, the construction crews unearthed lots of artifacts which were put on display (toward the back of the picture). They also made sure to include cool modern touches like this clock.

National Gardens

This was a quiet place to rest and reflect...and eat our souvlaki. There was a small zoo on the grounds, too.

One of the unusual plants we saw in several places in Athens was something that looked like a giant agave cactus. (This picture was taken later on the way up to the Acropolis, but it shows a large specimen of the same plant we saw everywhere in the National Gardens).


We accidentally took the tram #4 instead of the trolley #4, so we got a little turned around finding our next site. After quite a bit of walking, we eventually ended up at...

...the Panathenaic Stadium.

Restored to its second century B.C. glory for the first "modern" Olympics in 1896, it also served as the finish line for the marathon in 2004.

There's also a great view of the Acropolis from there.