19 March 2011 – Athens (Saturday)

This morning we awoke to the usual sense of new adventures.  Wes noted that he has been waking up around 2 am each morning likely due to jet lag and body bio rhythms.  No matter we headed downstairs to partake of the free continental breakfast which consisted of toast, juice of some sort, and instant coffee.  We were not that impressed but considering the costs of meals here were not too surprised.

After we eat we headed off for the railway station to check out tickets to Kalawpaka.  We needed to have our Eurorail passes activated and pick up the tickets.  We learned that most offices are not open on Saturdays or Sundays.  No exception here.  However we know we can go to the railway station and the ticket office would be open there. 

Now we can start our touring for the day so off we headed towards the Acropolis.  Our first stop was the Theatre of Dionysis.  The Theatre of Dionysus is a major open-air theatre, one of the earliest preserved, in Athens. It was used for festivals in honor of the god Dionysus. It is commonly confused with the later and better-preserved Odeon of Herodes Atticus, located at the southwest slope of the Acropolis.  T.he Theatre of Dionysus also sometimes hosted meetings of the Athenian Ecclesia after the Pnyx was deemed unsuitable.

As we climbed upward to the top of the seats I noticed how uncomfortable the seats are.  When I noticed that there was a rounded carved chair with a back make from Marble, I really wondered how comfortable spectators would be.  Finally I noted that the first row of seats in the spectator section were made from stone complete with high backs I realized they would be hard AND cold.  At any rate, we explored the site of ruins and tried to visualize what it would be like to be watching a play in this venue.

We moved on from this to head up to the Acropolis which was basically ‘just around the corner’ and up a bit.  On the way up we passed the The Odeon of Herodes Atticus which is a stone theatre structure located on the south slope of the Acropolis of Athens. It was built in 161 AD by Herodes Atticus in memory of his wife, Aspasia Annia Regilla. It was originally a steep-sloped amphitheater with a three-story stone front wall and a wooden roof, and was used as a venue for music concerts with a capacity of 5,000. The audience stands and the 'orchestra' (stage) were restored using pentelic marble in the 1950s. Since then it has been one of the main venues of the Athens Festival, which runs from May through October each year, featuring a variety of acclaimed Greek as well as International performancers.  A memorable performance at the Odeon of Herod Atticus was given by the Greek singer Nana Mouskouri in 1984.

Finally we round the corner and find ourselves at the gate of the Acropolis. It was unbelievable and if not for the 200 or so school students on a tour, it would have been reflective.  After climbing the steps you are at the entrance, or the Propylaea, which was completed in 432. To your left is the Pinacotheca and a Hellenistic pedestal and on the right the tiny temple to Nike Athena or the Athena of Victory which commemorates the Athenians victory over the Persians. This small temple stands on a platform that overlooks the islands of Saronic Gulf and used to house a statue of Athena. If you looking from the propylaea towards Pireaus on a clear day you can see ships waiting outside the port of Pireaus, the islands and the mountains of the Peloponessos beyond.   

The Parthenon and other main buildings on the Acropolis were built by Pericles in the fifth century BC as a monument to the cultural and political achievements of the inhabitants of Athens. The term acropolis means upper city and many of the city states of ancient Greece are built around an acropolis where the inhabitants can go as a place of refuge in times of invasion. It's for this reason that the most sacred buildings are usually on the acropolis. It's the safest most secure place in town.

Even having seen a thousand photographs one is still not prepared for the immensity of the Parthenon. The building was designed by the architects Kallikrates and Iktinos as the home of the giant statue of Athena. It took 9 years to build and was completed in 438 BC and is probably the most recognizable structure in the world.

From a temple it became a church, a mosque and finally as a storage facility for Turkish gunpowder. In 1687 the Venetians bombarded it from below. A cannon ball hit the gun powder and blew it up. What makes the Parthenon so facinating is that to look at it you would think that is is made up of interchangable pieces. For example the columns are stones placed on top of each other and you could replace one piece of a column with any of the others. Not true. Each piece of the Parthenon is unique and fits together like the world's biggest and heaviest jigsaw puzzle. Lines that look straight are actually not. The ancient Greeks understood the mechanics of site and that to make a line look straight it had to be tapered or curved. The Parthenon is the most perfect and the most immitated building in the world. The restoration work we saw has been going on for the last 30 years and may go on for another 30. The more they try to put it back together the more respect and awe they have for the ancient Greeks.

