We Worship the Ancient God Athena….visiting Athens

 Our boat docked in Piraeus..the major port for Athens

Heading to our berth at terminal one. This was a sculpture at terminal C.  In the background you can see the hills dotted solidly with buildings. Our tour today will be a complete Acropolis  experience. First it includes a short tour around the city. Its a Sunday morning here so for once the traffic is not to bad.. as the day goes on, Im sure it will get worse.

Along the port. The bay is beautiful

This is the Peace and Friendship Stadium. It was the home for the Olympic Volleyball summer Olympic in 2004. Currently a basketball stadium and athletic facility.

An interesting house 

One of the many churches in Athens

Another private port for small yachts

The Panathenaic Stadium, built completely of marble.It was the stage for the modern Olympics to be held in 1896.It was once again used in the 2004for 4 out of 9 events.  It is from this stadium the Olympic flame leaves to the host nation each year.

Across the street in front of the stadium is this sculpture of the discus thrower. 

This man was the welcome committee at the stadium

 

Throughout the city there are beautiful statues

A view from afar! The excitement builds!

A residential street

 A royal palace

The Presidential  building guarded by the Greek Presidential Guard (Evzones)

Changing of the Guard

As we drive through the city we can see bits and pieces of the Acropolis!

As we parked in the grounds of the Acropolis, the hill is covered with olive trees. HOwever, they are stressed from lack of water ( Greece is in a drought) and the leaves were dull, often brown and very few blosssoms or fruit on. Sure made the Olive grove we help harvest in NORCAL look bountiful and beautiful!

  

On our way up the hill to the top we passed the ruins of the Coliseum. It was a beautiful ruin.  

Along the stage

Overlooking the stage area

Entering through the gates into the Acropolis.

This gate was used in ancient times for worshipers to bring in livestock and offerings.

The temple of Athena Nike

A cute ,small temple finished around 420 BCE looking through the gate pillars towards the Athena Nike temple 

 The Parthenon 

Such an impressive building! 

Each of the columns are slightly different. Larger on the four corners and then then taper and lean inwards towards the center. 

There is scaffolding all along the end. We were told it would never be removed as the deterioration of the columns by  nature would cause an dangerous situation for tourists. 

The Erechthein. The interesting feature is the south porch of the temple. Instead of columns there are six women upholding the ceiling. Many believe that they were the above ground monument for the tomb of Kekrops, a king.

A view of the stone of Democracy on the area in the middle of the picture

More ruins

Looking down on the theatre of Dionysus. The entrance to the Acropolis Museum shows ruins of the ancient city. 

The owl is the symbol of Athens

Sculpture from the Archaic period. I grabbed this photo then saw the no photo sign. I was lucky they didn’t see me.. the woman next to me got caught!  Because of the age of everything in the Archaic wing of the building there are no pictures allowed. Everything in this museum was discovered at the Acropolis or along the hills. Nothing else is allowed in this museum.

A miniature of the triangle of marble statues that graced the eastern end of the Parthenon.

One of the many marble relief panels that used to adorn the Parthenon. There were many but most of them reside in the British Museum and are currently a source of disruption for the country of Greece who wants them back and feels they were taken illegally and the British Museum which feels Lord Elgin bought them legally. 

From the Acropolis Museum we walked down the street to find our tour bus. Along the way there were musicians, food carts and lots of happy people. 

And orchid tree

And of course we found the usual…. Mickey D that was packed with young people.

Harian’s Gate. 

A popular bakery making cakes for St. George day (today)

A rummage sale that ran all along a bunch of street. Our guide says this is a refugee area and all the items for sale are possessions that they are selling. 

Our day of the Acropolis was long, exciting and very tiring. We had hoped to get on the HOP ON HOP OFF for another quick tour of the city but by the time we got through the traffic and back to the ship there just wasn’t much time and to be truthful, Al and I just didn’t really have any more energy left! So we returned to the ship, changed into swim suits and headed to the spa for some good therapeutic waters and relaxation.