In case you’re wondering how we’re doing with our luggage, we’ve gotten much better about it now. We’ve been traveling extremely lightly; with only one carry-on each. Firstly, we learned to travel with much less and sent a lot of stuff back home – thanks to our sisters. Secondly, since we still have one check-in and two carry-ons, we asked our hotels to store the larger one for us as we go along. Hotels will store the luggage for you as a service upon check-out, as long as you book a return stay. There’s usually a time limit but they are willing to bend a little if you ask them nicely. So, we no longer have the two elephants and two gorillas that we started out with, but rather, we now have two lightweight chimps on our backs. Although it means more frequent washing and drying (Joanne loves using the heated towel bars in hotels as a dryer), it sure made us more nimble.
As far as eating is concerned, we’ve been finding all kinds of restaurants everywhere. In Asia, we normally went with the local food, but in New Zealand, Australia, UK, & Ireland, the options ran out pretty quickly. In which case, we had no trouble finding Korean, Japanese, Thai, Vietnamese, Indian and of course, the old standby Chinese restaurants, to give us variety.
A fast-talking but friendly young woman at the information booth in Athens airport said she would tell us a secret (later we learned that Greeks in general tend to talk mile a minute - it sounded more like Spanish but just from the sound of it, you can’t tell if they are friendly). She whispered there’s a concert that evening by a popular Greek tenor (apparently a handsome heart-throb as well) near the Acropolis and it was free in celebration of the Earth Day. After checking in at our hotel and eating gyro for dinner (a welcome variety), we took a bus down to the outdoor concert venue near the Acropolis. Two local women, who happened to be heading to the same concert, helped us get off the bus and led us to the venue. The place was filled with people and every time the tenor sang, a lot of the audience sang along in unison. It reminded us of a similar atmosphere at a concert in Korea, except we couldn’t sing along because we didn’t recognize any of the songs.
The next morning, we decided to check out the National Archaeological Museum. When we got to the door, they said the day was reserved only for people with invitations. Of course, since we didn’t have an invitation, we would have to turn around and come back the next day. But Joanne somehow convinced the usher to let us in. The museum was filled with tons of sculptures, pottery, coins, and statues. They even had exhibits of Egyptian and Roman antiquities. It was fascinating to see that some of these were real antiquities dating back to more than 4,000 to 5,000 years ago. Many of them were extremely well preserved and looked like they were made only a few years ago. We were impressed with the Palace National Museum in Taipei but the sheer number and the beauty of its collections was dazzling in comparison.Below are some of the photos of the collections inside the museum.
This funerary urn was from around 430BC. At first, I thought it was a large vase that may have been used for flowers or plants - shows what I know about urns.
Early classical period 460BC bronze statue of Zeus or Poseidon (the former identification is more probable).
Egyptian exhibits.
A group of Greek children were absorbing not only the art & history; there was a lady explaining everything to them and also a musician who played live music. 
These are the16th century BC gold death masks excavated from Mycenae; known as the ‘Mask of Agamemnon’.
‘Changing of Guards’ in front of the Greek Parliament building. We could see some of it from our hotel room’s balcony; the parliament is located across the Syntagma Square. The change occurs every hour, on the hour.
Our Greek dinner - it was a welcome change to have a different menu. We went to a traditional Greek restaurant, which was run by a family for more than 50 years. The owner explained to us about each item that we had ordered and how each was made.
If you follow this sign it will lead you to the back side of the Acropolis. We walked up from Hadrian's Arch (by the Temple of Olympian Zeus) and stopped for coffee @ Lysikratous Sq. Afterwards, we walked up the narrow steps following little handmade signs like the above, but this did not lead us to the entrance of the Acropolis. Our route was unintentional, but getting lost in the back streets of Acropolis was part of the "recommended things to do" in Athens. 
There were many quaint restaurants and cafes along narrow streets leading up to the Acropolis.
I could just imagine all these steps being filled with tourists during the peak season.
Parthenon – built during the second half of the 5th century BC. A sign in the front described it as a ‘universal symbol of classical sprit and culture’.
The amphitheatre at Acropolis. It is also being restored for use.
In the foreground are the ruins of the Temple of Zeus. You can also see the Olympic Stadium in the background where the first modern Olympic was held in 1896.
Heavy reconstruction work was going on at the Parthenon (at other buildings at the Acropolis as well). A brand new museum was also being completed. It looked like the reconstructive work won’t be finished any time soon. It’s a pity that a beautiful frieze from the Parthenon is still being kept at the British Museum, instead of where it rightfully belongs.
The famous ‘Porch of the Maidens’ at the Temple of Athena - a retired history teacher from Norway told us that she had come to Athens just to be able to see this, and then she went on to explain to us about the other structures that were around us.
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