Other sights of Athens… a little further away

in Athinas street, very near the Monastiraki square, there’s the Varvakeios Central Market, the busiest market of the city, and the Evripidou street with numerous shops for spices, cold cuts, and herbs, as well as the Kotzia square, with the city hall,
the Syntagma square, where, besides luxury hotels, you can find the monument to the Unknown Soldier, as well as the Greek Parliament building, which is housed in the former royal palace of the first royal couple of Greece, Otto and Amalia,
in Mitropoleos street – which connects Syntagma square with Monastiraki square – there’s the Metropolitan Cathedral of Athens. The majestic church was finished on 1862 and is a three-aisled, domed basilica, dedicated to the Annunciation of the Mother of God,
in Vasilissis Sofias street, you can find the Byzantine and Christian Museum, one of the most important museums internationally, with more than 25,000 exhibits dated from the 3^rd century onwards, housed in the impressive villa Ilissia, the winter palace of the Duchess of Plaisance,
in the same street, there’s also one of the most important museums of the city, the Museum of Cycladic Art with exhibitions separated in three huge thematic periods: Cycladic art (3200 – 2000 BC), ancient Greek art (2000 BC – 395 AD) and ancient Cypriot art (3900 BC – 6^th century AD). It houses interesting exhibitions at times, and you shouldn’t leave it without enjoying a cup of coffee in the handsome atrium and the beautiful coffeeshop, or visiting its very interesting gift shop,
in the same street, you can also find the imposing War Museum, with exhibitions from the stone age up to World War II. Military aircraft are exhibited in its yard, and you can sit in the cockpit of some of them,
the building in the crossing of Vasileos Konstantinou and Vasilissis Sofias streets, houses the National Gallery, which was founded in 1900 and to this day, it has managed to collect more than 17,000 paintings, sculptures, engravings, and other pieces of art, and it puts on many periodic exhibitions as well,
next to the Parliament in the Syntagma Square, you can find the National Garden of Athens, the largest “lung” of greenery in the centre of the city, and a favourite walk place of the citizens. The former Royal Garden was designed by queen Amalia herself, and is filled with tall centenarian trees, thick bushes, and climbing plants. Don’t forget to visit the Botanical Museum and of course… to feed the ducks in the small artificial lake of the park…
facing the National Garden, there’s the Benakis Museum, one of the most popular private museums of Athens, which is housed in an impressive neoclassical building of the Benaki family. It also has many other installations, like the multipurpose space in 138 Peiraios street, and the Kerameikos complex which houses the Islamic art collections. Don’t forget to visit the large and interesting gift shop, as well as the coffee-restaurant with the only balcony that overlooks the National Garden,
next to the National Garden, there’s the Zappeion… Take a walk in the mansion’s garden, admire the statues of Georgios Karaiskakis and the Discobolus, and don’t forget to pass under the impressive gate of the Mansion in order to see and admire the impressive circular atrium with its marble colonnades,
facing the gardens of the Zappeion, there’s the Panathenaic Stadium, also known as the “Kallimarmaro,” since it’s built out of Pentelic marble. The Olympic Games of 1896 were hosted here, and today, it’s used as the ending point of the Marathon…
in the great park framed by the streets of Vasilissis Amalias, Vasilissis Olgas, Kallirois, and Athanasiou Diakou, there are the columns of Olympian Zeus. They are fifteen huge columns of Corinthian Order, the ruins of the Temple of Olympian Zeus, also known as the Olympeion. It was first started being built in 515 BC, and it was finally finished about seven centuries later, in the time of the reign of the Roman Emperor Hadrian, between 125-130 AD,
on Amalias avenue, there’s the Hadrian’s Gate, an arch built in 131 BC by the Athenians to honour the Roman emperor who was a great benefactor to Athens. It bores two inscriptions, the first facing the Acropolis saying: “This is Athens, city of Theseus” and the second towards the Olympeion, saying: “This is the city of Hadrian, and not of Theseus,”

in Panepistimiou street, there’s the neoclassical trilogy of the city of Athens, the Academy, the University, and the Library… all three buildings are excellent samples of 19^th century architecture. The Academy was created by a donation of the benefactor Simon Sinas and is considered the greatest work of the Danish architect Theophil Hansen in Greece. In the middle, there’s the University, designed by Christian Hansen, with impressive wall paintings on the front, showing the rebirth of the sciences in the country. And on the right, there’s the Library, also designed by Theophil Hansen, under the supervision of Ernst Ziller, and is distinguished by its impressive double helical entrance staircase,
