Ode to a Grecian Sojourn: Athens

You can read all the books you want about Athens. About how Athena and Poseidon made their pitch to the people about what to call this city. Athena offered an olive tree, Poseidon, water. They chose Athena and her gift and so the city was named. You can read about how democracy was born here and how "middle class" became the strongest cluster among the citizenry. You can read how magnificent monuments, temples, and marketplaces littered the city and how design and architectural style burgeoned under the hands of master sculptors and craftsmen. You can read about it all you want. But Athens, like many great cities of the world can't be described...even by the greatest of writers. Its grandeur and sheer scale must be seen to be appreciated. So here are my highlights of our first day of sightseeing.

As we were walking over to see a small stadium, the sun popped out from the clouds, and our guide, Rea, said, "Oh look, the gods are smiling on us," and pointed behind us.

Wait, that's it? OMG, that's the Parthenon.

Here's the small stadium. It's the only stadium in the world built entirely of marble, and it holds about 45,000 people. They use it for concerts, small races and games, etc.

Driving through the city, almost on every block, there's some sort of monument, ruin, temple, statue, whatever. This is Hadrian's Gate. It's the entrance to a small park that holds the ruins of the beginnings of a temple to honor Zeus. The gate was finished, but the temple never was.

Since we had a really early start - what with disembarking from the ship at 7:30 - we didn't get breakfast. Rea took us to a little breakfast place with this view. (And the breakfast wasn't bad either.)

At the base of the hill, you buy your ticket - same ticket for the acropolis AND the acropolis museum. Then you climb. It's a gradual slow climb...especially since you're weaving your way through a gabillion tourists. All taking selfies. Once you get to the top of the hill, the first thing you see is the view below, which includes an ampitheatre.

Need to know...a shit ton of the acropolis (which simply means the high city) is not here. A lot of it is in museums around the world (most particularly the British Museum), some of it just hasn't been found yet, and some of it just doesn't exist anymore (erosion, broken into pebbles, bombed, destroyed in an earthquake...you get the picture). What is missing vis-a-vis any of those reasons, has been filled in with copies of what should be there...you'll see the original marble or stone and then a brighter white piece. That white piece is the replacement part.

You can see that these white steps are all reconstruction/replacement against the original stone arches.

Walk to the other side of the entrance, and you look down on the Agora - the original marketplace of Athens. Today the nearby area is the Plaka, the flea market, and upscale shopping.

Here's a lion guarding Athena's side of the temple

Even the somewhat distracting renovation can't take away from this massive structure. And consider all of these stones had to dragged up the hill. An unbelievable achievement.

Across the way is a small temple that is one of the most beloved. The maidens of Karyai, considered most beautiful, were used as models for these columns...called Caryatids...columns of women.

The small columns on the right form the Caryatid porch for this temple

So sorry I can't get closer to them. We do, later in the museum. Of course one of them is missing...she's in the British Museum.

We're now on the back side of the Parthenon

The pediment is the triangular piece that spans the ends of the building. Most of it is gone (or in the British Museum). Below the pediment were friezes of battle scenes, other gods, the market, and daily life. We'll see them later in the museum.