We should be more up-to-date on this blog, and we apologize for our tardiness. Tom is a slow reader so he types slowly. Truth is after a full day of collecting experiences to write about, we’re both too tired to write about them, not to mention that internet connections have been neither fast nor reliable. We’ll figure something out to make it better.
The pictures show that it was a cloudy day when we visited the Acropolis.
Perhaps this was why it didn’t seem crowded. The pictures also show scaffolding on parts of the Parthenon. 
Another restoration project is underway. None of that diminishes the impressive location and what the Greeks did with it 2500 years ago. (As an aside, we’ve decided that we are not too keen on restoration as a process applied to these artifacts. Preservation, yes, but let experts create pictures of what it looked like in the day, and keep them away from reconstructing the sites.) Anyway, you have all seen pictures of the Acropolis and the Parthenon, so we’re showing you views of modern Athens from these heights. 
The last of these panoramas shows the remains of Theater of Dionysus, 
the birthplace of Greek tragedy, and the second site where the Athens citizens’ assembly met to carry out the earliest of democracies, after the first site ran out of room.
We descended the Acropolis and headed for the neighboring Pnyx Hill, the first site of the citizens’ assembly. Along the way we found a Byzantine church called the Agios Dimitrios
and learned of the miracle associated with it: in 1656 and on the night before the commander of the invading Turks was planning to blow up the church full of worshippers with his cannon on the Acropolis, lightening killed the commander and his family. The church remains in use today.
The Pnyx is a site you have to want to find. The walk there is reasonably well marked, but if you had little idea what you were looking for you would have little idea of what you found. The site wasn’t located in modern times until 1835. The modest platform is pretty much all that remains of the place where democracy was first put into practice, at least on a large scale.
The Pnyx dates to the 6th century BC and was outgrown in the 4th century BC after 2 expansions gave it a capacity of 13,500 and the assembly moved to the Theater of Dionysos.
The pictures show that it was a cloudy day when we visited the Acropolis.
Perhaps this was why it didn’t seem crowded. The pictures also show scaffolding on parts of the Parthenon. Another restoration project is underway. None of that diminishes the impressive location and what the Greeks did with it 2500 years ago. (As an aside, we’ve decided that we are not too keen on restoration as a process applied to these artifacts. Preservation, yes, but let experts create pictures of what it looked like in the day, and keep them away from reconstructing the sites.) Anyway, you have all seen pictures of the Acropolis and the Parthenon, so we’re showing you views of modern Athens from these heights. The last of these panoramas shows the remains of Theater of Dionysus, the birthplace of Greek tragedy, and the second site where the Athens citizens’ assembly met to carry out the earliest of democracies, after the first site ran out of room.We descended the Acropolis and headed for the neighboring Pnyx Hill, the first site of the citizens’ assembly. Along the way we found a Byzantine church called the Agios Dimitrios
and learned of the miracle associated with it: in 1656 and on the night before the commander of the invading Turks was planning to blow up the church full of worshippers with his cannon on the Acropolis, lightening killed the commander and his family. The church remains in use today.The Pnyx is a site you have to want to find. The walk there is reasonably well marked, but if you had little idea what you were looking for you would have little idea of what you found. The site wasn’t located in modern times until 1835. The modest platform is pretty much all that remains of the place where democracy was first put into practice, at least on a large scale.
The Pnyx dates to the 6th century BC and was outgrown in the 4th century BC after 2 expansions gave it a capacity of 13,500 and the assembly moved to the Theater of Dionysos.We continued our descent to the base of the Acropolis and returned to the Ancient Agora. In the reconstructed Stoa of Attalos we went enjoyed the excellent displays of artifacts from the site which were used to illustrate the history of habitation there from Neolithic times to those fun-loving Herulians.
That evening we followed a man carrying a bouzuki case into the Ithaki restaurant, not realizing that he was half of the evening’s live entertainment.
That was fitting because we were half of the audience. That made it uncomfortable to leave so we stayed around and enjoyed some ouzo and metaxa. Final episode to follow...
That evening we followed a man carrying a bouzuki case into the Ithaki restaurant, not realizing that he was half of the evening’s live entertainment.
That was fitting because we were half of the audience. That made it uncomfortable to leave so we stayed around and enjoyed some ouzo and metaxa. Final episode to follow...
ouzo AND metaxa!!! wow!
ReplyDeleteseriously, you guys are having an amazing trip!
andrea