The Sounion Horizon: A Sunset Odyssey

We leave Athens in the late afternoon, drop down onto the Apollo Coast, and follow the cliffside road south towards Cape Sounion. Halfway, we stop at Lake Vouliagmeni for forty-five minutes — a thermal lake set into a limestone cliff, with a café terrace over the water where you can take a coffee, a fresh juice or something stronger. We continue south, with the sea on three sides, to the Temple of Poseidon at Cape Sounion — built in the fifth century BC on the highest point of the cape, watching the Aegean for incoming sails. Best visited an hour before sunset, when the marble turns gold and the day-tour buses have left. We are back at your hotel in Athens by dinner.