in the same street, there’s the unique in the Balkans Numismatic Museum, which is housed in the Iliou Melathron, a true piece of jewellery in Athens, designed by Ernst Ziller. In its beautiful yard, there’s a coffeeshop…
in Stadiou street, and specifically in the Old Parliament House, since 1960, the National History Museum is housed. It contains unique historical documents about the path of the Greek nation from the Fall of Constantinople up to the Greek-Italian war of 1940-1941. In the gift shop, you’ll find great ideas for gifts and souvenirs,
in Klafthmonos square, in one of the oldest neoclassical building complexes in the city, used as a temporary home of the first royal couple of the country, you can find the Museum of the City of Athens, which shows the contemporary history of Athens, after it was declared as the capital of the New Hellenic State. You can enjoy the impressive rooms of King Otto and Queen Amalia’s halls, and there’s a cafe-bistro in the museum’s garden called the Black Duck garden with one of the prettiest gardens of the city, where you can see the still-alive palm tree planted by queen Amalia…
the Lycabettus Hill, one of the city’s most characteristic places, offers a unique view of the whole of Athens. You can get up through the cable car, through the roads, or even by foot. On the top, you’ll see two churches (dedicated to Agios Isidoros and Agios Georgios) and the open-air theatre of Lycabettus,
in Patision street, you’ll find the Pedion tou Areos, which was restored and is now quite impressive, housing many open-air exhibitions in the summer months. A little further up Tositsa street, you’ll see the National Archaeological Museum, which is the biggest archaeological museum of the country and one of the most important of its kind on an international level, since it houses about 11,000 exhibits. Among those exhibits, distinguished are the copper statue of Poseidon, the teenager of Antikythera, as well as findings from the excavations in Mycenae. There’s also an important Egyptian collection as well as a collection of Cypriote antiquities. In the south wing you’ll find the Epigraphical Museum, the biggest of its kind internationally, housing more than 13,500 inscriptions, written mainly in the Greek language. Its most important exhibits are the huge steles that detail the tax lists of the Athenian Alliance, reaching 3.5 metres (11.5 feet) in height,
if you like trains, you shouldn’t miss the collection of historical carriages in the Railway Museum in Sepolia. Between its many exhibits, you’ll see steam trains from 1884, carriages of old trains and trams of past decades, as well as the royal carriages and the smoking carriage of the sultan Abdul Aziz,
the National Museum of Contemporary Art focuses on the modern art scene of the country,
the “Hellenic Cosmos” of the Foundation of Hellenic World is a multipurpose space in Peiraios street in Tavros where the visitor can experience the Greek history and culture guided by the most modern audiovisual and interactive technology. A unique experience is also offered by the “Tholos,” a dome-shaped theatre of virtual reality, where the digital collections of the FHW are displayed.
in Syngrou Avenue, there’s the Onasis Cultural Centre – The Stegi of Writing and the Arts with a dynamic program of theatre events, dancing, music, the arts, and writing. In the last floor there’s a restaurant that is extended to include the terrace in the summer with a great view of the Acropolis, Lycabettus, and the Saronic Gulf,
on the same road there’s the Evgenidio Foundation – Planetarium, one of the best and largest planetariums of the world,
one of the most important multipurpose spaces of the city is the Athens Concert Hall, which periodically houses world-famous concerts, recitals, operas, plays, and other music and dance events,
in the beautiful green suburb of Kifisia, in one of its most impressive roads with old mansions, there’s the Goulandris Natural History Museum, dedicated to the study and protection of the country’s natural environment,
on the slopes of Hymettus, there’s one of Attica’s most beautiful gardens, a work of the Philodassiki Society of Athens, as well as the Kaisariani Monastery, completely restored, which is one of the most noteworthy byzantine monuments of the 11^th Around the Kaisariani monastery, there’s one of Greece’s 19 aesthetic forests and a great spot to take a walk, to ride your bike, or to jog. It’s one of the easiest paths, for trekking but for jogging as well, because of its lack of a steep incline, and it starts in the Anapsektirio (refreshment shop) of Kaisariani Municipality, in Kalopoula position, passes through the Kaisariani Monastery, and ends on the Taxiarches Hill, with the abandoned Frangomonastiro. If you’re not particularly fond of walking, you can relax in the popular café-ouzeri “Kalopoula” and enjoy the soundtrack of the birdsongs and the flowing waters of the spring that lies nearby.