Athens
2007
We
spent a lovely few days in Rome with Shirley's Mum and Dad in November 2007. This was to continue the celebrate for Mum's 70th birthday.
The weather was very kind to us and we walked and walked. We stayed
at the Electra Hotel which must have the smallest bathrooms of any 4* hotel in the world!
We arrived on the Friday evening. It's a 4 hour flight from London and Greece is 2 hours ahead so it was time for dinner and bed when we got there. We did manage to have a short walk round the area but not for long.
Saturday dawned bright, clear and warm - perfect weather for sightseeing. The rooms might be small at the hotel but the breakfasts are big so we set off well fed. We were greeted by a band who were playing outside the hotel.
It seems the dog enjoyed it as much as we did as he sat and listened for ages.
There seemed to be a lot of dogs wandering about in Athens with no clear indication whether they had humans or not. A lot of them had collars on so I guess they did even if the humans were not in evidence.
Our hotel was only about 100m from Syntagma Square (Constitution Square) where you find the Houses of Parliament Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. The changing of the guard for this tomb takes place on the hour.
The ceremony was quite amazing to watch with the high stepping and the pompoms on their toes. We'd never seen anything like it before.
Rather than walk along the busy road we strolled through the Royal Gardens
to get to the start point of the day's tour round the Acropolis area.
The men in the photo below were playing a complicated dice game (or 2 of them were and the rest seemed to be giving advice) later in the day when we went past.
Although the roads weren't as busy as those in Rome they were busy enough and more than once Jonathon left the rest of us behind as he whizzed across the road and we didn't!
Finally we reached our first port of call - the Temple of Olympian Zeus. This is described as the most impressive Roman relic on Athens and you can see why. Dedicated by Hadrian in AD131, seven centuries after its foundations were laid, it was the largest temple in ancient Greece with 104 Corinthian columns (only 15 remain).
That little speck in the bottom left of the picture is Jonathon so you can see how huge it is. The columns are 17.25 metres high ...
... and this is what they look like if they fall down.
At the edge of this area is Hadrian's Arch ...
... and on the way out there are some remains of Roman Baths and Roman Classical houses. The frieze on the right is from one of the houses
From there we wandered over to the Acropolis proper to admire the wide range of buildings (ruins) available for viewing.
On the way in is a shed full of exhibits that have been found on the site to give you a feel for what's about.
First stop was the Theatre of Dionysios - an open air amphitheater but it seems that you could book your seats in ancient Greece
The Herodion (Odeon of Herodes Atticus) was really spectacular. It has been refitted with seats and is used for concerts, mainly as part of the Athens Festival.
All the time we kept on climbing up and up - the Parthenon is on top of the hill so there was really only one way to go. Finally we reached the top and went through the Temple of Athena Nike ...
... and into the area where we found the Erechtheon, the Proplyaia and the Parthenon itself. Unfortunately the Parthenon and the Proplyaia were covered in scaffolding but we couldn't not take a photo or two of the Parthenon at least.
The friezes / carvings were in really good condition, especially bearing in mind how old it is - it was opened to the public in 438 BC.
However, our favourite building on this site was the Erechtheon
The Porch of the Caryatids was particularly spectacular with the pretty girls holding up the roof structure.
The views over Athens were pretty special from up on the Acropolis too. (Acropolis means the highest part of the city).
It's quite sprawly and you can see white properties for miles around
On the way down, Jonathon stopped to watch the cranes. There are three of them working together to move the various Athenian Marbles into the new Museum.
Apparently there'll be a gap where the Elgin Marbles should be - we don't know why Britain won't give them back - it seems they belong in Athens but no doubt there's some complicated political reason behind it all but it does seem a shame.
A quick glance back at the Parthenon and the Herodion as we head back to the hotel.
Jonathon went out later to take some night time photos as there seemed to be lots of floodlights around.
Day
2
On day 2 we took ourselves off to the ancient Agora - next to the Acropolis but much more relaxed. We wandered via the Tower of the Winds to get there. This octagonal building is so accurately built that it could be used as a compass. It was used as a sundial, a water clock and a weather vane. It sits alongside the Roman Agora so we had a stroll around that too.
