The Archaeological Museum and Pedion tou Areos
The greatest museum of antiquity, the north edge of Exarcheia, and the city's big forgotten park. This is a Claude-drafted route awaiting the editor's walk.

1. National Archaeological Museum
The reason for the walk and one of the great museums on earth: the Mask of Agamemnon, the Antikythera Mechanism, the bronze of Poseidon — or Zeus — mid-throw. Don't try to see it all. Pick three rooms, sit when you're tired, come out before your eyes glaze.

2. The museum garden and forecourt
The neoclassical facade and its palm-shaded forecourt, a calm pause before or after the marble. Sit on the steps with the city traffic behind you; the building is the grandest piece of 19th-century Athens you'll meet today.

3. North Exarcheia streets
Walk the streets between the museum and the park — bookshops, political murals, the unpolished edge of the student quarter. Read the walls; Exarcheia wears its arguments in paint. Keep your wits about you and keep moving toward the green.

4. Pedion tou Areos — the main avenue
Enter the city's biggest central park down its grand central allée, lined with marble busts of the heroes of 1821. It was laid out in the 1930s as a memorial to the War of Independence. Walk the spine; it runs longer than it looks.

5. The statue of Athena and the memorial
The park's monuments — a tall bronze Athena, the rows of revolutionary busts, the war memorial at the head of the avenue. Slow down here; this is the park doing the job it was built for, and most of the city walks straight past it.

6. Plateia Aigyptou exit
Leave the park at its southwest corner toward Plateia Aigyptou and the wide avenues. From here *Victoria* on line one is a short walk, or keep south on foot toward Omonia and the centre if the day's still young.

The Archaeological Museum and Pedion tou Areos