July 7 more about Athens' Acropolis

We had one day left on our bus ticket so we headed for the Acropolis Museum which is an archaeological museum built to house every artifact found on the archaeological site of Athens' Acropolis and on the surrounding slopes, from the Greek Bronze Age to Roman and Byzantine Greece.  It is truly excellent.  The amount of work they have done to rescue, in some cases, and to preserve some of the stunning marbles is almost incomprehensible. The museum is located on the southeastern slope of the Acropolis hill, on the ancient road that led up to the ‘sacred rock’ and was built over an existing archaeological site. The construction of this building over this historically sensitive site was quite clever. Large holes were drilled for a dozen or more pillars and their foundations secured. Once in place, the entire archaeological site was covered in sand to protect the archaeological excavations. Once completed the sand was removed and the old excavations covered with glass. Opened in June 2009, today the museum crouches above that old excavation site and exhibits well over 4000 objects. It is a modern beauty.

In the museum itself there is massive conservation program to recover and protect the ancient artefacts of the Acropolis. This cost and expertise are extensive but oh! how worthwhile.

The use of glass from the top floor to the excavation site below is very effective
 and the floor in places is sloped mimicking the slopes of the Acropolis

This gallery held many ancient marbles; no photos were allowed

The museum is full of amazing marble figures. I experimented with my iPhone to
highlight just one of the multitude. Stunning isn’t she!?

The young Dionysos with theatrical mask in hand sits on the
shoulder of Pappopilenus, his tutor. C2 BC

Heracles fighting Triton

Massive sculptures and pediments from the original builinds have been removed and are protected here - mnay undergoing innovative restoration work.  One the many that captured my imagination was a huge sculpture representing the mythological Heracles fighting Triton, a merman sea-deity half-man and half-fish or dolphin (Poseidon and Amphitrite were his parents). Heracles was a divine hero in Greek mythology, the son of Zeus and Alcmene.

From the western pediment of the Patheon

The conservation-restoration techniques are fascinating and mysterious to me. We watched a video that showed how they clean the black crust and sootdeposits from artefacts using laser technology. The laser technique has been especially developed for the project by the Acropolis Museum together with the Institute of Electronic Structure & Laser at the Foundation for Research and Technology in Crete. You can watch a clip of how it is done using this QR code. 

Our curiosity truly sated after wandering this stunning museum and after a wee rest and cool drink, we climbed aboard the bus - again - and headed for the National Botanical Gardens which occupy a huge green space in the centre of Athens.

While Lindsay went in search of birds I found a peaceful spot to read.

The Zappeion - a grand hall built in the 1880s for the 1st modern Olympic Games, is now used as a conference centre

It had been a long and rather tiring day mostly walking so we were glad to sit down to dinner. Tonight we had a delicious Indian meal at the hole-in-the-wall near to our hotel - they remembered us from before and put extra spice in the curry for us (the Athenians don't like hot spicy food)!  

The Theatrou district is rather rundown but quite colourful 

July 6 About Athens’ Acropolis

The world made simple

Just going into my need-to-understand-everything mode – firstly there are many other acropoleis in Greece but we always just think Athens. The word simply means the highest point (akron) of the city (polis). As a small soupcon, during ancient times the Acropolis of Athens was known as Cecropia, after the legendary serpent-man Cecrops, the supposed first Athenian king – Greek mythology and history are so entangled that they are difficult to separate, and the Greeks admit to this (and happily live with the 'blend').  History tells that ‘the hill’ has been occupied back to the time of Pericles in C5 BC who reportedly coordinated the construction of the building. What remains are the site's most important buildinga, including the Parthenon, the Propylaea, the Erechtheion (the old temple of Athena named for the mythical King of Athens Erechtheus) and the Temple of Athena Nike.  We saw them all. 

Why are they so damaged? Leaving aside earthquakes, the normal invader-looter behaviour of early times and more recent greed by a number of nations including the British and French, the Parthenon and the other buildings were seriously damaged during the 1687 siege by the Venetians during the Morean War.  Gunpowder being stored in the Parthenon by the Turks, the rulers at the time, was hit by a Venetian bombardment and exploded.

