We took our first ever trip to the Greek mainland in May.
Heading for the cradle of Western democracy we spent a week exploring Athens and the surrounding area.
First up we managed to catch the ceremonial changing of the guards at the Parliament building.
Every day there is a small scale change, but on Sundays at 11am you get the whole choreographed show!
The Evzones are a special unit of the Hellenic Army, also known as Tsoliades, who guard the monument of the Unkown Soldier.
Each solider guards for about an hour and during this time they have to stand completely still.
During the changing they work in perfectly coordinated pairs.
The rather amusingly slow movements are to protect their blood circulation after 60 minutes of standing still.
Their uniforms are full of symbolism, with the white kilt (foustanella) having 400 folds to represent the 400 years of Ottoman occupation over the Greeks. It is made up of 30 metres of cloth!
Other parts of the uniform include; the phareon, the red hat, the phermeli the handmade waistcoat and the tsarouchia the red shoes with the black pompoms which weigh three kilos each!