Greece Day 2: Athens at Syntagma Square

After an excellent day of sleep at the Sofitel, we recovered from the long trip and jet lag, and were ready to start visiting Athens.  The Metro station is a 10 minute walk from the Sofitel (go up on the bridge across the street). If unsure, ask the hotel concierge. TIP: they gave us a very nice map of Athens.
We took the blue line, and after probably 40', it got us into the heart of Athens: Syntagma square.  The cost of the ticket is  €8 per person. All the signs are in Greek and English.

My first impressions of Athens' Metro:  modern, very clean, people aren't noisy inside the train, safe.

We'll stay at the Best Western Amazon Hotel, a block away from Syntagma square.

Hotel Best Western Amazon - Athens

Small Elevator from Hotel Best Western Amazon - Athens

Window view of Acropolis from Best Western Amazon (zoom)

Some highlights of the hotel:

• Very close, waling distance, to the famous  Plaka (Πλάκα) district, and to the Acropolis.
• Small rooms but comfortable (still bigger than rooms in Japan)
• Clean
• Free WiFi available (ask for password at desk)
• Safe-box inside the  room (it should fit a 14'' laptop)
• TV, air conditioner
• View to the Parthenon !  Our room is on the 5th floor. I think that lower floor rooms don't have this view, but I asked for Parthenon view when I reserved it.
• Non Smoking room (also, just in case, I asked for non smoking room when I reserved it)
• Very good attention from service desk
• Breakfast included, from 7:30am to 10:30am

While looking for the hotel, we started walking towards the government palace (behind the square), and happened to reach it at the time of change of ward. The solder's dresses are kind of of funny...

At night, we went for a walk  on  Plaka (Πλάκα) . It's a beautiful area, with lots of people, coffee places, and restaurants.  A dinner of giro (pretty big), beer, coffee for two , seating on the sidewalk, costs about  €29 for two. Not cheap, but not bad either. It was worth of it.

A good Greek coffee after dinner