Greece. The birthplace of democracy. The home of the great thinkers and philosophers, Plato, Aristotle, Socrates. The Parthenon. The Acropolis! This is the day we visit the Acropolis. Literally, the city on the hill.
Thursday night we spent time discussing which was better, visit the Acropolis first, then go to the museum or the other way around. See it, then have it interpreted or see the interpretation and then go see the actual. If we go to the Acropolis first we beat the midday heat and see it in the cool of the morning. That’s a plus. But will we be looking at stuff without knowing what we are looking at? No context? The high temp for Friday was only 81°. Not bad, although there is zero shade up on top. hmmm . . . what to do? We settled on Museum first, Acropolis second. Maximize the learning.
We are still adjusting our internal clocks to 10 time zones from normal. Today we rose at eight, two hours earlier than yesterday, but still 10 o’clock at night Toledo time. A bit of a fight to wrestle the hands of our internal clocks to new positions, but we want to get in sync with this time zone.
To save some time and steps we rode the subway from Syntagma station to the Acropolis station, then walked up to the museum. We arrived at 9:35am and found it closed. What? We thought it opened at 8:00. Nope, 10:00 am. Rick was wrong!?! Wow. That hasn’t happened before. We found a shady curb to sit on and read up on the Acropolis and the museum while we waited. A woman, mid 50’s, in a bright yellow cotton dress with yellow tennis shoes sat next to us. She was from Russia. We saw her off and on the rest of the day as it was hard to miss her. She definitely stood out in a crowd. A bright yellow mass in a sea of other colors.
The crowd at the museum entrance
At 9:59am we stood and walked the 30 feet to the stairs leading down to the entrance to the museum, ready to merge into the throngs of tourists that typically gather at the entrance at opening time. There were 6 of us.
This museum has won awards for excellence. They are well deserved. In short, the first two floors are artifacts from around the Parthenon up on the Acropolis. The top floor is the clincher. It is the same size as the Parthenon, artfully built from stainless steel columns with the relics from the site held in their exact positions and recreations dotted here and there, allowing us to see how it looked 2500 years ago. All the while, the walls of the museum are nothing but windows allowing you to see up to the Acropolis and out across the city of Athens. Wow! And, an excellent movie showing the history of the Acropolis and its changes over 3000 years.
Sally and I spent about 2 hours. We came away with an excellent understanding of the history, structure and culture of the Acropolis. Now, what to do next. You maybe asking, “What’s the problem?!? Go to the actual Acropolis and see it!!”
Well, that’s a good idea, except it is 81ยบ, there is no shade on top, it is now exactly midday and I am traveling with a heat sensitive red head.
We retired to a cafe for a Gyro sandwich and a Pepsi to discuss options. We could wait until evening and go up for the sunset (although the hill closes at 8:00pm and the sun sets at 9:00pm). We could go later in the afternoon, but it stays warm well into the late afternoon. hmmmm . . .
With food in our stomachs our minds began to focus - go now while the information from the museum was still fresh. There was a gentle but steady wind blowing that promised to cool us and the high was only to be 81, not 100 or something!
We circled back past the museum and up the slope toward the pass between Mars Hill and the Acropolis. At the pass, we walked up on Mars Hill for a view of the Acropolis above and the city of Athens below.
Once off Mars Hill we headed toward the entrance station to the Acropolis. We could see the winding cattle gates used to hold the crush of people clamoring to be let in. We could also see that the ropes down the center had been removed allowing us to walk straight to the ticket taker. There was NO ONE here.
We had our tickets scanned and began the final climb up to the city on the hill. We stopped a little ways up to look down into the Odeon of Herodes Atticus, a 5000 seat amphitheater built into the side of the hill in 161 AD. A few photos and on up to the entrance to the Acropolis, the Propylaea.
This is a massive marble entrance with pillars and roof. Of course, 2500 years and many government and conquering civilizations have taken their toll on it, yet enough still stands to create the same imposing entrance. Of course, this whole time we are listening to Rick Steves tour as he puts the whole scene into context. We cannot say enough good things about his recorded tours, corny, topical, very informative, just long enough and with just enough information to peak your interest but never overbearing. The best way to visit a site like this.
At this point we are on top with the Parthenon ahead and off to the right and the Erichtheion with the Porch of the Caryatids off to the left. We shared the “City on the Hill” with about 10 people.
