Strolling in the Zappion Gardens. Athens, Greece
National Gardens/Zappion Gardens
Eventually, Athens’ abundance of concrete does begin to wear on a person. What makes matters worse is that the area around Athens is naturally arid (just look at the surrounding hills when visiting the Acropolis and see if I’m not telling the truth). The ground is so rocky and dry that it doesn’t appear that anything could grow there. Fortunately, Athens proves that it is indeed a civilized place by having two wonderful oases in which to relax: the National Gardens and the Zappion Gardens.
The National Gardens are immediately south of the Parliament building and catty corner from Syntagma Square. These gardens are not the true formal gardens that can be found in England and France. Instead, they are a collection of trees and flowers that almost emulate a jungle setting. I don’t mean to imply that they are overgrown. I simply mean that they are densely planted, thereby giving the impression of being overgrown. There is also a small zoo with a few animals in one corner of the park, and a couple of ponds with an abundance of ducks.
The Zappion Gardens, which are immediately south of the National Gardens, are much more formal. In fact, there is more concrete than lawn at the Zappion. There is a rather large road that passes through the heart of the gardens from Amalias Street to Koumbari Street. The good news is that the road is closed to vehicles, so the road is filled with walkers. Making the walk even more pleasant is that the road (as are all roads in the Zappion) is tree lined. There are even benches along side the trees so that one can sit and watch the world go by. However, there’s enough in the park to see that sitting doesn’t seem like much of an option unless you are tired or not a tourist. The main site to see is the Zappion building. While it is an impressive building, we could never figure out for what it is used. Lonely Planet says that it is now used for some government offices. We did see a couple of armed guards patrolling the front steps. When Dianne tried to get a peek inside, one of the guards made it clear that she could only enter up to a point and then had to turn back. Our experience taught us that it’s probably better to view the Zappion building from the outside. I will also mention that we walked through the Zappion gardens at about 9 p.m. and found them to be a perfectly safe place to traverse, although I was a bit more comfortable strolling around the Plaka at night than I was strolling through the Zappion (too many shadowy places to hide in the Zappion).
All in all, the gardens are a wonderful place to take a break from the urban grind that is Athens. I highly recommend a stop there. There is no charge to visit either gardens. The National Gardens close shortly after sundown. However, the Zappion Gardens are open 24 hours a day.
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