AngellTravels: November 1 - Athens, Greece

We had that change in itinerary cancelling the Istanbul port and substituting Santorini instead....and then due to a pending strike at the port authority in Athens, the ship went to Athens on Sunday, November 1 instead of Tuesday. Fortunately, with a few emails to our private driver, we were able to reschedule our tour of Athens on a new day and new time.

This was another port where I arranged for a private driver for a group of 8 from our ship. After reading excellent reviews on the private driver company owned by Manos Taliadorus, I contacted him and reserved his services for our day in Athens. Fortunately our change in itinerary caused no problem and his son Demetris cancelled his plans for a day off and took charge of our group.

Demetris met us at 8:00 am at the port exit and off we went. We first drove through the city along the waterfront as we made our way to the Acropolis, our first stop.

As we travelled, Demetris told us about the history of Athens. Although today Athens is home to about 4 million Greeks, it all started in a small village at the base of the Acropolis. The Acropolis is a flat-topped hill where the Greeks built the Parthenon--the most famous temple on earth and an enduring symbol of ancient Athens' glorious Golden Age from nearly 2,500 years ago.

The Acropolis today

Athens dominated ancient Greece, and later conquests by Alexander the Great spread its culture across the known world. The incredible advances in art, architecture, politics, science and philosophy set the pace for all of Western civilization to follow.

When we arrived at the Acropolis, Demetris gave us a little history of the buildings we would be seeing and showed us several photos of what the various sites most likely looked like when they were built and what they look like now.

Acropolis 2,500 years ago

Then he let us loose to explore. We were delighted to learn that the first Sunday in November is "free day" and we had no admission charges to any of our sites.

We headed up the steep hill to the entrance gate, passing by several persistent tour guides who wanted us to hire their services. Instead my group put on our earphones and started Rick Steves' audio tour of the Acropolis on our phones or iPads. It was an excellent tour with Rick explaining everything we saw.

First we passed by the Odeon of Herodes Atticus. It was a theater mainly used for musical rather than theatrical performances. It seats 5,000 and was built during Roman times. It is still used for performances.

We then approached the entrance to the Acropolis.

The Propylaea

The entrance to the Acropolis was the grandest gate ever built. The Propylaea has both steps and ramps as it was changed over the years. Originally ramps were used that allowed sacrificial animals to make the climb. Then it was replaced by a grand marble staircase and then with a zigzag road during the Middle Ages.

As we walked toward the top of the Acropolis hill, we were met with very strong winds. It was hard to stand up at times on the uneven, rocky ground and take photos.

We passed by the Temple of Athena Nike, which was dedicated to the goddess Athena, patron of the city. At this temple she was worshiped for her wisdom, purity and strength, and for bringing the Athenians victory ("Nike"). Inside there once was a huge statue of Athena.

Temple of Athena Nike

Erechtheion

The Erechtheion, with the six lady pillars is on the Panathenaic Way, which was the processional street that led from one of the city's entry gates to the Parthenon. In the lower left corner of the photo there is an olive tree. It is a replacement for the one Athena planted here. Olive trees have been called "the gift of Athena to Athens" and Greece has more than 140 million of these trees.

And finally we reached the Parthenon, the finest temple in the ancient world, standing on the highest (and windiest) point of the Acropolis. It's now largely in ruins and under renovation. It sustained the greatest damage from a direct mortar-shell hit in 1687, launched by the Venetian army.

The Parthenon, built 2,500 years ago,was both a temple to Athena and a treasury of Athens, safeguarding the city's funds. What fascinated us was the architects' use of optical illusions to give the building a feeling of balance, strength, and harmonious beauty. A long, flat baseline on a building will look to the human eye like it is sagging. To counteract the sagging look, the ancient architects calculated bends in the construction. The base actually arches several inches upward in the middle, its columns tilt every so slightly inward; the corner columns are thicker to make them appear the same size as the rest and they are also spaced more closely. 2,500 years ago....Amazing!!

Drawing illustrating the optical illusion

We made our way down the hill and away from the wind to find the Theater of Dionysus, which hosted great productions during the Golden Age. It is considered to be the first theater of the world.

And then it was time to meet up with Demetris and continue our tour of Athens. We drove over to the Olympic Stadium.

The blue line on the street indicates this is the marathon route. We followed it all the way to the Olympic Stadium.

But first we stopped by Hadrian's Arch and the Temple of Olympian Zeus.

Arch of Hadrian

The Arch of Hadrian was a triumphal arch built by the Roman Emperor Hadrian in 131 A.D. It originally separated the old and new cities of Athens.

Temple of Olympian Zeus

Right next to Hadrian's Arch is the Temple of Olympian Zeus. It was started in the sixth century B.C. but not completed until Hadrian took over seven centuries later.

There were once 104 Corinthian columns on the temple to Zeus. Now only 15 stand.

Ruins of the columns at Temple of Zeus

Greece is where the Olympic Games began in the 11th century B.C. as a festival dedicated to the god Zeus. The first modern Olympics was held in Athens in 1896. The most recent games were held in 2004 in this stadium, which was reconstructed on the site of the ancient stadium. This is the only major stadium in the world constructed entirely of white marble.

Of course, I had to take a photo of my marathon-running husband in front of the stadium where the marathon race ends.

And Demetris took a photo of our group.

As we drove away from the stadium, we passed the statue of "The Runner".

The sculpture by Kostas Varotsos is 30 feet tall and is made of plates of glass stacked on iron.

We then drove up Lykavittos Hill for an over look of the city of Athens.

Lykavittos Hill from downtown Athens

The drive up the hill was interesting. The road near the top is only one lane, but yet many, many cars and taxis are going both up and down the hill. It took a bit of creative driving on Demetris' part but he got us up to the view point for a great look at the city of Athens with the Acropolis in the distance.

As close as I could zoom in on the Acropolis

Back down the hill, we headed over to Agora area where we enjoyed a nice lunch of gyros.

After lunch we walked through a flea market that was held on the nearby streets in hopes of finding a Greece license plate for our son-in-law. No luck. We asked several vendors, but many spoke no English and we did not understand their Greek.

We only had about 20 minutes before we were due to meet up with Demetris again. We tried to find the Ancient Agora site , which was ancient Athen's market and gathering area, but missed the entrance point. Instead we did find the old cemetary, Keramikos Cemetary, which is part of the Agora area.

With only minutes left before meeting Demetris we had time to purchase a pastry and then off we went to the Archeological Museum.

The National Archaeological Museum is the best collection of ancient Greek art anywhere. Ancient Greece set the tone for all Western art that followed and this museum lets you trace its evolution from 7000 B.C. to 500 A.D.

We had about an hour to speed through all the rooms and 7,500 years of collections of vases, statues, and paintings. One could spend all day here and not take it all in.

The final stop in our day's tour was to the Parliament building to watch the Guards. It was mid-hour and they were not actually "changing the guards" but instead went through a series of synchronized steps. It was fascinating to watch and there were no crowds by this time.

Parliament Building

The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier stands in the front of the Parliament Building. Etched into the stone on each side of the tomb are the names of great battles in Greek military history from 1821 onward.

The tomb is guarded by the evzone, an elite military infantry unit of the Greek army. They march with a slow-motion, high-stepping march to their positions.