We did the appropriate amount of oohing and aaaahing at the massive, yet terribly degraded structure while standing in the sun eyeing the details as they are pointed out in the tour, then retired to a shaded bench on the side of the water closet to listen to the detail, take in the view and avoid the sun.
We walked around the Parthenon to see it from all sides, then over to view the ladies holding up the roof of the porch of the Erichtheion.
Robby, Sally and I had watched a video on Greece before we left. When talking about this structure, they dressed 6 women in the same attire and marble color as the carved statues supporting the room, colored their exposed skin the same as the marble and had them stand still on a recreated set. Then, later they had the women dancing in place, as if the statues had come to life. Robby really enjoyed this optical illusion. We made sure we got good picture of the real recreations in place up here on the Acropolis to share with him as well as the originals now housed in the museum below.
More ogling from the top and we started down. We stopped in the shade of the olive trees for a break from the sun and ran into the Ukrainian couple we had talked to while up on top. We chatted in the trees for about 15 minutes, then they headed for a bus to the airport to participate in a tennis tournament in Crete. We headed down the hill, stopped to check where we wanted to go, climbed back up to the Mars Hill pass, then walked down the Theories path until we could drop down into the Plaka district. We wanted to have the seafood dinner at the restaurant when the patron had shared his food the day before and were headed that way, but we were both thirsty. The sodas at the restaurant are $2.50 for a 250ml bottle. I knew I could drink at least 1000mL and wasn’t interested in paying $10 for the honor of doing so. A block before the restaurant I spotted a hole in the wall mom and pop quickly store and stopped to buy 3-330mL cans of Diet Coke 2 for me and 1 for Sally. We downed those pretty quick, then entered the outside seating of the restaurant for shrimp, mussels and calamari. About 5 or 6 tables were occupied, yet the waiters recognized us from yesterday and came over to chat. We had a great meal, a little expensive for my taste, the headed for our apartment, about a mile away. We got back about 5:40pm. I took a shower and typed on the blog, Sally rested and researched tomorrow’s activities, creating a list.
I thought we were done for the night, but Sally rallied and suggested we walk out and see the Parthenon lit up after dark. Yes!! We left about 8:00pm. Not dark yet, but we had to figure out a good vantage point to view the Parthenon. Although clear on the opposite side, we settle on a view from Mars Hill. As we walked back through town, retracing our steps of a few hours earlier we heard operatic singing coming from the ruins of Hadrian’s Library.
We walked up to the fence overlooking the field where the library once stood and found a full orchestra and a slip of a girl in a flowing dress singing magnificently. We stopped at the fence to listen and ended up in a conversation with two Israelis and a just graduated college kid from Arkansas, out traveling for the summer. We discussed traveling, school, careers and life in general, all agreed we were spoiled and very very lucky, then Sally and I began climbing the stairs back up to the path to Mars Hill. By now it was dark and the Friday night crowd of locals were out. Crowd is a little strong for the term to describe the scene. Be it said, we were not alone. Especially when we climbed back on Mars Hill. This is where the lovers come to view the city lights, hang with friends and spend the late evening. We FaceTimed Robby to show him the Parthenon lit up at night, took a few photos, then headed down to the Acropolis Metro Station to ride home. In doing so, we had completely circled the Acropolis. When we got to the turn off to the metro station we decided walking home would do us good and the night was so warm and perfect who wanted to go underground and miss it? We walked back through the tourist district, pass the bars and restaurants, up through Syntagma Square and back to our apartment. It was now about 10:45pm.
What a great day!! About 9 miles covered, lots learned, great experiences, and the Parthenon and Acropolis. Wow!!
However, I did come away a little disappointed. Somehow in my mind I had this impression that the Parthenon and Athens was the seat of democracy. I think it was a holdover from Disney depictions in their Sunday nights shows I watched as a kid and what I picked up in school when not paying the attention I should have been. It was a little startling to realize they expended all that effort in mining the marble, shaping it, transporting it 16 miles, lugging it up to the top and erecting this geometrically proportioned and optically illusionary perfect structure for a religious deity! Really? You carved a 40 foot high stature of her and put her inside instead of housing a legislative body or enshrining a constitution or creating a institution for study and advancing the world’s knowledge? Really!? I thought the world’s greatest minds, Plato, Socrates, Aristotle and the rest would put their intellect to greater use. I agree with Vencini from the Princess Bride, “You’ve heard of Socrates, Aristotle, Plato? Morons!”
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