City Break In Athens

By Penny BroJacquie

If you're planning to travel to Athens, City Break in Athens will become your travel buddy with up-to-date advice on what to see, where to eat, and what to discover upon your stay in this beautiful and exciting city of Greece. Wander along ancient footpaths, laze on sandy beaches and witness one of the best sunsets in the world at Cape Sounion.

In City Break in Athens one can find detailed itineraries for six walking tours in the city center and the Greater area of Athens, Piraeus, and Athens Riviera, along with cultural and historical facts, locals' favorite bars and restaurants, and useful information about Athens transportation alongside with maps. There is also a section with useful phrases and words in Greek.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Penny BroJacquie
• Release date: Aug 31, 2022
• ISBN: 9798215702949

Book preview

WELCOME

If you're planning to travel to Athens, City Break in Athens will become your travel buddy with up-to-date advice on what to see, where to eat, and what to discover upon your stay in this beautiful and exciting city of Greece. Wander along ancient footpaths, laze on sandy beaches and witness one of the best sunsets in the world at Cape Sounion.

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In City Break in Athens one can find detailed itineraries for six walking tours in the city center and the Greater area of Athens, Piraeus, and Athens Riviera, along with cultural and historical facts, locals' favorite bars and restaurants, and useful information about Athens transportation alongside with maps. There is also a section with useful phrases and words in Greek.

ATHENS MAIN SIGHTSEEING POINTS MAP

https://yiasudotcom.files.wordpress.com/2014/08/athens_map_v1.jpg

CITY OF ATHENS MAP

CLICK HERE FOR HIGH RESOLUTION MAP

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athens_map_v2.jpg (2532×1791) (wordpress.com)

CITY OF ATHENS IN HISTORY

City

Athens (Modern Greek: Αθήνα, Athína; Ancient Greek: Ἀθῆναι, Athēnai) is the capital and largest city of Greece.

City of Athens official visitors guide

Athens is one of the world’s oldest cities, with its recorded history spanning some 3,400 years. Widely referred to as the cradle of Western civilization and the birthplace of democracy, Athens was the center of art and philosophy in ancient times, home of both Plato's Academy and Aristotle’s Lyceum.

The urban area of Athens (Greater Athens and Greater Piraeus) extends beyond the city limits, with a population of 3,074,160 (in 2011).

Athens is home to two UNESCO World Heritage Sites: the Acropolis of Athens and the medieval Daphni Monastery.

The Hellenic Parliament (built in the 19th century) and the Athens Trilogy are two distinguished landmarks of the modern era. The so-called Athens Trilogy consists of the National Library of Greece, the Athens University, and the Academy of Athens on Panepistimiou (El. Venizelou) Street.

Athens was the host city of the first modern-day Olympic Games in 1896, and 108 years later it welcomed home the 2004 Summer Olympics.

If you visit Athens, you should pay a visit to the National Archeological Museum and the new Acropolis Museum, not to mention, of course, the Acropolis Hill and the Parthenon.

A myth explaining how Athens acquired its name was well known among ancient Athenians and even became the theme of the sculpture on the West pediment of the Parthenon. Legend has it both Athena and Poseidon requested that they become patrons of the city and give their name to it. For this reason, they had to compete with each other to earn the citizens’ favor. Poseidon produced a salt water spring by striking the ground with his trident. Athena created the olive tree. The Athenians accepted the peace and prosperity that the olive tree represented instead of Poseidon’s naval power, and they named the city after Athena.

The oldest known human presence in Athens is the Cave of Schist, dated to between the 11th and 7th millennia BC. By 1400 BC, Athens had become an important center of the Mycenaean civilization. Athenians used to claim that they were pure Ionians with no Dorian element.

In the Greco-Persian Wars, Athens and Sparta led a coalition of Greeks against the Persians, defeating them at Marathon in 490 BC and at Salamis in 480 BC. The astonishing victory was followed by what is known as the Golden Age of Athenian democracy. Athens became the leading city of Ancient Greece. Art and philosophy flourished, laying the foundations of Western civilization.

Athens was then so powerful that it started to use the Delian League (an association of Greek city-states) as a vehicle for its own imperial ambitions. The tensions created by this resulted in the Peloponnesian War (431–404 BC), in which Athens was defeated by its rival Sparta and the Golden Age was ended.

