Athens, Greece

You can't hear Athens without thinking Acropolis. Here's a teaser picture. Much more to come further down.

On May 22nd, we visited Athens, the capital of Greece with a population of 3.1 million people. Greece actually consists of 6,000 islands, with 227 inhabited for a total population of 10 million. 

Athens is a city crowded with many people, and crazy driving with scooters zooming between cars from every direction. Parking is a nightmare!

Our first stop was Syntagma Square where the Greek Parliament building is, which has been housing Parliament since 1934. It was built in the 19th century as the Royal Palace. 

We were just in time to see the changing of the guard in front of the tomb of the unknown soldier. 

On the Square, there is a large memorial for 57 people, mostly students, who were killed in a tragic train crash two years ago. 

Next to Parliament are the National Gardens. A beautiful, peaceful retreat in a very crowded city.

Satyr, mythological nature spirit 

Ancient sundial

Across the street was this fancy hotel with trees growing on top.

We passed a number of ancient ruins on our tour.

Hadrian' Gate is the entrance to the Temple of Zeus.

Temple of Zeus 

The Tower of the Winds built in 50 BC has eight large reliefs of the wind gods. It is one of the best preserved buildings. It was formerly topped with a wind vane and had sundials on the exterior faces. A TV weather forecaster used to do his forecasts from here.

What we saw

Picture from web

We saw one church with a blue dome,  the church of St Nicholas.

We visited the Acropolis Museum. We were given one hour there. Our tickets were time stamped, and we still had to wait 30 minutes to get in.

The museum was huge. You could easily spend hours here.

We watched the movie about the history of the Parthenon, and learned that the hill it is built on is called the Acropolis and the main building is the Parthenon. There are a few other buildings on the hill, as well.

Here are some photos from the movie.

What it looked like when completed in 432BC

What the relief sculptures at the top of the west end looked like. Amazing craftsmanship!!

A model of the Parthenon. It was 228 feet long, 101 feet wide, and the columns were 34 feet tall.

We saw a few artifacts on the way out, and it was time to go.

View of Parthenon from museum 

Our next stop was the Olympic stadium originally built in 144 AD. The only stadium in the world built entirely of marble, it can hold 80,000 spectators. Over one million cubic feet of marble was used in the construction. 

It was refurbished in 1896 to hold the first modern Olympics, and again hosted the Olympic games in 2004. Incredible!!

Our time stamped tickets for the Acropolis and Parthenon were for 1 pm. We headed over there to find a sea of people. And, apparently, the mornings are more crowded. Wow! We waited in line again, but were let in fairly soon. 

On the way up, we passed the Odeion of Herodes Atticus, a stadium built in 160 AD. It has been used since that time as an entertainment venue.

As we climbed higher, we came to the entrance building for the Parthenon called the Propylaia.

Lots of slick marble stairs!

And then, there it was!!! Words once again, can't describe the wonder of what these people accomplished centuries ago. I can only imagine how magnificent it must have looked when it was completed!!

Amazing these relief sculptures have survived!

The back side is still not completely restored. You can see many of the pieces lying on the ground in front. 

A little history: the Parthenon was built as a temple to honor the goddess Athena between 447 to 438 BC. The decorative relief sculptures were completed in 432BC. 

In 1687 it was bombarded with great damage inflicted. In the 19th century, Lord Elgin controvercially removed many of the remaining sculptures, which are now housed in the British Museum. Greece is working to repatriate many of their lost treasures from museums and collections worldwide. Good luck with that!

Reconstruction happened from 1900 to 1930, but mistakes were made. Since 1984, restoration has been slowly taking place using original materials and methods as much as possible, correcting previous mistakes along the way. There are still many large pieces of slabs and pillars on the site. There was a huge crane inside.

The Erechtheion is another temple dedicated to Athena, and is located a little downhill from the Parthenon.

Front

Side

The Porch of the Maidens has sculptures of six young women holding up the roof, used instead of columns.

Back

The big round base in the foreground of the above picture is where a 30 foot statue of Athena, built in 450BC, used to stand. It was made of ivory and gold.

In the 5th century AD, it was taken to Constantinople. It was destroyed by the Franks in 1204 because they thought her outstretched hand beckoned the enemy. Here's a picture of what it may have looked like. 

Views of the city from the top of the Acropolis. 

Just below the entrance to the Acropolis hill on a side street is the Church of the Metamorphosis built in the 11th century.

