On our final day in Athens, we had a brief climb up Lykavitos hill, one of the hills that rises through the chaotic sprawl of the city of Athens. After admiring the view and a brief look inside St George Chapel, we walk down to the city of Athens and finish off the morning with a tour of the Benaki museum and the Museum of Cycladic art. Photos of the Athens metro are also here.

From the map, it was apparent that we had to make a metro transfer at Syntagma onto the blue line, get off at Evangelismos, and walk up along Ploutarchou Street to the Finicular that will take us up to the top of Lykavitos hill. After this, we could walk down and visit some of the museums. Not surprisingly, this did not go as planned...

After a tiring 15 minute walk up the steep slope and the endless staircase on Ploutarchou Street, we got to the Finicular only to find that it was closed for service repairs. Since both of us were tired, we decided to share a cab with another tourist, where we each paid the 5 euros to the taxi driver - the original fee of riding on the Finicular to the top of the hill. This drive would take us however, not directly to the top, but to a parking area about 50 metres below the peak of the hill, where we then had to walk along an uncomplete walking track up to the top of the hill. Funnily enough, near the top, workmen were busily doing construction work, so we briefly got lost amid the scaffolding before we found the right way up to the top.

We were rewarded with breathtaking views of the city at the top of the hill. I could easily pick out the Old Palace, now the houses of Parliament at Syntagma and the Temple of Olympian Zeus. Further towards the right - Acropolis and the Parthenon. Zooming in through the telephoto lense, I could just make out the tourists moving around the Acropolis. Even from the lense, they resembled little ants tending their nest. Further behind was Filopappou Hill and its monument.

At the top of the hill is a small Byzantine-styled chapel of St George painted in the same white colour as the hill. This did not open until about 10 in the morning, where an old lady walked in and opened the door. Inside, the chapel is small, dark and dusty but I could still make out paintings in gold leaf which also included Virgin Mary and Jesus and a small altar in the back of the chapel.

Finally we walked along a windy path which led back down the hill. We did this not because the Finicular was out of service, but because of the excellent views of Athens and the Acropolis as one walks along the path. The path leads back down near the Finicular station at the bottom of the hill, where we then headed for the Museum of Cycladic Art.

The Museum of Cycladic art is a small museum that contains three floors of artefacts, primarily from the Cycladic civilisation. The first floor contains various figurines of clay, marble or metal that date before 3000 BC. One of the highlights on this floor is the large marble figurine of a woman. The next floor contains objects from 2000 BC to the 4th century AD and range from vases of terracotta and bronze to Greek jewellery and ornaments. Skipping the third floor (which was closed), the fourth floor contains bronze helmets, more vases, sculpture and jewellery and some glass works dating from the 4th century to 6th Century AD. In the end, we covered the museum in more than an hour before leaving for the Benaki Museum.

Unlike the previous museum, the Benaki Museum was much larger and had more to see. The ground floor begins by introducing us to the richness of Ancient Greece up to the exploits of Alexander the Great, with displays of gold jewellery and ornaments ranging from wreaths, necklaces and earings. It then progresses on to explore the prosperity of Greece under Roman rule as the two cultures merge, showing Roman copies of greek gods. This continues with displays of Byantium paintings, mosaics and sculpture including the famous "Adoration of the Magi". The first floor continues from the fall of Greece and the beginning of Turkish occupation, displaying costumes, jewellery, furniture, paintings and architecture from this time. As with the last floor, the area is well presented with reconstructions of rooms, inns and halls of the period. The second floor is less extravagant, as it displays artefacts from daily life in small harbour and pastoral villages during the occupation. Finally, the third floor explores the development that led to the Greek independence, depicting paintings, weapons and articles from this period of turmoil. It took significantly more time to explore this museum than the one previously, but was as interesting as the National Archaelogical Museum.

Although we had only half a day to finish off our trip to Athens, we still had enough time to do explore Lykavittos Hill and its chapel to savour the views of the city in addition to exploring two more museums. As with most of our travels, the important thing is that you make mistakes and learn from them, and one is that we should have put full preference to the Benaki Museum first after the Museum of Cycladic Art.