It has quite literally been almost 50 years since either of us was last in Athens. Back then there were so few tourists (or perhaps the Greek colonels who ran the country as a military junta after a coup deposed the king in 1967 just didn’t care) that access to the Acropolis was easy and you could clamber over and through the Parthenon. The morning we visited the Acropolis there were two massive cruise ships in port and we are literally confronted by a tsunami of humanity coming down as we battle our way up to the Parthenon, which today can be viewed only from behind protective barriers.

The Plaka, Athens’ oldest neighbourhood was still largely residential and not as today full of trendy boutiques, tourist shops and “tavernas” catering to the vast army of tourists for who this part of the city is “ground zero”. Greece was one of the poorest countries in Europe (well perhaps that hasn’t changed!) but the tourist industry, now Greece’s largest is booming - around 25-30 million visitors annually, and this to a country of fewer than 12 million inhabitants. Despite the economic meltdown that hit Greece in 2010, the centre of Athens is as crowded and bustling as any major European city with many of the same name stores. We’re told that Athens was dramatically transformed by hosting the 2004 Olympics with its accompanying infrastructure development. Outward signs of the supposed financial disaster that the Games were, the ever-impending implosion of the Greek economy, Greece’s “threatened” departure (or expulsion) from the Euro zone or even the EU itself - all much talked about in US and UK media are certainly not apparent to the casual observer. But our various guides do make jokes about the "banks with no money", talk about the economy that's still struggling (although slowly improving), a dysfunctional government and very high youth unemployment. Prospects for young people completing education are poor - and we received a first-hand example of that. One young and very knowledgeable guide told us that he was just completing his PhD. And what do you want to do when you finish, we ask. "Emigrate" was his answer without hesitation - to Germany, Sweden or the UK.

How sad....!!