Changing of the Guard and Queen Amalia’s Garden

Very close to our hotel is the Athens National Garden, formerly the Royal Garden established by Queen Amalia, modern Greece’s first Queen in 1838. When Greece’s constitutional monarchy ended in 1927, it was opened to the public. 

As we walked toward the garden, we noticed that we were just in time to see the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Charlie captured a couple of short videos for you.



 The queen planted the tall palm trees at the entrance.






We were surprised to see a small zoo of sorts, first noticing these animals, which proved to be rare Cretan wild goats. They were behind two layers of fencing hence the poor photo.


We spotted these colorful parakeets and other parrot varieties, which we’ve also seen in trees around the city.






The garden covers about 40 acres and is a wonderful place for a morning walk.  The temperature was in the low 60s when we set out, but warmed up quickly.  Today’s high will be 74. We’re about to head in search of lunch, so that’s all for today.  Tomorrow we have a long food tour!


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