Conquering Athens Part 2

Tues June 2, 2015

 We continued our whirlwind tour of Athens today with trips to the National Archaeological Museum, the Acropolis Museum, and the Acropolis and Parthenon.   Pictures below...

We drove past acres of Orange groves around Napoli in the Peloponnese.  Oranges are in season and were for sale on every street corner and every corner store has a fresh juicer--they grind the whole thing, peel and all, it's surprisingly good.

Fueling Up!

Our especially chatty taxi driver.  He wouldn't stop until he found a place in Athens that we hadn't visited.  He finally suggested the zoo.

 The National Archaeological Museum was a little uptown.  The facility was a bit run down but the art inside is famous the world over and likely on one or more pages of your world history or art history textbook.  The layout was nice, in chronological order, and there was good signage in English.  We also had a good guide who took one look at us and said "we'll finish a little early."

The Mask of Agamemnon.  From Mycenae.  We saw the site where it was discovered and a poor copy, now we see the mask itself.  Solid gold baby--just because you're dead doesn't mean you shouldn't have some bling...

More gold from Mycenae

Big Pots.  We love big pots.

The Zeus.  Epic.

This is supposed to be a statuette of Athena that was a copy of the one in the Parthenon.  We don't have any official insight but it sure reminds of something we've seen before...

"Boy on Horse"

The "Antikythera Mechanism"  This mechanism  was found in an ancient shipwreck and was part of a Greek matchine that could calculate dates, times, solar events and who knows what else.  How they machined tiny intricate gears with such accuracy at that time is beyond belief.  See also: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/ancient/ancient-computer.html.

The accompanying 3-D presentation.  Scott liked the thin slice CT sections.  

Boys Fighting.  This mural was from the wall at Akrotiri in Santorini.  This ancient Minoan era settlement dates from around 1600 BC.  The occupants realized that the Santorini Volcano was going to blow and fled.  Their town was buried in the ash and was discovered by mining in the 20th century.  The eruption formed the massive caldera in the center of Santorini  and probably formed the basis for the legend of the Lost City of Atlantis.  

This bed frame and some associated ropes survived from Akrotiri.  Those ropes are more than 3500 years old.   

ACROPOLIS MUSEUM

Sculptures from the Parthenon displayed where you can see them (except the stolen ones that are still in the British Museum)

the Lego Model was the boys' favorite part

"The Carytids" (Statue Ladies).  Everlie loves these.

The Greeks had a surprising number of pigments that they combined with beeswax to form some pretty stout paint.  The parthenon and other important monuments got a new coat of paint every eight years.

The über-elegant Museum Cafe.  

THE PARTHENON

Finally we headed up the hill to see the main attraction, the Parthenon and the associated Temple of Athena.  The thing that 15-20 Million people come to Athens to see every year.

Sometimes the selfie thing doesn't quite work out...

What people really look like between all that posing...

The City of Athens goes on forever in all directions.

Our apartment as viewed from the Parthenon.  Big cockroaches but a really great view...

Antiquities in Athens are so common as to be almost trivial.  "Hey Yannis!  What should we do with all these 2500 year old capitals?  Ah...just stack 'em over there."

Running the Taverna Gauntlet.  They seriously want you to eat dinner.

Where marble is so common that they use it to pave the streets.

"Hey boys, come out here and look at this great view.  Boys?  Boys?"

TOMORROW:  Off at 5:45 AM (cringe) to catch a flight to Santorini.   Kalli Nichta!