Into the Wild Blue Yonder...

Today, Maddie and I decided to climb Lycavitos. Since the weather report was predicting temperatures in the mid-90s, we decided to head off early in the morning. Here is Maddie in from of some lovely trees that we thought looked like something out of Doctor Seuss. Actually, the vegetation was pretty strange all the way up- a lot of these trees, a lot of the spiky plants in the foreground of the picture, and a lot of cacti. (More on that later.)
This is the chapel at the top of the hill. It's to St. George, and from the inside it was absolutely beatiful- the walls and the ceilings are all painted with images, mostly from the life of Christ, and there are lots of icons. Really, it looked like something out of a book about Greek Orthodox churches. I used my rudimentary modern Greek with the man who takes care of it- said good morning, that the church was beautiful, and that yes, I was American, no, I was not a tourist. I would have taken pictures of the inside, but I wasn't sure if I was supposed to, and it was dark and I'm not sure they would have come out.
The nice thing about Lycavitos is the beautiful view from the top! This picture has the acropolis, and behind it you can see out to Piraeus. Basically, you can see the entire city- Lycavitos gives you a 360 degree view, and with my map and my guidebook, we could pick out all the major landmarks. Did you know that Athens, like Rome, has 7 hills? Lycavitos is, of course, the biggest- you can see how high above the Acropolis we were here.
Here are the stairs that we climbed- pretty much the only unfortunate part about the experience was the stairs, which are uneven and so hard to walk up comfortably. You really have to watch your step.
And, of course, you have to watch out for the cacti. I read this in my guidebook, and was a bit confused, since I wasn't aware that there were a lot of cacti growing in Athens. Shortly into the trip, we realized that the guide was right to warn us. There are a lot of them, and they are very sharp. They also encroach on the path- and on the benches, in this case. Watch out. So, other than the cacti and the stairs, it was a really nice trip, and I would advise anyone coming to Athens to do it.

I hope everyone is well. I'm off to do some more exploring- I think we're going up the Acropolis this afternoon. I'm excited.