Greece-4-Poseidon's Temple

My plan was to leave Athens for one day and visit the island of Hydra, but it involved a ferry ride.  The draw of the island was to see the donkeys (no cars allowed) and maybe have the kids take a swim.  It was still not the warmest weather, so it seemed like a bad idea to do a choppy ferry and freeze on an island.

So instead, we rented a car and took a ride down the Athens Riviera to Poseidon's Temple.

We stopped along the way to admire the view.  I like the Red, White and Blue!

The temple was dramatically perched on the cliff at Cape Sounion, overlooking the Aegean Sea.

This is what we drove up to!

It was a very beautiful spot and we took a vote and asked the kids which temple they would rather have, Athena's or Poseidon's?  Greg and I would take Poseidon's all the way, the kids thought they would rather be in Athens so more people would see their temple!

On our return trip we also visited this place called Lake Vouliagmeni, which is supposed to be hot spring fed lake.  Charlie and Kelly were the only ones brave enough to put on their suits, but only Kelly really swam.  (she was the youngest person swimming by about 50 years)

Note Greg in hat & coat..it was COLD!

Katie and I did a cool hike to the area above the lake and we had amazing sea views.  She was part mountain goat and wanted to keep going off trail.  I kept trying to keep her one the trail!

Our view from the trail-not too shabby!

We checked out a beautiful place by the sea to enjoy the view!

As the sun was setting we were rolling back to Athens to turn in our car.  One interesting thing about the "Athens Riviera" was that it really seemed to still be attempting to recover from the financial crisis.  All along the way we saw abandoned buildings some covered in graffiti.   The buildings weren't a million miles from anywhere, they were along the sea an hour south of Athens!  It made us wonder what it looked like when things were in better times!

We were happy to get out of the car with fighting kids...funny how a 17 year old and a 9 year old can drive each other and everyone else crazy!

Greg and I did escaped and headed for a cool rum bar to enjoy a fancy drink!

Another great day in Greece!