Greece Day 3, Athens to Patras & around Patras

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28 Oct 2007

Woke up early in the morning at around 6:30am again. It is amazing how early I get up here. Well there is a good reason for that, I have to get to the Port city of Patras by noon so that I might spend the day taking a look around. After breakfast, I was off to the Omonia district, where I will have to take a bus 051 to the main intercity bus terminal -- Kifissos KTEL Terminal A.

This is where have my breakfast at Acropolis House.


Bread, butter, olives, and a hard-boiled egg.


Smash the hard-boiled egg into the bun, add salt and pepper, and you have an egg burger!


Walking down the Ermou shopping district (again) in the morning


The old church in the middle of the shopping district.



Another church on my way to Omonia


Finally after a long walk I caught bus 051 and reached the Kifissos bus terminal.


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Off to Patras, route marked in blue.


Something was strange with the bus so the coach captain stopped to do a check. The sea was on my left -- a clear indication I was still on mainland Greece.


Ready to GO!


Now the sea is on my right. We have crossed the isthmus of Corinth and are now in the Peloponnese.


The Ionian seaside looks beautiful.


The bus got stuck at a town for a short while, a parade of sorts was going on. Here we have some cadet scouts.


Girl Scouts


There they go


Back on our way.

First glimpse of the Rio-Antirio bridge, the longest of its kind in the world. It connects mainland Greece with the Peloponnese and it is next to Patras (at Rio). I think it is supposed to be earthquake and tsunami resistant.

The bridge was also featured on Discovery Channel

Ah... I made it to my hotel Patras Palace in one piece after the long bus journey of about 4-5 hours. I learned later that apparently there is a strip-club with the same name in Patras as well. After putting down my bags I went to check out some of the sights in Patras. First up, I walked along the blue line below to get to the Fortress of Patras. The Fortress was built by the Eastern Romans (Byzantine) and changed owners multiple times, Byzantine, Venetian, Byzantine, Ottoman, and finally modern Greece. During the Greek revolution, Patras was one of the starting areas of the uprising. The Greeks took over the city but the Ottomans held out in the fortress for a long time (a few months I think).

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Streets of Patras


Lots of stairs (about 200 steps). An Armenian Church to the left of the stairs.


Here I go!


Finally.



The whole city is sprawled along the coastline


Aiks! More slope to get to the entrance.


Fortress Wall


Entrance


Layout showing which parts of the fortress were added by which conquering people.


Write-up of the Castle's history


The first compound, with the inner Bailey



I think this is a bridge over the inner moat


Entering the 2nd entrance



The second compound. Most secured place.


A well?



More climbing to do to get up there


Finally at the top!





Patras from the top of the Fortress


Holes for archers to shoot from


Each hole covers a certain angle on the path below the main entrance of the Fortress.


This hole covers the 2nd entrance into the inner compound

Getting bored with the stones I left the Fortress and walked along the red line to see some other minor sights.

Church of St Augustus. There is a bigger church of St. Andrew which I will visit on another day.


Close-up of a tower with a clock


Another side of the Church. I think the clocks are not working.



Roman Odeon of Patras. Nothing compared to the Odeon of Herodes in Athens.


Walking down is so much better!


Yeah Kenny died.


The Apollon Theatre at Georgiou I square. Built in the 19th century.


Georgiou I square


Dinner at Europa center, cheap and good place. Everywhere else in Patras just looks expensive.


Seated and waiting for food.


Wine, bread, Mousaka and Potatoes, cost about 10 euros


Mousaka is kind of like Lasagna minus the pasta that is swapped with more cheese and eggplant.

After dinner I retired to my hotel to practice some presentations of the conference tomorrow. Unfortunately, I was too sleepy, so I decided to wake up at 530am the next day to prepare instead...

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