New Acropolis Museum

This museum just opened a few months ago. Aren’t we lucky? It’s a beautiful museum with lots of light and space. There are so many more displays from the Acropolis than in the old museum. They’ve chosen to display the friezes and sculptures from the top of the four walls of the temple as they would have appeared on the temple itself. So they are up high on four walls that make a large rectangle—think of walking from the door of the temple all the way around the outside four walls back to the entrance again. If the museum doesn’t own the sculpture or panel (think of the famous Elgin Marbles in the British Museum as one example), they’ve made a plaster cast so you can see what it looked like in ancient times. Another display that I really liked was the one with the statues of the Carytids. (These are the originals, the ones outside on the Erechtheion are copies.)

Then there were all the korai statues that I liked too. (I also liked the air conditioning--do you see a recurring theme here?)

Athens

We made it to Athens and will spend our last week here. This feels more like a big city to me than Rome did. I think it’s because in Rome, no building can be higher than St. Peter’s. Here, the apartment buildings alone are taller than anything we saw in Rome! Also, the ancient sites are all clustered together here, whereas in Rome, they were more spread around. In Rome we traveled between cities by train which gives you a different feel for a place than traveling between cities by bus.

Our first major visit in Athens was the Acropolis. What I learned is that the entire area on top of the hill is called the Acropolis and the most famous building that is up there is the Parthenon—the temple of Athena. When I thought of Athens in my head I would always picture the Parthenon. (Just like when I thought about Rome I would always picture the Colosseum.) There are other buildings up there too—the Propylaia (the gateway), the Temple of Athena Nike, and the Erechtheion. Also, down one of the slopes is the Theater of Dionysios.

Getting to the entrance of the Acropolis was not an easy walk. It’s steep and it was already hot and humid. I was having a hard time, but I am blessed with a husband who has great patience with me and my meltdowns. If he hadn’t been there, I never would have even made it to the entrance and missed out on a great opportunity to see one of the world’s most famous ancient buildings. Once we had our tickets and went through the entrance, we still had to climb a lot of slippery stone stairs. Again, without Gary I wouldn’t have made it to the top. And boy was it worth it. The views of the city are amazing up there! The ruins are pretty cool too.

Delphi

We stopped for the night in the small village of Delphi (pronounced with a long i, like in kite). We stayed in a nice little hotel with a lovely view. After a group dinner in town, we all pretty much just crashed—the ferry ride made for a long day/night/day. On Tuesday morning we were refreshed and ready to go to the ancient site of Delphi. “According to legend, when Zeus released two eagles from opposite ends of the world their paths crossed in the sky above Delphi, establishing the site as the centre of the earth” (Eyewitness Travel, Greece). The signs for the town say it is the navel of the earth—we even saw the rock that was used to signify this. Well, the rock in the museum is a Roman copy of the one the Greeks used. The rock on the site is just a place marker. Delphi was also the site of the Oracle where people could go to ask questions of the priestess (think of the story of Oedipus).

First we visited the Sanctuary of Apollo. These are the ruins of the Temple of Apollo, treasury houses, altars, theater, stadium, etc. You know, ancient Greek stuff.

Then we were able to visit the museum at the site (hooray for air conditioning). All day long the songs from the Disney movie Hercules kept going through my head . . . now they’re in yours too!

We Have Arrived in Greece

After all that waiting, we made it. Here we are in Greece. It looks very different than I expected. It actually looks like lots of parts of the US I’ve been in, including Utah (also Arizona, Southern California, & Wyoming). At Delphi the mountains look a lot like Rock Canyon, just with Greek ruins at the base instead of a road. Here’s the view from my hotel room balcony in Delphi.

Our first stop was Meteora. These are monasteries built on top of really high rocks. (James Bond climbs one of these in For Your Eyes Only.) We visited two of the remaining 6 sites (originally there were 24).
It’s amazing that these could be built back in the 14th, 15th & 16th centuries with no helicopters, cranes, etc. To reach the monasteries a person had to be lifted by a net that was winched up. Luckily we had stairs. Lots of them.

I've Done Some Updates

I've added some details for some of my posts--so double check to see if there's new stuff!

I probably won't be able to get any pictures up until we get home since it costs money to use the internet here, so look for those sometime later next week!

We're enjoying Greece so far!

Getting To Greece—Another Adventure (OR Hurry Up and Wait)

Part 1 Saturday--First we had to take a shuttle from our apartment to the train station (expensive, but worth it so we didn’t have to haul all our luggage on the bus). Then we had to wait a couple of hours to get on the train. Then we had to find spaces for all the suitcases on the train (Tricky since it was full and we also had several students in our carriage looking for luggage space. Also, 8 students had bought their train tickets for the wrong day). Then we had to ride in the train for 5 hours. Then we had to walk to our hotel and get checked in (everyone taking care of their own luggage, of course). Then we had to find ourselves some dinner (pizza by the metre—another post for another day). Then we had to go to bed.

Part 2 Sunday—First Gary & Carson had to get up early and walk to the (hopefully) free shuttle stop for info on the shuttle to the ferry. Then we had to wait. Then we had to walk (with our luggage) to the shuttle stop. Then we had to wait. Then we had to pick up our ferry tickets. Then we had to wait. Then we had to walk quite a ways to another ferry terminal (with our luggage). Then we had to wait. Then we had to walk to the ferry dock (with our luggage). Then we had to wait. Then we boarded the ferry only to find out we didn’t have the seats we thought we had. Then we had to wait and wait. Then the ferry left! But we still had to ride it overnight for 11 hours—or so we thought.

We all settled in to wait—the students on deck with lawn chairs and the directors in their tiny cabins (but they did have beds). At 2:30am, a few hours after going to sleep, the phone in our cabin rings with someone telling us that we will be arriving in 30 minutes. What?! We aren’t supposed to arrive until 6:00 am! So we gather up our luggage and all the students and go into the terminal. . .to wait.

Last Day in Rome

Last Day in Rome
1) The boys climbed to the top of the dome of St. Peter’s-lots and lots of steps
2) Visited the Colosseum
3) Climbed the Capitol Hill to see the piazza designed by Michelangelo
4) Bought a knock-off Prada purse from a street vendor
5) Ate yummy dinner at one of our favorite restaurants
6) Ate gelato at Giolitti’s one last time