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Day 13: On our first day in the city, like millions of visitors to Greece before us, we made a beeline for the Acropolis. It was lucky that we did. Next day when woke up on Saturday we discovered that the guards at the Acropolis had gone out on a wildcat strike, shutting the site down for 48 hours. Tempers were flaring as we walked around the city, with taxi drivers abusing each other, restauranteurs remonstrating with each other, and long-faced Greek tourists wildly gesticulating at each other in a manner highly uncharacteristic of the Greek people. Much of this I put down to the damaging economic impact of the strike, given that tens of thousands of people either stayed away or were forced to visit alternative sites of lesser archeological and historical significance.

Friday, however, turned out to be a great day to visit. While it was hot, there was sporadic cloud cover which gave us some respite on top of the rock. We joined the masses on the upward climb and circumnavigation of the Acropolis site, passing the Theatre of Dionysos, the Odeon of Herodes Atticus and the Temple of Athena Nike to the most recognisable of all Greek monuments, the Parthenon itself.

While the monuments were impressive, it was hard to miss the fact that the site is under extensive restoration, with cranes and scaffolding evident everywhere. One sign we saw indicated that the project had commenced in 1983, with the support of European Union funds. It begs the question whether the restoration will ever be complete.

Is any city more defined by its major landmark than Athens is by the Acropolis? Paris has the Eiffel Tower, Shanghai has the Bund, San Francisco the Golden Gate Bridge and Sydney its Opera House, but none quite compare to the the Acropolis’ physical and historical dominaton over Athens.

With or without reconstruction, and despite the fact that the site was literally crawling with visitors like ourselves, the Acropolis was unmissable.