Panathenaic Stadium

After we'd walked past Hadrian's Gate and the Temple of Olympian Zeus, we came at last to the Panathenaic Stadium. It is built completely from marble, and was built around 300 AD. It was refurbished in the 19th century and was the spot where the first modern Olympic games were held in the late 1800s. Again it was used in the 2004 Olympics, and still it is used as the place where the Olympic torch is lit and carried to the host city. 

It's a really neat place to visit, and kind of fun because you can walk all over and even play around. At the entrance, they handed us free audio guides, which took us through the history and design of the stadium. Entrance is free once again for EU students but was I think 4 Euro for me.

We took a really similar family photo in the stadium in Plovdiv, Bulgaria and recreated that.

Next, we sat in the thrones for the king and queen and did king and queen poses (and Jenna and Lloyd are peasants in the first picture)

You're free to race around the track, and there were plenty of people doing relays and having fun there, so we went for it. There were gymnastics and a footrace in our Olympics. 

Lloyd won.

But Jordyn certainly looked like a victor.

Jenna is in fourth place in this photo. I am a very undeserved second, but it was the closest podium.

Jordyn then took a series of surprise photos with the camera, and this one is the best.

On our way back toward Monastiraki, we passed through the National Gardens and may or may not have grabbed an orange. I didn't try it, but I'm told they were sour.

We passed by the Metropolitan Cathedral of Athens, which is the main cathedral where the Archbishop of the Greek Orthodox church is.

We passed by Hadrian's Library just as the sun was setting. I didn't edit this photo below at all.

So many souvenir shops and I really thought these slippers were very fun. I didn't want them for me though, and couldn't think of one little kid to give them too, so I just took a picture.

Monastiraki Station

Instead of going somewhere for dinner that night, we went to the grocery store and bought pasta vegetables and made dinner. We joked that our 3 Euro a person grocery split was actually the most expensive meal we'd had so far. You can see the sunburns in this shot. Lloyd and Jordyn had it the worst.