Athens for The Solo Traveller: a Friday-to-Monday weekend

Walk the speakers' platform where the assembly met, then the observatory hill, with the Acropolis across the hollow and nobody checking tickets.

An open-air cinema since 1935 with the Parthenon above the screen; buy a sour-cherry soda and a single seat on the aisle, May to October.

Kebab in pita at the counter by the square, no reservation, the taxi drivers' choice since 1964.

Skip the funicular and climb the pine path to the chapel of St George for the sun rising over Hymettus and the whole basin still quiet.

A brackish thermal lake beneath a cliff, open all year at a constant twenty-two degrees; swim across and back with the fish nibbling your heels.

A stand-up souvlaki counter with rock memorabilia on the walls, two pork skewers and a beer after the tram home.

Seventy minutes across the Saronic Gulf on the open deck, with the pistachio island arriving slowly and the fishing boats tied up at the mole.

The best-preserved Doric temple of the islands, on a pine hill that forms a triangle with Sounion and the Parthenon on a clear day; local bus from the port.

Grilled sardines and a half-litre of white at one of the tavernas squeezed into the fish-market alley, before the afternoon boat.

An eleventh-century monastery in a pine ravine, then the forestry path up the mountain for the view back to the port and the islands.

Rent a bike and ride the flat loop past the Zappeion, the Panathenaic Stadium and Hadrian's arch before the traffic thickens.

Souvlaki in a tomato-sauced pita since 1950, eaten standing, from a hatch that closes when the meat runs out.