And just down another hill from there is the Temple of Hephaestus, the most well preserved Greek temple. It was dedicated to the god of fire, artisans, craftsmen and volcanoes. History around every corner. 

Here's a view from the ship of the Parthenon. It's right in the middle to the right of the big hill. You can just barely see the columns.

Seeing the history in Athens was worth battling crowds. It's a day I'll treasure always!

Santorini, Greece

Yesterday we visited the island of Santorini, Greece. Promotional pictures of Greece often show the round blue domes of Santorini. I've seen these travel photos many times, and was really excited to visit.

We were on an eight hour tour, and the time flew by. It turns out most of the 500 churches on the island have the blue domes, so we saw many. Also, most buildings are painted white which really makes the blue domes pop.

They built the airport around this church 

The most iconic of the domes are in the village of Oia. I was able to get pictures from two directions. Just beautiful!!

Oia was a quaint little village right on the cliffs overlooking the water. Lots of restaurants, shops, boutiques, views and just a great place. 

I managed to do a little shopping, and Kevin sampled a Greek beer brewed in Athens.

We visited an archeological site called Akrotiri. This was a community that was thriving around 3,600 years ago until the volcano erupted and covered it completely in a deep layer of ash. It was only discovered about 60 years ago when an earthquake uncovered part of it. A museum has been built over the section of the city they have uncovered so far. They estimate there is still much more to find.

Diorama of what has been uncovered so far

This society was quite advanced for their time. They had multi story buildings, beautiful artwork, indoor bathrooms and a sewage system.

Here are some sketches of what they believe it looked like. The paintings on the walls were actually found in the dig, and are on display at a museum. 

This was a toilet. Clay pipes ran down from the crack all the way to ground level, and emptied into sewage pipes. Amazing how advanced some people were so long ago.

We stopped at a winery for some wine tasting. Three types were sampled, white, rose and a red desert wine. Neither of us are big wine drinkers, but it was fun to try some Greek wines.

Next to tourism, Santorini's biggest business is wine. There are 15 wineries on this small island.  With a total population of only 20,000, that's a lot of wine!

They grow the grapes all over the island wherever there is a little extra space.  

We're used to seeing grape vines growing up along trellisses. Here they are trimmed low to the ground in the shape of a basket. Rain is scarce, and this helps the plant retain moisture from the dew, and keeps the grapes in the middle to protect them. They also grow them on terraces in the hills.

After the wine, it was time for lunch and some entertainment. We went to a restaurant where we were served a lunch of pork or chicken skewers with fixings and more wine. One of the side dishes was a local favorite, tomato fritters. Not my favorite!

After lunch, two musicians played some Greek music, and then two ladies in beautiful dresses danced for us.

That's a mandolin on the left. Such a beautiful sound!

Of course, there had to be audience participation. Kevin says he was the photographer, so couldn't participate. 😃 

Finally, we were given come clay plates and encouraged to participate in a Greek tradition of breaking the plates. It's supposed to make you feel better!

This guy gave it his all

A windmill from days gone by.

We stopped in the capital city of Fria for a little retail therapy time. Kevin sampled a local bear called Blue Monkey.

The volcano eruption of 3,600 years ago left a deep layer of ash all over the island. You can really see it as the top light colored layer in the rocks.

The old port was below Fira. The only way to get to the top was a cable car, a donkey ride or walk on the very steep path the donkeys use.

Its the steep zig zag line in the center

A new port was built in 1982. Ships must still tender their passengers, but now busses can pick them up from the tender pier and drive on a hair raising road that switchbacks all the way to the top. Yikes!

Santorini is such an unusual and unique place. It's 14 villages are built along the rim of a dormant volcano. Definitely an unusual place to settle down in. The views from a distance are spectacular with all the white buildings. 

Santorini is the big island shaped like a crab. The water in the center of the islands is the caldera, the center of the volcano. The water in the caldera is a gorgeous deep blue color.

You can see all the houses along the top. Some houses are built into the hills.

There were five cruise ships anchored off of Santorini that day. It is a tendering port. They allow a maximum of 8,000 cruise visitors per day. I think we hit the limit! 

Our ship didn't leave until after dark. Santorini is beautiful at night, too!

Sunset

Our towel animal tonight is a stingray. Some of the towel creations on this cruise are new ones we haven't had on previous trips. Interesting what can be done with a few towels.

Pictures from the balcony with waves from side of ship and a star.

And, a few more sunset photos from two nights ago.