Second day exploring Athens.

Up for breakfast at 7am. It was very nice with a slight variation on the choices

Today, we plan to visit the Acropolis Museum.
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It is a bit of a walk from the hotel but worth every step. The museum is extensive and almost exclusively on the Parthenon.

There were some representations of what the structures on the Acropolis looked like before being dismantled or blown up.  Yes, long ago, an explosion destroyed part of the Parthenon.  What person thinks "Hey this looks like a great place to make into an arms depot"?  Well, someone did.  The buildings are impressive now but when first completed they were amazing.

The largest amount of surviving artifacts from the Acropolis are found here.  Of course not including those stolen by other countries.  Massive numbers of sculpture, carvings, jars, bowls, ....  are on display. 

More sculptures. I was surprised by the details carved and still remaining today.  Hair and clothing was made as realistic as possible. Many of which the faces were damaged by Christians to deface anything against the church.

An area is dedicated to the Porch of the Maidens sculptures that were originally supports for the porch at the tomb of Erechtheus.  The ones on the Acropolis are replicas.  The London Museum has the others that survived but they will not return them to Athens.  Yes, a bit of a sore point with me.  If Athens had anything stolen from London, the UK would be demanding its return.

Almost an entire floor of the museum is dedicated to the carvings that originally were around the top of the Parthenon.  This is laid out to the same dimensions of the Parthenon.  Again except for the pieces that are now in London.  I know I keep bring this up but Really?! Return them already.

Several gold coins were found during excavation's.

After several hours, we left the upper floors of the museum to go under the museum.

When the museum was being prepared for construction, a large ancient site was found.  Not surprising as almost everything in Athens is over an ancient building, shop, or even temple. If everything was uncovered almost the entire city would be an archeological site and no one would have a business or home here.

In this case, beneath the museum is a mansion.  A very wealthy homeowner with portions built from 200 AD and newer buildings from 300 AD. Yes, the entire structure is over 1700 years old.  As time passed, the buildings were dismantled and all but the low walls and floors were removed for new buildings.  As I have said before ALL of Athens is built using stone, mostly marble, taken from ancient buildings.

There were several baths and preparation rooms.  In that day, a person would come to a room then change out of street clothes before entering the bath.  Next into a warm room to allow the body to adjust in preparation to move to the hot room for a steam bath or dip in a heated pool.  Afterwards, they would return back with a stop for a massage and  be rubbed down with scented oils.  Finally, the cold room to dip in a cool pool before drying and changing.

The baths had a floor supported on short poles. This allowed heated air to flow from a fire under the hot pool.  Under most conditions, males and females did not bathe together but select times were designated for each sex.

Of course, there needs to be some sort of latrine (toilet).  There were several holes on benches, of marble, over a trench that with water running through to carry away waste.

After the museum, we went down a block to another great Greek restaurant. The food was great. Betty had Stuffed Cabbage Rolls, Shawna had Shrimp in a sauce and rice along with a dark Greek beer. I had pork Gyro which comes here as some pita bread slices, meat piled up, cucumber sauce… basically dissembled.

After that, we did a bit of tourist shopping. Betty needed some socks and we bought a magnet of the Acropolis.

At the end of the pedestrian street full of shops, we found Hadrian's Arch which was built in 132 AD. That was over 1800 years ago. The Pentelic marble gateway has Corinthian columns and is named for an Roman emperor Hadrian. In the past, a street passed under the arch.

After a bit of a walk, we got to the remains of Zeus Temple. As some point the largest temple in Greece was broken down to boil the columns to make quicklime for concrete. Crazy to us but remember to the Romans it was not old yet and not a Roman god.

The area around the temple had baths and other structures.

It was a difficult to get a picture that did the baths justice.

​A bit more of a walk and we were at the stadium for the first modern Olympics. 1863?? The audio tour was great and gave a good explanation of the history. The small museum had many of the torches used.

The two thrones are for the King and Queen of Greece.

Betty was very tired so we walked back to the hotel and she stayed to rest. Shawna and I walked back to the Ancient Agora on the North side of the Acropolis. Well to the north. At least a mile walk.

​This is known as the birthplace of the concept of democracy.  This restored building was the where philosophies and governance was discussed.  One result was the concept of democracy.

Some amazing renderings of the original Agora along with the building.

Lots of great statues and pottery.

A child's potty.

Some jewelry was found on the site.

After leaving the museum, we walked around the grounds seeing many of the foundations of what were huge buildings all long gone and dismantled for building materials for the city.  Even so, there are several examples of carvings that originally decorated them.

Across the park, a single temple still stands which was completed in 415 BC. That's over 2400 years old. The whole idea of OLD is very different here.

It was a temple to Hephaestus, the Greek god of artisans, blacksmiths, carpenters, craftsmen, fire, metallurgy, metalworking, sculpture and volcanoes.  That's a lot of things to be "god" of isn't it?

The temple does show damage from fires which burned away the roof and earthquakes which shifted blocks.

Catholic church which was built 1000 AD by demolishing some of the buildings that originally stood here. Yes, the church is over 1000 years old. So compared to the temple above, this is a new building.  It was closed when we were there so we could not see the interior.

We did find a few flowers and some parrots.  Yes, wild parrots.

As we walked out of the Agora, the path out was the original Panathenaic Way.  This was the road to the Acropolis and used for thousands of years.

Our final views of the Agora were great.

Exhausted, we walked back to the hotel but stopped off for some sandwiches and a frozen fruit (strawberry) smoothy for Betty.

We all went up to the roof for our last night time view of the Acropolis from the hotel. Shawna went down stairs to the bar and came back with a bottle of wine she shared with Betty and a liquor make from grapes for me (strong stuff).
Off to bed.