Day 13 Athens & the Parthenon

Our last day in Greece, boy did it go fast. This morning after breakfast we walked down to a streetcar station, and hopped onboard and rode 1 hour down to the city center. Not as bad as the Tokyo or Paris subway, but it did get a little crowded.

We hopped off in front of the Temple of Zeus, (seen left) which seems as if it used to be an amazingly huge structure, even bigger than the Parthenon. There is little of it that remains standing however, but we were only able to snap a few pics from a distance away.

Right next to the temple of Zeus is Hadrian’s (Roman Emperor) Arch, which is the remains of a Roman commemoration for his admiration of the Greek’s culture. I guess he was a Roman Emperor who was really fond of the Greeks and built a massive arch that used to lead under a main road that led into Athens.

From there we walked across down, hitting the Plaka district again. Theo showed us a few things, and we eventually ended up at a giant McDonalds (our rally point) where we had about 2-3 hours of free time.

We crossed over the Syntagma plaza to view the changing of the guard at the Greece parliament building, which is similar to the Buckingham palace type set up. Though they sort of dress silly, these guys really have a hard job, standing in the heat not moving, while tourists walk up and get their pictures taken with them. To a Greek solider, this job is a great honor, and every other hour the guard is changed.

We stopped briefly & checked out the Ancient Agora of Athens, (seen above) which used to be a massive complex that held the ancient Athenian government offices, such as courts and administration buildings. We weren’t able to get down inside of it, but it is out in the open and very easy to get some photos . The conquering Romans built a Forum close by.

Rentar then took us down into the subway station to view ancient ruins. I get the feeling that if you want to see a lot of Ancient Athens, it is best to go underground, where the strata of layers can easily be seen. When Athens was digging out its subway tunnels, like Rome, they kept hitting into ruin after ruin under the earth from 2000+ years ago. This is a good cheap way to see ancient Athens, as they have all sorts of artifacts and vases on display.

Next it was back to the Plaka (shopping) district. The joke is that each store seems to have the same stuff as the one before. I can’t tell you how many Spartan t-shirts, Parthenon snow globes, or Greek post cards I saw replicated from one store to the next, but it was pretty redundant. I got some T-shirts and small items for those loved ones back home and eventually we rallied back to McDonalds in time. Of course John took us to a great eating place, where the waiter even recognized him from his many past trips to Athens. Pretty good Gyros, although Meer told us that the steak ones were better tasting than the pork. The waiter then snaped a pic of us after lunch.

Our guide got us on the tour bus where we drove around Athens and looked out the window at Plato’s Academy, which had a lot of graffiti on the side of it. Theo makes mention that lots of Ethnic Albanians were invited to Greece as surplus labor back in the late 80’s and 90’s, and that many gypsies came with them who cause a lot of problems per the riots in Athens back in 2008.

After checking out the original Athens stadium (seen above) which held the first modern Olympic games of 1896, we hoped in a bus and went towards the Acropolis (city center) where the Parthenon lay on top of the hill awaiting us. Of course, we had to hit an approved EF momento/gift shop first, which was a bit annoying. Every time we hit one of these stores, it takes away 30-45 minutes of time we would have had otherwise to spend at the actual attraction. Later in the day, I was late getting back to the group, because I refused to rush my way through the Acropolis due to this waste of time gift shopping earlier spent.

Above can be seen a massive theater that sits at the base of the Acropolis. The climb up to the top was not all that steep. Ruth was advised not to make the trip countless times, but insisted on going up anyway. Saint Rentar was nice enough to spot her so if she were to fall or get dizzy, he would be there to assit her.

Here is a shot of the entrance buildings that lead up to the Parthenon area. This part was devised by Pericles after winning the Persian Wars. It is also called the Propylaea

Off to the side of the Parthenon is the famous "Porch of the Maidens", or Pillars of Caryatids which was originally built to honor some Athenian King I believe and is referred to as the Erectheum . Rumor has it the Turks used it as a harem as a way to insult the Greeks, but I can't confirm that. It can be seen below:

The Parthenon was built in 447 BC and not finished until 432 BC. It was since restored 2 major times in the past 200 years, once in the 1830’s and another in the 1930’s where they placed massive iron clamps in the shape of a capital "i" (seen lower left) into the rocks which over time rusted and expanded, cracking the marble and thus doing more damage than good. Currently they are working to restore these with Titanium clamps, which will not rust and are stronger than the old Iron ones. In certain places, the rocks were so badly damaged from the prior restorations that they have to replace entire blocks of pentellic marble which is why you will always see scaffolding no matter when you come to Athens. Since the 1980’s they have slowly been taking it down, keeping the original pieces, and restoring these friezes with true copies of the original as the acid rain and Athenian pollution have been taking their toll.

Of course the brilliance of the Acropolis is missed by 99% of the visitors. Many just see it as a bunch of rocks with a few remaining free standing pillars from an old long gone temple. What seems lost on many is the realization that this building was mathematically perfect in every measurement. The Greeks fully understood and honored the Golden Ratio/Divine proportion, which when it came time to build Athena her perfect temple was the main inspiration of the building. Pythagoras himself knew of the proportions of the human figure which had a tremendous effect on Greek art. Every part of their major buildings, down to the smallest detail of decoration, was constructed upon this 1.618 proportion. There is a really cool 4 minute video on this concept at the bottom of this web page.

There is an old Greek saying that there are no straight lines in the Parthenon. That is because had they built it perfectly straight it would have seemed crooked from a distance. The floor and stairs are built with the middle higher up than the ends. This makes an upside down “U” shape which can be clearly seen when standing in front of it. Also the pillars bulge in the middle and are thinner at the tops and bottom ends, which again gives the structure an optical illusion of being straight. The pillars themselves are made up of marble drums (see far right pillar) stacked almost like leggo blocks one on top of another, snapped into place by wodden pegs in the center of each disk.

(Left )Looking down from the heights of the Acropolis (Right) better view of Temple of Zeus below

Below the top of the mountain is the Theater of Dionysus, which was built in 325 BC. Eventually it fell into disrepair until Nero (who toured Greece and performed in most major theaters) paid to restore it. From what I've read, whatever you see of it today is mainly Roman influences. Apparently Nero before killing himself decided to tour all around Greece, forcing many of the locals to sit through his shows, under penalty of death for leaving in the middle of the act.

Caught the bus home, and had a few hours of free time. We went to a beach only a few blocks from the hotel. Wasn't as nice as Tolo, but it was fun getting a chance to swim in the Aegean one more time. After dinner, we had a massive Uno battle, where Team Alpha (teachers) went up against Team Bravo (students) and of course we kicked their buts. :-) Anyway, it was a nice way to end the journey before the hellish 26 hour trip home.

The tour was really amazing, and our kids seemed to have a good time. Stacie and I were pleased with the overall behavior and other than Ruth's accident, we really didn't have any big problems. I hope you have enjoyed reading my observations and storys about the trip. If you have any questions just e-mail me at cullster@comcast.net