The line up to buy entry tickets

Today was our day to visit the Axropolis. We climbed up to the ticket office only to have to go downhill to join the end of the queue and then slowly climb up again. People were agitated of course and there were the blatant queue-jumpers but we got there in the end. We spent the morning climbing all over the Acropolis. It was amazing! Not recommended in the height of summer when the whole place is crowded but something one must do - at least once. We were both flagging near the end and a kind attendant called the lift for us. The lift issomething reserved for people with disabilities - oh well! His kindness was very much appreciated. And what a view we had as we descended vertically from this historic city pinnavle.

The Odeon of Herodes Attica

Climbing up to the entrance through Propylaea - it was a bit squishy

On the right is the small Temple of Athena Nike - Goddess of Victory

The size and the steps were a little overwhelming

Looking back to Propylaea - a monumental gateway 

The exposed marble rocks were very slippery and a few people went over

And there we were!

Now and then (me with Nathan 1984)! A lot had changed

We saw lots of evidence of reconstruction work

Rails for moving heavy blocks for reconstruction work

It was a little hotter by this time!

Erechtheion - the old temple of Athena Polias, named for the mythical King of Athens Erechtheus

Rebuilding some of the original ancient wall 

Great views from the 'watchtower' with Lycabettus Hill in the distance

View from inside the lift - a unique experience dropping down the side of the Acropolis in a glass box

The red arrow shows the lift clinging to the side of the Acropolis

After that amazing morning we needed some light, slightly cooler, relief so we hopped on a bus and went to Piraeus, the ancient port, for lunch - why not!

July 5 On the buses – a draining day in the heat!

 We invested in a 72-hour ticket to ride the Hop-on Hop-off buses – it is such a good way to see the city and this ticket allowed us to visit the beaches as well as Piraeus.  Today was a scorcher of a day but we stayed inside the bus most of the time where it was airconditioned. Difficult taking pix from a moving bus so I didn’t get a lot but at least we got an idea where things were. With the heat it was rather a draining day but we saw lots of Athens. We are going back for more tomorrow this time to the Acropolis. 

Everyone flocks to see the guards at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

Part of the route took us past the Hellenic Parliament where military guards standing 24-7. These stalwart soldiers wear Foustanella, a cotton kilt made from 30 meters of white cloth, with 400 pleats representing the 400 years of Ottoman occupation (some wear brown ones). The design is taken from what the mountain men of the Balkans wore. They are beautiful to watch.

Lycabettus Hill in the background - the highest point in Athens

The Olympic Stadium froma moving bus

As the bus zoomed around with us on board, I took 'moving' photos of the panorama.passing our eyes. Unsurprisingly, many photos didn't come out so well like the one of the Olympic Stadium. It is the site of a simple racecourse built 330 BC primarily for the Panathenaic Games held every four years in  ancient Athens from 566 BC to the C3rd AD. It has been rebuilt a few times and was excavated in 1869 to host the Zappas Olympics the next year and again in 1875. These games were one of the first revivals of the ancient Olympic Games in the modern era.  After being refurbished in the late 1800s, it hosted the opening and closing ceremonies of the first modern Olympics in 1896. In 2004 it was once again used as an Olympic venue. It is the finishing point for the annual Athens Classic Marathon and also the last venue in Greece from where the Olympic flame handover ceremony to the host nation takes place.

The Academy of Athens with Socrates and Plato guarding the entrance below Apollo

Monastiraki Square - the flea market neighbourhood of old Athens

We hopped off and on the buses, this time for refreshments

After a fascinating day we cooled off with a cold drink on the Hotel rooftop that evening followed by a bite to eat. Lindsay had pork-belly gyros served tacos style, I had salmon with black rice, curry butter and sweet potato. Quite delicious.

Just look at that sky! 

