We woke this morning after getting in late last night from the train station to consider our plans. It had been our plan to go to Peiraias (Athen’s sea port) and take the overnight ferry to Crete. However, Wes was not feeling 100% so we decided that taking an easy day and having a good night’s sleep was better. This meant we had to change our plans since originally we planned to go to Crete on Wednesday and leave for Santorini on Sunday and return to Athens on Thursday. However, if we delayed anything for one day then timing became an issue with this plan since there is only two days a week that ferries run to and from Santorini and that is Sunday and Thursday. So we changed things around. Now we will go to Santorini on Thursday then on to Crete on Sunday and back to Athens any day we wish since there are ferries each day.
So we packed up and headed out to Peiraias by metro later Wed morning and located a hotel for the night. We had a great chat with a local on the metro who was giving us advice about how to find the less expensive hotels because, apparently, if you go one street back from the main streets or on the side streets the hotels are cheaper. Also he advised us that it is common to barter the rate – very foreign to our thinking. The hotel we settled on is on a side street and is called Ionion Hotel. We did not barter since we felt the rate of 60 Euro (with breakfast and free wifi) was very reasonable. In addition the owner spoke excellent English and was more than helpful in providing answers to our questions. We were on the fourth floor and the hotel had an elevator that would make most walk in closets look huge. We walked since it was not possible for both of us to fit in with our backpacks. Another interesting thing with these elevators is that the door opens by pushing – nope it does not open on its own and if you wait you do not get off…guess how we figured that out? In addition the elevator cage has not door on it so you watch the wall slide by as you move…very unnerving at first. Don’t touch or your hand may get trapped.
By now Wes is feeling much better so we decided that we would take the metro back into Athens (about a 20 minute ride so not a hardship) and complete the touring we thought we would not be able to finish. So back onto the Metro we went without our backpacks of course and comfortable with the knowledge we had secured a room for the night that is secure and safe for leaving our things. It was hard for us to get used to the idea that the hotel did not want a deposit or even to be paid in advance and we had to insist on paying up front.
The first stop for us the Museum of Kerameikos. The Kerameikos was the most important and official cemetery of ancient Athens from as far bas as the prehistoric period. When the Themistoclean Wall was built to surround the city of Athens it actually divided the into two parts – an inside the city and outside the city. The Kerameikos that was included inside the city became aresidential area and the part that was outside the city wall became a burial ground.
The two most important gates into Athens were built in Kerameikos. The Diplon which passed the road to Plato’s Academy and the Sacred Gate which passed the road to Eleusis. The Sacred Gate is associated with procession of the Eleusinian Mysteries. The Diplon Gate is where the procession of the Panathenian festival assembled before ascending to the Acropolis.
During the classic period both roads were by cemeteries and burial monuments. In particular by the road to the Academy outside the Diplon gate graves were placed for prominent citizens and for those who had fallen in the war. What I found amazing was that the area had been covered in time with 7-8 meters of dirt which had to be excavated to reveal the ruins.
The museum was very interesting with artifacts uncovered from the area on display covering a period of time from 2500 BC to 430 BC. They are exhibited in terms of age which helps give a perspective of the changes occurring over time. Also on display were many different grave markers and statutes discovered.
Finally we were able to walk through the remains of a residential structure which included a central well, and several rooms. Of course all we managed to see was the foundation and perhaps the first layer of rocks. Any pictures just did not look like much more than a row of rocks because of size perspective therefore no pictures.
Our next stop was the Hadrian’s Library. This is the same Emperor who was responsible for building the Hadrian Wall across England separating Scotland from England at the time Rome controlled England but could not manage to control the Scots. This Library was designed to contain about 16,000 books and was set up for lectures as well as scholarly works. In the courtyard of the Library was built a church and the floor plan of the last church is still visible. We could actually figure out the structure of the building by comparing the ruins with the conceptual drawings. Unfortunately one side of the ruins has long been built over with a major road and a building so the entire ruins can not be uncovered.
We left Athens contented that we had seen all the ruins that are recommended and headed back to our hotel room ready for a nap. We actually ended up sleeping for about 90 minutes before getting up to head out for a late dinner so the decision to take a day off from travel was a wise one. Tomorrow we head off to start looking at some of the Greek Islands. We will be taking an early morning ferry (7 am) and it will stop at several islands on our way to Santorini.
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