Day 9; Monday, July 29, 2013  Athens/Piraeus

Link to Day 9 Athens/Piraeus Photographs

This was the one place that Charles was most anxious to see. He had been here some 30+ years ago on business and had very good memories of “discovering” the Parthenon and the Acropolis.

There has been a renewed effort to reconstruct/restore the Acropolis since 2000 and the Parthenon is now covered in scaffolding with a huge crane set in the middle of the temple.  Huge rocks are being hauled into place again after all this time and craftsman are carefully restoring the site.  Unfortunately that takes away from the forlorn beauty of the place and adds to the crush of tourists.   The footing is somewhat perilous. The Acropolis is limestone worn smooth ( i.e. slippery) by millions of feet.  The views are spectacular.  

The reconstruction work has even uncovered some of the temples that stood before the “modern” Acropolis of the 5th century BC.  Many of the real artistic elements of the area have been carted away to either the Acropolis Museum or the National Archaeological Museum for display and safe-keeping.  Sadly, much of the original carved marble artwork that survived two and a half centuries of weathering and then a massive explosion during the Turkish-Venetian wars has now been lost to modern day pollution.  Moving it to the museum has saved what is left.  I enjoyed the Theater of Dionysos where performances still take place. We’ve seen other theaters on this trip but Athens is the birthplace of theater. This is where Thespis gave what is thought to be the first solo performance (hence, our word “thespian”).    

The Cruise line provided our lunch at a lovely hotel and again we were treated to many traditional Greek foods, of course that includes Greek styled coffee and baklava!

After lunch we spent an hour or so at the National Archaeological Museum, which houses splendid pieces of gold dating back to the period of the Minoans who traded with the Egyptians in the third millennium BC.  Some works were on display from even earlier than that.  Frankly, the visit was far too short to do justice to the museum.  We flew through the centuries of Greek and Roman art and saw perhaps 20 per cent of what was available.

We drove by the Greek Parliament on the way back to the Temple of Olympian Zeus near the base of the Acropolis. Building of the Temple started in 6th century BC and wasn’t finished until 131 AD under the reign of the Roman Emperor Hadrian, who seems to have been a popular philantropist.  Hadrian’s Arch, which was erected by the Athenians themselves to honor Hadrian for his generosity (or at least not destroying the city) stands nearby.

We stopped briefly for a photo opportunity at the great Panathenaic Stadium. Originally built in the 4th century BC, it was rebuilt in 141 AD and restored with new marble for the first modern Olympics in in 1896.  The 2004 Olympic Marathon finished there - in fact there is an annual marathon that finishes at the Panathenaic Stadium, something to add to my son-in-law Jake’s “bucket list”.  

I did manage a bit of shopping at the central market at the edge of the ancient agora near an old Byzantine Church.  There were several gypsies there attempting to do two things, sell you their goods and distract you with the bargaining so that their partner might have the chance to pickpocket you.