We watched the sunset and the sky turn voilet. During the day the hillsides are many different dazzling shades of white with glitters of light sparkling in the heat haze as the belching extractor flues catch the sun.  It really is a city of light with a glorious violet crown in the evening.

July 4 today we wandered

 Today we had no real destination in mind just wanting to get the lie of the land and sample the colour and taste of the local neighbourhood (also to check out an alternative hotel for our return to Athens later in the month!).

Restaurants on every corner

And glitz

One of the trolley buses in Syntagma square

In amongst the glitz and trolley buses were the remnants of Athenian fortifications

 

Building near our hotel looked so derelict yet in one there was a restaurant in its basement. Graffiti is everywhere in Athens particularly where we were staying in the Theatrou district

Colour and bustle everywhere

The old Parliament House

We paused outside the gardens around the mansion of the Old Parliament to look at a statue and take a photo. I never got to take that photo because one if the groundsmen came up to us to tell us about the statue - obviously someone special and indeed it was. It was the statue of General Theodoros Kolokotronis who the people revere as the Father of their Independence after winning the 1821 Independence War against the occupying Ottomans.  As we were standing there talking with this passionate Athenian, another man joined us, an expatriate Athenian academic trying to get permission to live back home in Athens. It was a quite special encounter with both men - the gardener and the academic. 

The new Parliament House once the Palace

July 3 Athens after 40 years

 We’ve arrived in Athens: from a 55Star lux hotel to 2.5-Star hostel in a mere 12 hours. I’ve been transported back to backpacking here in the 1980s with my kids, such fantastic brave travel companions. 

Almost 40 years ago with Anne-Marie and Nathan. They were so cute (and I was sooo much thinner!) 

We were ragtag lotus-eaters living for a time in Elysium - on the sniff of an oily rag most of the time! During our six months' wanderings, we spent over four marvellous weeks in Greece. So now for me, 40 years later, there’s so much to explore, so many memories to revisit, so much to share with Lindsay in this wonderful City of the Violet Crown.

View from the rooftop of our hotel including the Acropolis in the distance

This morning (after not enough sleep last night - 1st night weirdness plus), Lins and I strolled the local streets around noon looking for food and generally stickybeaking into tiny shops standing cheek-by-jowl spilling their goods far out onto the sidewalks - one could buy just about anything there from tools to bedding, from antiques to travel goods. We then dropped into an oh-so-typical local Greek souvlaki hole-in-the-wall to eat. I ordered a glass of local wine (not retsina, they’d run out!), which turned out to be more schooner-sized, and a pork gyros; Lins a beer and Greek sausage. Delicious. 

Loads of nuts in the local market

Sweet yummies then bin after bin of all sorts of olives

My ‘glass’ of wine came out in a filled-to-the-brim ‘tankard’ with a shot glass

That night we had a welcome drink of Mastika, a liqueur from the resin of the mastic tree, a small tree native to the Mediterranean region. Supposed to taste a bit like pine but it tasted fruity to me. It is supposed to be drunk at the end of a meal but we had it with ice and soda, rather refreshing. It is claimed to have medicinal properties and to aid digestion - I’m about to go eat dinner!

Mastika on ice with soda

 “City of light, with thy violet crown, beloved of the poets, thou art the bulwark of Greece.”

 (C5 BC poet Pindar).  A wonderful first day!

July 1 Last day in Valletta

 

Our balcony was quiet and very secluded 

By this time our heads were almost bursting having soaked up so much new ‘info’.  I am historied- and churched-out, so much to remember. So today is a rest day - as well as being a celebration day (nigh on 40 years together). We had a picnic lunch of terrine, cheese, bread and apple washed down with an Italian Rose and finished off with special chocolate nibbles from Modica. Our room opens out onto a quiet private garden at the base of the old sea walls of Valletta - quite delightful. I spent the morning backing up 1000s of pix, dipping in and enjoying revisiting places as I sorted. Boy or boy! The last five weeks have been an amazing learning experience for me. Tomorrow we head for Athens and more ruins and volumes of history!