This morning we switched hotels from The Hera to the Acropolis Select, 3 blocks down the street. Both are used by Rick Steves groups, but unfortunately for us, it's the Hara that is the nicer of the two. Others in our tour group who made the same switch agree.

We did the Rick Steves walking tour of Athens this morning. It starts (Syntagma Square, Parliament) and ends (Monastiraki Square and Metro) in modern Athens, but along the way we encountered old Greek (Lysicrates Monument and The Tower of the Winds) and Roman (Hadrian's Library , the Roman Forum) sites as well as three 11th century Greek orthodox churches. The Anafiotika neighborhood at the foot of the Acropolis was very much like a tiny Greek island village.

We learned a lot about modern Greek history which began in 1821 after 400 years of control by the Ottoman Turks.

The evening we had our introductory meeting with our fellow Rick Steves tour group members. Ioanna (Greek for Joanna) is our guide. She's about 40 with two girls, 10 and 12. our group consists of a lot of retired teachers and lawyers. There's only one other MD, a woman Pediatric GI specialist (who seems a bit ditzy on first encounter). There is a couple from Medford, OR and two from Southern, CA. Others come from MA, OH, DC and TX. There's one Canadian couple from Ontario

Had a nice group dinner tonight. We begin a tour of the Acropolis at 8:00 AM tomorrow. No more sleeping late for us!!

Walked - 5.2 miles