Athens fell into decay, and in 1458 it was conquered by the Ottoman Empire.

After the Greek War of Independence, Athens became capital of the newly independent Greek state in 1834.

The first King of Greece, Othon of Bavaria, commissioned the architects Stamatios Kleanthis and Gustav Schaubert to design a modern city plan, consisting of a triangle defined by the Acropolis, Keramikos, and Royal Palace (now part of the Greek Parliament). Neoclassicism was the chosen architectural style of the new plan.

In 1896, Athens hosted the first modern Olympic Games. The population of the city swelled after 1922 when a huge number of Greeks expelled from Asia Minor following the Greek defeat by Turkey tried to find refuge in the mainland.

But it was in the 1960s that the population of the city exploded.

In 2004 Athens hosted the 2004 Summer Olympics.

ATHENS SPOTLIGHTED PROGRAMME

Before you fly to Athens, register for the Athens Spotlighted program!

Through the Athens International Airport Athens Spotlighted programme, you are provided with a free city card, which can be used at various cultural sites, museums, art galleries, restaurants, nightclubs and a wide variety of selected stores all around the city of Athens. The Athenspotlighted city card is available at the Athens International Airport. Make sure that you validate your free city card upon your arrival at the designated areas in the airport to get special discounts and benefits in the city’s best spots.

How It Works

Register for the Athens Spotlighted program for FREE here.

Explore available offers or purchase tour/attraction tickets and passes online

Show your unique Athens Spotlighted code to redeem offers.

ATHENS TRANSPORTATION

USEFUL LINKS

Points of tickets, card sale and reloading map

OASA Telematics & Real Time Information

Transit Stations Maps

El. Venizelos Airport bus route map

Athens Transportation Service Map

El. Venizelos Airport maps aia-shopping-map

X95 Bus Route Telematics – OASA

Ticket & Fares for Airport Bus Lines Airport Express Bus Lines – OASA

Athens and Piraeus Bus Routes Maps Maps – OASA

Athens Center Public Transport Maps Routes – OASA

Athens Metro map Athens Metro Map | Metro Line Map

Telematics App Telematics App – OASA

Ath.ena Card App Ath.ena Card App – OASA

Metro & Tram Lines Info (Trip Duration, Frequency of Routes, First & Last Train Departures)

Green line: Line 1 | ΣΤΑΣΥ (stasy.gr)

Red Line: Line 2 | ΣΤΑΣΥ (stasy.gr)

Blue Line: Line 3 | ΣΤΑΣΥ (stasy.gr)

Tram: T6 Line 6 - T7 Line 7

If you plan on traveling using the Athens Public Transport Network, make sure you have a valid ticket or travelcard.

Before you start your travel, make sure that you have bought a ticket or a card and that you have loaded it with the appropriate product for the route you wish. If you want to check that, you can use one of the Automatic Ticket Vending Machines that can be found at any Metro of Tram station and click Card Information on the home menu.

To enter a Metro station, make sure that you follow the green arrows located at the side of the gates. The gates marked with a red X lead to the opposite direction and they don’t open.

You must alidate your ticket or card every time you enter or exit the Metro or Suburban railway stations. If you travel by bus, trolley-bus, or tram, you must validate your ticket only once, upon boarding.

Every time you enter or exit a station or get on / get off a bus, make sure that you have your ticket or card with you.

You’d better yold the ticket or card in your right hand as it would be easier for you to validate it on the reader on your right.

Validate your ticket or card before you get through a ticket validation machine. Otherwise, the machine sees an obstruction and does not open. In that case, take a step back and the machine will open as soon as it stops tracking the obstruction.

You can validate your ticket or card at any station validation machine or in a bus. To do that, bringing your ticket or card close to the surface of the reader.

Passengers who are disabled persons and/or with impaired vision and/or baggage (bags) and/or baby carriages and/or accompanying children should use the wide gates for disabled persons for their safety and convenience.

TYPES OF TICKETS

MULTIPLE TICKET (ATH.ENA Ticket)

Ideal for tourists and those who use public transport for a limited period.

AIRPORT TICKETS:

– EXPRESS bus line ticket

– METRO ticket

– 2-way METRO ticket (within 30 days)

– METRO ticket from & to