Pyrgos, Greece
This morning was the long trek back from Olympia to Athens. The wifi in the hotel room wasnt good and I could only get reception by sitting downstairs in the lobby. I was up at 5am still not sleeping proper and unfortunately in hot countries as they dont have heating the water was near ice since it hadnt warmed up for the day.
I tried using the wifi in the lobby one last time before I left at 7am. The bus stop back to Athens was only down the road by the train station. My schedule said there was a bus at 730am. I waited but was the only one there.
As 730am passed there was no bus so I was wondering when it would come. Some of the school kids had taken a train that just left so I was wondering if I should have tried that. More kids started to gather and by 740am two buses arrived.
It was 2.30 Eu fare ($3.45) and took 45 mins winding thru the village communities back to Pyrgos. At Pyrgos I bought a ticket for the 930am express to Athens for 32 Eu ($48) which was still an hour away. I got some cheese and spinach pastries for breakfast.
It was a long bus ride with a half hour stop at a service station again. We passed the Peloponnese bridge linking the island to the mainland again. Originally the plan was to goto Ancient Corinth on the way back but with the bus timings and connections it would have been a long tiring detour so I gave up on that plan.
We arrived in Athens just after 1pm and I transferred to the 051 city bus back to the centre for 1.40 Eu ($2.60). The bus lets off near Omonia Square.
Rather than go to my next hotel in Athens I decided to first try one of the museums as they tend to shut early. The Athens City Museum was closed today but I made it to the National Historical Museum by 220pm.
It was free entry and they said they were closing in 10 minutes so I had to rush thru taking all my pictures.
This was the location of the first parliament and you can see the parliament chambers. There were lots of portraits and ethnic costumes. It would have been nice to spend more time and not just do a quick run thru since the museums close so early.
Having finally visited a museum as I wont have the chance again with my long day trips coming up, I went to my next hotel. This time my hotel was in the historic district close to Monastiraki.
As it was a smaller and older building it had an interesting luggage lift. As I only had one bag it was ok but even but for large suitcases it would still be tight. The room had a terrace and you could see the Acropolis if you leaned out.
For my upcoming tours the organizers had left a message with my hotel to call them back as they had cancelled the Temple option during my Delphi tour. I also went to scout the hotel pickup for tomorrow morning.
I then went exploring to the Metropolitan Church. Again there were fewer churches then in Russian countries such as when I was in St Petersburg, Ukraine, or Belarus. There were interesting murals and it would have been nice to see more churches like this.
After that it was more wandering around. I had to goto Amalia hotel where my second tour company was located to confirm the pickup point for the Mycenae tour.
Wendy
2017-10-18
Lovely architecture in the churches Asif. The Peleponnese Bridge to Patras is beautiful - reminds me of the two new Vladivostok Bridges.