Day 1 - Athens

The weather has been marvellous for roaming through Athens, we have even had a bit of rain, and especially for tramping up to the Akropolis.  We were met at the hotel by our wonderful guide, Alexandra, and very patient driver, Sissis.  They first of all took us on a bus-tour of the city of Athens, stopping off at the Stadium which had been built in marble for the first modern Olympics in 1896 – it is an athletic stadium, but was used for archery etc in the 2004 Olympics held in Athens. These days it is used for concerts and similar outdoor events and it was because they were setting up for a concert that we couldn’t enter.  From there we went on to the Temple of Zeus of which we had a wonderful view of from our hotel. The columns tops gave us a good appreciation of the different architectural styles of Doric, Ionian and Corinthian and Alexandra showed us the plant from which the Corinthian style was based on.

After that a tour of the major sites in the centre of Athens including Syntagma/Constitution Square, where we noted that the Evzones (Palace Guards) outside Parliament House had changed their uniform to the khaki summer uniform – not as memorable as the winter one! Amongst other things this consists of a short skirt (foustanella) and most unusual shoes featuring huge pom poms. Most of the crew had seen these before the tour officially started.  Parliament House used to be the Royal Palace in the days of the Greek monarchy which ended in 1932. All the monarchs had been either Bavarian or Danish and were never close to the Greek people so it was no surprise when the country became a republic.

After passing other notable buildings such as the old university and the Academy, we stopped at the Akropolis and once again had a pretty steep climb to the top (the previous day some of the early arrivals had climbed Lycabettus, the highest hill in Athens, to visit an historic church and to get the best city view).  On the Akropolis we were able to see the wonderful Parthenon and the restorations that the Greek Government is achieving with painstaking care. We also saw the old theatre, Herodicus Atticus, where the original dramas were staged and is now being used for a range of artistic events, including a recently produced Tango Festival.

After descending from the Akropolis, we took a short walk to the amazing Akropolis Museum where Alexandra once again gave us the history of some of the archaeological finds and as we walked over the glass sections of the ground floor we could see the archeologists working below us on more retrievals. The museum is very modern and being so close to the ancient sites on the Akropolis forms a nice but controversial juxtaposition between the ancient and modern buildings. The tour was filled with the mythology behind all the sculptures and reliefs and will whet the appetite for reading on the subject when we return.  The tour also highlighted the many holes in the collection, in particular the Elgin Marbles (or Akropois Marbles as the Greeks rightly term them) , which are to be found in the British Museum, and also amongst others, the Berlin Museum. 

It was a rather exhausting day, many of us had sore feet, but well worth it, especially when we were able to sit down for a Greek salad and glass of retsina in a nearby tavern in the Plaka area. This district is truly a world capital for food and beverages and the value is great with a good meal and wines averaging between 10-15 euros or 15 to 22.5 Aussie dollars. In recent centuries most of Athens was in and around the Plaka with a population of about 8,000. Athens today is close to three and a half million.

The rest of the day was free, so some people elected to return to the Plaka and others to their hotel for a little rest before we walked to the taverna Geros tou Moria – we have been doing a lot of eating and drinking, but also a lot of walking – hopefully one is counteracting the other!

A great night was had by all at this lovely taverna on the Steps of the Plaka.  We had a traditional plate of mezethes – spanakopita, cheese ball, dolmatha etc, then lamb or moussaka and yoghurt and honey or karythopita (walnut pie) for dessert, washed down with copious amounts of local wine.  We were entertained by a couple of fantastic bouzouki players – they played none-stop for well over two hours!  Then came the Greek dancers – two men and two women – who were very entertaining, but the highlight of the night was when Dick lead a group consisting of Anthony and Kevin in their version of Zorba’s dance – they were also joined by a very bemused Greek girl!

Whew – that was a big day!