Day 37: ATHENS

Bloody Greek signs!  All the street names on the tourist maps are printed in latin characters eg Solonos St.  But the street signs are all in Greek characters, and mostly capital letters which I don't remember from my rudimentary Greek of long ago.  Makes getting around a painstaking task.  But I did remember enough to recognise the ID tags on the heavily armed police at the next corner:  ΔΕΛΤΑ = DELTA force riot squad.  I kept walking - no photos.

Chilly and windy day here.  Breakfast in a banquet hall ... never seen so many at a buffet before.  At 8.30 I was picked up by the tour bus for the half day tour of Athens.  The group had just arrived from a cruise.  A mixed lot - several latinos who seem to have very limited English; the usual three or four who wander off all the time to do their own thing and hold everyone up by not being on time; the rest middle aged US types.  The guide is a gem:  His talks are detailed, informative and interesting.  He gives a very good run down on each feature before we visit.  I hope we have him all the way.  The group seems to be led by an evangelical pastor who reads the scripture and gives long sermons when he gets a chance.  I hope not too many chances along the way.  

We started at Mars Hill or the Areopagos.  Today this is a rocky outrcop below the Acropolis.  In early times there was a temple there, and a large marble platform where the Supreme Court of Athens sat in judgment on cases of homicide, treason etc.  By Paul's time it had become the haunt of the philosphers where they spent their time arguing their various schools of thought.  Paul met up with some of them down in the Agora or town square (which I visited this afternoon).  Being too busy and noisy  there, they invited him up to the Areopagos to listen to his preaching.  He made some converts, including one of the Supreme Court, Dionysos, who went on to become the first bishop of Athens (says tradtion).  The guide fascinated us with his history of the place, and then invited us to climb the very steps Paul had to use to get to the top.  I chose to use the modern metal staircase provided for oldies like me.

Then it was a good climb up the marble processional steps that lead to the grand entrance to the Acropolis:  the sacred mountain top that contained three temples.  Lots of restoration work going on to the pillars and roofing of the porch that fronts the gates.  Inside there is a temple to Nike, the god of victory, erected by the Athenians in gratitude for their defeat of the Persian forces.  The main temple is, of course, the Parthenon, dedicated to the virgin goddess of wisdom.  Her statue stood 15 metres tall and was of solid gold and ivory.  The guide gave us quite a lecture on the mathematics of the construction, explaining how each pillar is slightly curved and tapered so that from the gates they all look perfectly even and straight.  They knew all about parallax error back then and used it.  The building is also virtually earthquake proof because of its design.  All the damage they are now gradually repairing was done by the Venetian forces who set up artillery on a hill opposite to bombard the Ottomans who had turned the Parthenon into a military fortress.  The British Museum finished the job by stealing just about everything that was left and taking it off to London.  In its time the Parthenon has been a temple, a christian church, a mosque and a military fortress.   (The guide told the story of how Emperor Theodosius 1, a red hot christian, arrived in Thessaloniki and slaughtered several thousand locals because they were pagans.  Word reached Athens, and the whole town fled down to Piraeus where they were baptised en masse.  Back to the Parthenon, removed the goddess and quickly set up a christian altar and paraphanalia before the emperor arrived in town.)

The third temple on the  block is to Athena, protector of the city.  In all, a very interesting visit.

After lunch back at the hotel and a brief nap, I took off to do a walking tour past the Town Hall to Monasteraki Square.  Passed the meat market and other food markets on the way.  Took a walk in the old Agora or town square or forum.  You get glimpses through the trees of the tops of temple or Stoa, and the view must be exactly what Athenians saw 2000 and more years ago .. the ruined bits all hidden by the trees.  To save my aching feet, I took the Metro one stop to Syntagma Square... might as well have walked because one has to go down several levels and walk lengthy corridors to get on the train.  Nice clean subway. The Parliament House is nearby, with the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier set into the wall at its front. I arrived just in time to see the ceremonial changing of the honour guard:  what  a performance!  I think I might have managed to capture a short movie clip of it... will check camera later.  From there wandered down one of the main shopping streets and past Attica, the equivalent of David Jones here.

Some sort of public holiday here tomorrow, so the hotel couldn't do laundry in time for my departure.  I was given an address half a dozen blocks away where a Laundry did the job in a couple of hours and for half the price!  My walking tour ended up collecting the wash and back to hotel a bit after 5.  All walked out for the day.  We have dinner as a group at 7;  I won't be up too long after that.

Some photos from the days travels can be found Here.