Jonathon spotted a Santa nearby who was collecting cash for animals (and seemed to be surrounded by them). It seemed somewhat incongruous that Santa should be sitting there reading the paper with a cigarette but the cats and dogs didn't seem to mind at all.
The dog on the right was looking over the parapet on the nearby roof, woofing at Santa and his animals.
Wandering from one place to another gave us a chance to admire some of the houses
...
... and take in the general street scenes and stop for a drink or two along the way
Finally we reached the Ancient Agora. Nothing like yesterday's sightseeing area in that it felt far more relaxed - like a park really with plenty of places to sit and enjoy the views.
The first thing we saw when we went in was the Odeon of Agrippa ...
... but the star of the show was undoubtedly the Hephaisteion (Temple of Hephaistos) the most complete remaining example of a Doric order temple.
It really was in remarkably good condition - it dates back to 449 BC (hard to imagine anything that old!)
We seemed to be able to see this wonderful building wherever we were in this area.
The pictures on the left and right show part of a column.
The Agora Museum is also hereabouts and we took time out to go and admire the various artifacts, statues etc that could be found in there.
Although Mum felt old some of the time when we were climbing up the various hills, particularly when there were lots of steps, she's a mere spring chicken compared to these antiquities! They (Mum and Dad that is) didn't look too bad for all the exercise they'd been having (and bearing in mind what was still to come the following day)
Leaving the Agora behind we decided to (kind of) follow one of the walks in our Insight guide book so off we went in a northerly direction. We saw various churches along the way
We wandered past the National Bank of Greece with its fancy roof decoration and the town hall which seemed very understated and unassuming. We also walked past hundreds of orange trees (no wonder the orange juice tastes so good here!)
The national library also had a fancy top - highly appropriate that a wise owl should symbolise the library I thought. The library is next to the University which is next to the Academy
Final stop for the day was to admire the statue for National Reconciliation - lovely with the late afternoon sun just catching the top of it.
Day
3
Day 3 was yet another day for climbing up hills. We decided to go up the highest hill in Athens. The guide book said there was a funicular railway for part of the way so off we went to find it. We didn't but we did get to the top up loads and loads of steps.
We had some great views back over the Parthenon etc as we tramped our way up
We could see what we were aiming for from the bottom - it seemed an awfully long way up!
The climb was worth it as it was very pretty when we finally got there (an hour and a half later)
Just across the hill from the church and bell tower there was a very brightly coloured theatre
Despite the smog, the views from the top were spectacular and we spent a little while up there enjoying the view, having a drink etc. Dad went for a wander, took a wrong turn and found the funicular railway so getting down was a whole lot easier!
On the way up, we'd been looking for cables or rail lines on the side of the mountain but it is a tunnel so we couldn't see them. The start point was not quite where it was on the map so no wonder we'd missed it. If Mum and Dad had been at home they would have gone to keep fit so the walk up 900+ feet probably did them just as much good.
On the way there and back we passed through some very nice residential areas with very posh looking apartments. On the way back down we also went past the Presidential Palace but there were lots of police and guards around and they didn't seem too keen on the idea of our taking photos so we didn't. Instead, we had a saunter round the Royal Garden (also known as the National Gardens) and very nice they were too apart from the so called zoo where the animals (birds, goats, rabbits and donkey) looked totally miserable.
One last sit in Syntagma Square before we went back to the hotel to collect our cases gave us time for yummy milk shakes and a last look at some of the many dogs that we'd grown accustomed to being around
The Houses of Parliament are at their best in the warm afternoon sun - they seem to glow so I couldn't resist taking one final photo for the record books.
Finally it was time to say goodbye to Athens. It was a really interesting city and we were glad we'd visited it. The people were lovely and friendly and the weather was very kind to us - perfect for sightseeing without getting burnt. It's amazing when you think about how old everything is and helps you put things in perspective.