Singing To Athens

I think we set a pattern for the Athens section of our journey, sleep in a little and see the sights in the afternoon and evening. Today we hit the must see sight, the Acropolis of Athens. Still quite the visual feast even the second time around. I thought that since we went on a Sunday (in August) I expected more of a crowd, nope. A nice fairly light set IMHO. Pictures will do better than my words and I can say if you have never been to see it, make the effort.

Next stop was the new Acropolis Museum which opened in 2009. The original museum was located on the Acropolis as well was small, poorly lit and could not handle the amount of artifacts available. Several attempt were made to build a new one near the base of the mountain however the work kept uncovering yet more ruins and artifacts. They solved this problem by creating an elevated structure that not only preserved the ruins beneath, it will allow them to become part of the museum one the excavation is finished and fragile parts are stabilized. The museum was very impressive, all the artifacts are very accessible to all sizes of people. They also placed the (remaining) Parthenon friezes in the same order and spacing as they were originally, but lower so all could see the detail. A great museum, high in my ranks of accomplishing the mission set up for it.

After it was time for dinner in the Platka. We did not knock ourselves out, found a restaurant that looked good and tried it. A little slow on the service but the food was great. Sydney loved the grilled Octopus, no surprise since she likes Calamari. She found a small tentacle, said “Awww its a baby Octopus” and promptly ate it. She also claims the suckers are the tastiest part…

Walking back to our hotel we walked up Ermou St. in central Athens. We stayed at a hotel, the Electra on this street in 1990 and what was a narrow busy street has been converted to a pedestrian walkway, a very nice change. The bad side is the local greek owned stores have been displaced by international businesses, you can guess who. We later were told many relocated to the Platka.

There were speakers in Syntagma Square speaking (I was told) about the Greek financial situation. Not too big of a crowd. I asked if the protests of several weeks ago were as bad as they appeared to be as portrayed in the media and was told yes, they were very bad. The Police are present, however today all seems calm. And while it was warm today it was not hot. Tonight Sydney wandered onto our porch and started “singing to Athens” because she said she likes it here.

There are more photos in the ‘Additional Acropolis/Athens Photos’ tab.