The Erecthion sits on the most sacred site of the Acropolis where Poseidon and Athena had their contest over who would be the Patron of the city.  The Erechtheum is an ancient Greek temple on the north side of the Acropolis of Athens in Greece.   On the south side, there is another large porch with columns, and on the south, the famous "Porch of the Maidens", with six draped female figures (caryatids) as supporting columns, each sculpted in a manner different from the rest and engineered in such a way that their slenderest part, the neck, is capable of supporting the weight of the porch roof while remaining graceful and feminine. The porch was built to conceal the giant 15-ft beam needed to support the southwest corner over the metropolis, after the building was drastically reduced in size and budget following the onset of the Peloponnesian war.

We continued to walk around the outer side and marvelled at the views of Athens we were able to enjoy.  The views of Athens was excellent.  Below the Acropolis is the rock of Areopagos.  The Areopagus or Areios Pagos is the 'Rock of Ares', north-west of the Acropolis, which in classical times functioned as the high Court of Appeal for criminal and civil cases in Athens. Ares was supposed to have been tried here by the gods for the murder of Poseidon's son Alirrothios (a typical example of an aetiological myth).

We continued down from the Acropolis to the Roman Agora. The Roman Agora consists of a large, open-air courtyard surrounded by colonnades on all four sides. On the eastern side, there were also a series of shops. On the southern side was a fountain. The main entrance was on the west (Gate of Athena Archegetis), and there was a second entrance (or propylon) on the east, leading up to a public latrine and the "Tower of the Winds." The Roman Agora apparently became the main market of the city, taking over many of the commerical functions of the Greek Agora, which had become something of a museum (or archaeological park) by that time. 

The Tower of the Winds (or the Horologion of Andronikos of Kyrrhos), is a tall, octagonal building  immediately east of the Roman Agora. It was designed by a famous astronomer (Andronikos of Kyrrhos) to be an elaborate water clock (on the inside), sundial (on the outside), and weather vane (on the top). The nickname "Tower of the Winds" is derived from the personifications of the 8 winds carved on the 8 sides of the building. Scholars used to think that the Tower of the Winds was built in the 1st century B.C. (that is, during the early Roman Empire), but many archaeologists now prefer a constuction date in the mid-2nd centry B.C. (during the Hellenistic period).

We wondered back to the Ancient Agora.  The Agora was the heart of ancient Athens, the focus of political, commercial, administrative and social activity, the religious and cultural centre, and the seat of justice.  The site was occupied without interruption in all periods of the city's history. It was used as a residential and burial area as early as the Late Neolithic period (3000 B.C.). Early in the 6th century, in the time of Solon, the Agora became a public area.  The two highlights in the Ancient Agora for viewing were:  The Temple of Hephaisto and  Stoa of Attalos.  There were many other things to see as well and we spent over an hour walking around looking and learning.

We left the Ancient Agora both ready for a sit-down with a rest.  We discovered a nice restaurant in the direction homeward so we took advantage of it.  While we sat there we decided that we had done as much as we could today so both agreed to walk over to the railway station and get tickets for Monday to go north.  Plus we wanted to activate the Eurorail passes.  We walked over to the railway yard which took about an hour.  What was really interesting is that we walk through a lot of very narrow streets that were really only one car width and had very narrow sidewalks.  The sid walks were so narrow that I do not believe a motorbike could have travelled on them so we actually were safer than being on the more travelled routes.

We got to the railway station and requested tickets for Monday and explained we also needed to activate the pass.  The ticket person did not know how to do this, so passed us over to the supervisor.  He also did not know the procedure but did give us the tickets for Monday.  When we got back to the room we checked the book and found the instructions for activating the ticket so we will take care of that before we leave on Monday.

By the time we got back to our room both of us were tired and needed to rest.  I am not sure how many km we walked today but it was a lot.  Now we will be planning our next adventure and I will leave the descriptions until tomorrow's blog.