Another leisurely start this morning as I wanted to enjoy coffee at the central market. We walked through the Plaka area that we visited last night. Colin has been wanting to buy me a wooden box for my collection and we found a lovely olive wood shop. It took me some time but I found a lovely box - plain with a great grain. The shop owner told us all about his acres of olive trees and how he looks after them. I’m really pleased with it. Then it was onto the market, stopping at Mokka. I had read about this coffee shop that is also a roastery. It lived up to its reputation and I enjoyed a double latte made with Panama coffee beans and we shared a Greek orange cake. We watched the barista making traditional Greek coffee by heating metal pots in hot sand after filling them with 2 large sugars and coffee grounds.
Afterwards we smelt our way to the central market. It’s one of the biggest we’ve seen half is a meat market undercover and the other half a fish market. You need a strong stomach and not to be vegetarian as complete skinned sheep were hanging with their heads still on and there were trays of liver and innards. It was all so clean and organised. The fish market was the same with the stall holders constantly spraying the fish to keep it chilled. We found the open air fruit and veg market on the opposite side of the road and I bought half a litre of extra virgin olive oil to take home. We ate a fishy lunch of Dorada and fried anchovies with a Greek salad - delicious. We also got into conversation with a man on the table next to us who insisted we have a drink with him - not sure what it was (not ouzo!). He had a very good knowledge of Brexit and the various politicians. We made sure he knew we had voted to remain!
After lunch we started to walk to Filopappou Hill and stopped at our apartment to drop off our shopping and take a brief break. We then walked a different route through the city and up the hill. This is now one of two favourite places in Athens. The hill has winding paths through olive trees and meadows full of spring flowers including poppies, mallows and daisies. We saw Red Admiral and Painted Lady butterflies and birds. Best of all were the impressive views of the Acropolis. We have finally managed to find the perfect view!
We walked down the marble cobbled track and realised we were at the top of the track that takes us back to the Plaka district and our apartment. After some brief packing, our last meal was at the lovely little restaurant we had eaten at for lunch a few days earlier. We had a reserved table outside and could watch as the Acropolis became floodlit as the sun went down. Lamb for main course and complimentary cake and now two jugs of warm red wine and brandy which meant it was a bit of a wobbly walk home! It was a lovely end to our break in Athens.
