Squeezing through the massive crowds of shoppers waiting in queues to get into tony stores on Ermou Street or joining waves of tourists making pilgrimages to the Acropolis, it’s almost impossible to believe that five years ago Greece was broke and just two years ago, Athens he was in total lockdown because of the worldwide pandemic.
But now, while other cities in Europe are only starting to see tourists returning to hotels and visiting attractions, Athens seems to be already back on track for tourism. Coming down for breakfast at the Herodion Hotel near the Acropolis Museum, where we were staying for a weekend before joining a cruise aboard Oceania Cruises‘ Insignia, the hotel’s large breakfast room was completely packed with people planning their sightseeing day trips. The streets of the once-dusty Plaka are newly repaved with handsome granite blocks and the restaurants with outdoor tables lining both sides of the route are packed with tourists, as well as an impressive numbers of locals.
It all seems so very apt in the city that laid the foundations of western culture 2,500 years ago. Here’s a look at how a city that was slipping into history has redefined itself :
Read it all in The Cruisington Times