It's Greek to Me! Part 1

A couple of weeks ago I was in Athens. I had a 2-day layover, so I did a little sightseeing. It's a beautiful time of year there, still very warm and sunny but not oppressively hot. This is a picture of Mount Lycabettus near our hotel. Surprisingly, it doesn't take very long to climb to the top.


There is a small chapel on top. I was up here around 10 am and this old lady was scrubbing the marble. She was grumbling and periodically yelling in Greek. I quickly decided that I would not want to tangle with her:


Here is the view of the acropolis from the trail on the way up (I was initially pissed off that this tree was blocking an awesome view, but once I got a little bit into the tree, I got a pretty nice shot. Wouldn't you agree?)


The next thing I did was go up to the acropolis. We just started walking toward it since the street signs are difficult to read. We climbed up through this area of houses and eventually found the trail to the acropolis entrance.

The "streets" were narrow between the houses, which were mostly empty.

Here is the Parthenon:


And the Erechtheion:

You can see the porch of the Caryatids on the corner. Here is a better picture:

Here is another picture of Mount Lycabettus from the top of the acropolis.

Here is the Herodion Theater. It is on the hillside below the acropolis.


This is the temple of Hephaestus(also called the Thission) It is in an area called the ancient agora. It was built in 449 BC.

This is temple of Olympian Zeus, built from 124-132 AD. There are not very many columns remaining (I think there were 84 originally), but they are the biggest ones I saw in Athens. This was VERY impressive.

This is Hadrian's Gate, built in 131-132 AD. It divided the old part of Athens from the new part. The inscription on the acropolis side says, "This is Athens, the ancient city of Theseus" and on the new side it says, "This is the city of Hadrian and not of Theseus". I wonder if Hadrian was one of those emperors who was height-challenged...

Here is the acropolis with Hadrian's Gate in the foreground. I took this picture while standing near the temple of Zeus. I thought this was one of the best views.


While we were there, a peace march was scheduled to be going by our hotel on the way to the US Embassy. The Greek police had their riot gear on and were gathering in an alcove at the entrance of our hotel. I took my camera out there, but the hotel manager said it would not be a good idea to take a picture of them. He also said I should not go outside during the march because it might be dangerous. I hung around the lobby, hoping to get a picture, but ended up going to the pool instead. I read my book and swam a few laps before heading out to dinner.

After dinner, the evening view of the acropolis was great. In the foreground is an octagonal tower called the Tower of Winds. It is near the entrance of the Roman Agorà. It was built in the first half of the 1st century B.C. by the astronomer Andronicos.

That's a little of what I saw on this trip. I hope you liked it.