Athens, Greece – 2/2014

November 20, 2015

Back on the mainland of Greece now, our first stop was the beautiful city of Athens; a place with so much history it literally drips out of every stone. We could give you a history lesson on Athens, but if you have never been there, or even if you have, the photos here may inspire you to go, or bring back fond memories. Athens is one of those cities in the world on a short list of “must visit”.

As we head north around the top of Greece and into Turkey, the real adventure for us is about to begin. Soon everything will change; food, visas, border crossings, red tape, languages, bathrooms, drivers, and most interesting of all, the people of the next 11 countries we will visit during the coming “blog year”, which is shorter than a “calendar year”. As we catch up on our blogs, it will be sort of like following on fast forward. Hope you enjoy the Silk Road and The Trans-Eurasian Odyssey with us.

: With an eye for the perfect parking place, we found an early spot just across from the Acropolis.

: Our hosts, Apostolic & Kosta, were the friendly guards and valet parking guys who insisted we camp for the night. We could even fill our water tank in the morning.

: The Acropolis, the great rock rising above the city, symbolizes the birth of European civilization. A Neolithic community inhabited its slopes around 5000 BC. Our view was unobstructed.

: Today there is only one way to the top. In Classical times the Sacred Way extended along a steep ramp to a massive monumental double gatehouse.

: Can you spot The Turtle V below?

: You can read about it and see photos of the Parthenon, but it is even a more impressive building up close, early before any of the two million annual tourists arrive.

: I loved the detail under the roof of the Parthenon. What a magnificent building it must have been.

: The view of the Parthenon at night from our parking lot camp was amazing. We toasted a glass of wine to Athena, the patron of the city.

: The Erechtheion is arguably the most beautiful building on the Acropolis. On the porch of the southwest corner six massive female statues, the famous Caryatids, seem to casually support the weight of the porch’s roof on their heads.

: This Odeon was built in 161 AD by the Athenian magnate Herodes Atticus in memory of his wife. It was used for music concerts with a capacity of 5,000. Many famous artists have performed here including Placido Domingo, Diana Ross and Liza Minnelli.

: For the Greeks in ancient Athens, the Theatre of Dionysus was a very important part of their lives. Today it is considered to be the place where European theatre had its beginnings.

: In 330 BC stone seats were added, the remains of which are the ones we could sit in today.

: The Theatre of Dionysus was able to seat up to 17,000 people. The seats in the first row were reserved for dignitaries, and you can still see some of the reliefs.

: The Temple of Olympian Zeus was an enormous structure, the largest temple in Greece, exceeding even the Parthenon in size. Roman historian Livius Patavinus (59 BC – AD 17), wrote “it was the only temple on earth to do justice to the God”.

: The 104 columns, each 17 meters (56 feet) high, of the temple were made of Pentelic marble.

: Only 15 of the Corinthian columns remain standing. To give a sense of the enormous size of the temple, it would have been approximately 96 x 40 meters (315 x 130 feet).

: The Arch of Hadrian is a monumental gateway spanning an ancient road from the center of Athens to a complex of structures including the Temple of Olympian Zeus. It was built to celebrate the arrival of the Roman Emperor Hadrian in 131 or 132 AD.

: We always had time to take photos with admirers of The Turtle V.

: The site of the Panathenaic Stadium, originally a small natural valley, was transformed into a stadium by Lykourgos in 330-329 BC for the athletic competitions of “Panathinea”, the greatest festivities in ancient Athens. It hosted the first Olympic Games of the modern era, in 1896.

: A visit to the National Archeological Museum sheds light on the amazing culture that existed here thousands of years ago.

: The collections of gold artifacts were especially beautiful.

: The gold Mask of Agamemnon discovered by Heinrich Schliemann in 1876 is arguably the most famous piece in the collection, dating back to the Mycenaean culture of the fifteenth and fourteenth centuries BC.

: The colossal head of Zeus belonged to a larger than life statue of the God. The eyes were made of a different material and inlaid. (Second century BC)

: The nude goddess Aphrodite attempts to fend off the goat-footed god Pan who makes erotic advances to her. She holds her sandal threateningly in her right hand, while the winged god Eros comes to her aid. (About 100 BC.)

: This bronze statue of Poseidon, dredged from the sea off Evvia, is poised to throw his trident. The mid fifteenth century BC statue shows the perfectly balanced idealized male beauty.