Farewell to the Best Greek Holiday
The long flights are over, and after a very short Auckland family visit, we are now back in an extremely cold but sunny winter in Tarras. … With no water !!! Eek
Time to look back on our final days in Greece and our 3 months away.
We both agreed Athens was one of the loveliest cities to visit. Philips's choice of apartment was perfect in the Plaka district of the city and within walking distance of everything. However, it was 35 deg plus every day and at times rather tiring. The apartment was cool and a sanctuary later in the afternoon.
We always prefer to walk, but never before a fresh orange juice and coffee and on our first morning in Athens as we were heading to the botanical gardens we wondered why the roads were closed and busloads of police everywhere. As it fortuitously turned out we stumbled across the changing of the guard at Parliament and the Greeks do this very well. Soldiers in their beautiful uniform, white billowy shirts, tights and a pleated skirt ( 400 pleats – the number of years the Ottomans controlled Athens), shoes complete with huge pom poms and a hat that has a beautiful long tassel. Of course, this is not all - when they march they kick their right leg up horizontally and slap it down on the ground. The Sentry’s stand perfectly still for an hour at a time. We were very fortunate since they are only in ceremonial uniform on a Sunday.
The shady gardens were a pleasant walk to the Panathenaic Stadium and the site of the first Modern Olympic games in 1896. Thanks to the sponsorship of a Greek benefactor the ancient site was completely rebuilt in white marble and held 80,000 spectators. At this time, winners were given a silver medal and runners-up a bronze medal. Athletes coming third received no award. It was a blistering hot visit to the Temple of Zeus which sadly was mostly covered in scaffolding and then it was time to consume yet another large bottle of water to help us complete our morning.
As we left the garden, we came across Lord Byron again and this time his statue. He spent many years in Greece and especially Athen’s, where he wrote his substantial works. There is a street named after him called Vyronos (meaning Byron) It’s where he used to live and we walked along here more than once.
Finding a cool spot for lunch is vitally important and is usually accompanied by a favourite Aperol spritz. We did relent in the afternoon and sat on the hop-on hop-off bus. Actually it went past districts that we would never have gone to and the commentary taught us heaps. For two nights in a row, we found ourselves in the Monistraki market area – Alive, crowded and full of all sorts of people and families all having typical street food. The restaurants and bars are side by side and were heaving late into the night.
The Acropolis is the main draw card in Athens – we were concerned about the crowds, heat and steep climb. Using our two-day bus pass we arrived at the foot of the acropolis and the walk wasn’t too bad. Since we didn’t have prebooked tickets there was a queue – However, a touting guide offering a skip-the-line tour which sounded great for us. I can’t remember her name, but the Acropolis has been her office for 24 years. She was excellent, used the shade and limited her time to 45 minutes. Perfect !! The extraordinary Parthenon, like all ancient buildings, has had many lives. Built, rebuilt, has been a Christian church, a mosque and was actually blown up!! – since the Ottomans kept their gunpowder in it and the Venetians scored a hit. Much of the 10-acre site is being restored and all the repairs and replicas are in white marble. It is phenomenal with all the extensive work being carried out here. The white buildings of Athens wrap themselves around the Acropolis which has dominated Athens for over 3000 years, yet still overpowers all of Athens today. Dedicated to the goddess Athena she was in charge here and the reason for many ancient monuments - including a 30 ft statue of her which has been tragically destroyed. It’s hard to imagine the disregard for structures that are so enormous and impressive.
The modern, beautiful, Acropolis Archaeological Museum sits at the bottom of the historic site and is an impressive building with the top floor replicating the Parthenon itself.
I think the most disturbing aspect to me, is the theft of much of the 92 - 5th-century marble panels known as ’metopes’, from the frieze that surrounded the top of the Parthenon. They were obtained under dubious circumstances by an Englishman called Lord Elgin who was then an ambassador, on the pretext that he was taking plaster cast copies.
From 1801 to 1812, Elgin's agents removed about half the surviving Parthenon sculptures, as well as sculptures from the Erechtheion, the Temple of Athens, Nike and the Propylaia - sending them to Britain in an effort to establish his own private museum. He claims the Ottomans gave him permission which has been strictly disputed. As you walk around what is known as the marbles in the archaeological museum a guide pointed out to us that any with BM underneath means that the original,is now in the British Museum. Horrifically, there were too many to count. The British government paid good money to this thief, and there is great controversy about the marbles and statues being returned to Greece. We had a conversation with one of the Museum’s staff and voiced our outrage and that the marbles should rightly be returned. But, as she pointed out the British Museum would be empty !!
As if we needed encouragement, we felt it was important to experience Modern Greek cuisine and needed to find a roof top restaurant with an evening view of the Acropolis. After much research, we booked at “Sense”. The degustation menu was exceptional. Each of our 13 dishes was a work of art, each with a mythical story and intense flavours of Greece.
We enjoyed a magical evening to end our Greek Odyssey and the culmination of 2 ½ months away - which included a visit to London and the Chelsea Flower Show, tours to France and Italy, time in Paris and the Veneto and now we head home.
