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  • Athens – National Park (Tortoises)

    Spot the wildlife….

    Here he is. These tortoises roam free in the national park and I’m sure that they’d like to get further but I can’t imagine that they’d negotiate the traffic and urban life of Athens city centre very well. He did though move across the park at quite some speed, so they must be able to cover some reasonable distances.

    There is a story that Aeschylus, an author from Athens, was killed by a tortoise. This sounds a little far fetched, but the story goes that an eagle dropped the tortoise on his bald head, confusing it for a rock on which to smash the tortoise’s shell. It’s no doubt apocryphal, but it’d be a rather unfortunate way to die….

  • Athens – Toms Shoes (and coffee)

    There are a few of these locations around the world, although I must admit that I hadn’t heard of the company name, just the concept. In short, it’s a shoe shop and coffee shop where for every product purchased the company give another free to charity.

    Initially established in the United States, there are a handful across in the world, a few in the US, one in London, one in Greece and several in the Middle East.

    First time I think that I’ve had coffee in a shoe shop.

    Attractive coffee and the server was professional and rather smooth in his entire service. I’m not sure how he made the image on the coffee this clear and the image stayed like that until I had nearly finished the drink. As for the taste of the coffee, it was the best I’ve had all week, rich and creamy, all excellent value for €3. They serve all the drinks in takeaway cups, regardless if customers are eating in (or drinking in) which is a little unusual.

  • Athens – National Archaeological Museum

    I’ll limit myself in this post to just a brief few comments about the National Museum of Archaeology, as I have lots of photos of various exhibits I’ll post later on. The frontage of this museum looks spectacular and it has been in this building since 1889, although the museum has been in operation since 1829.

    The staff member at the desk was welcoming, although visitors are given precisely no information such as a map. This museum is substantial and so an orientation map would have been useful, or just a guide to the main key items in the collection. I wasn’t even sure where I was going to get into the museum after I had obtained my ticket, so I followed some Germans. They seemed equally unsure, but they were more decisive than me, and they made a good judgement on where to go.

    There is no set path around the museum, which again might have been at least partly useful, as everything seemed rather random. However, the size of the museum was something else, and it’s the largest museum of its type in Greece and it’s also of international importance.

    I’m not sure that I’ve ever seen so many statues, but I suppose that if anywhere is going to have a substantial collection of Greek statues then it’d be here. There are also a large number of damaged statues with various parts having fallen off over the centuries, but that simply adds to their charm. Well, sometimes… There’s also a Roman collection as well though, and numerous other collections from the ancient period, as well as a prehistoric collection.

    I walked around for nearly three hours until I decided that I’d had enough of statues and sculptures. There were elements of the museum that I didn’t really discover despite visiting for that length of time, and apparently the museum is planning an expansion in the future.

    Some reviews indicated that the museum randomly closes part of their collections when they’re short staffed, but I didn’t notice that being a problem during my visit. Although given how much there was to see I’m not sure that I would have really noticed if they had closed some of it.

    I was again fortunate to be visiting in late March, as the museums become more expensive from the beginning of April. The usual admission charge for this museum is €10, but for the winter period it was just €5. Given how much there was to see, I considered that more than satisfactory value for money.

  • Athens – Parthenon South Slope – Odeon of Herodes Atticus

    This theatre is built into the side of the Acropolis and was funded by Senator Herodes Atticus in memory of his wife. A nice gift to give…. It was completed in 161AD and remained in use until 267AD when the Heruli (a Germanic tribe) came and destroyed it.

    The remains of the theatre survived in relatively good condition over the centuries, but it was decided to renovate the site in 1950 to bring it back into use. It seems a shame that the historic elements of the seating area have been lost, although the former facade is still standing, at least in part. Although it’s an open-air theatre today it wasn’t originally, there used to be a grand (and no doubt expensive) cedar wooden roof.

    Numerous big names (as in well known people, not those with lots of letters in their surnames) have since performed here, including Pavarotti, Elton John, Sting, Placido Domingo and Jethro Tull. When the sun is shining this must make for a spectacular site for a performance, with the performer looking straight up at the Acropolis. John Cleese is also performing there later this year, I’m sure that will sell out quickly if it hasn’t already.

  • Athens – Parthenon South Slope – Danger

    Coming back down from my Parthenon visit I was merrily reading every sign that I could find. This one looked moderately interesting and I realised I hadn’t seen much wildlife.

    And then I saw this. The Balkan whip snake. The Acropolis could have been riddled with these….. Glad I saw this at the end of the visit.

  • Athens – Parthenon South Slope – Statue Bases

    OK, a post about statue bases isn’t going to set the heart racing, not like a post about Greggs for example. But I still think that they’re interesting. But I’ve set the bar low there….

    A dedicatory base with a choregic inscription. I didn’t know what the word ‘choregic’ meant, but it refers to a group of actors who perform together. It’s also where the word chorus is derived from. It dates from between 76 and 88AD.

    This is an inscribed statue base which honoured archon Tiberius Claudius Lysiades. It dates from the second century AD. The archon were the chief nine magistrates of Athens, but the word came in English to mean ruler. The word was relatively common in the early nineteenth century, but it has now fallen into abeyance. Although it’s also the derivative of the word archbishop or phrases such as arch enemy. And back in the day, in the early medieval period, they weren’t archbishops, but highbishops.

    I thought this was a lump of rock. Although that’s why I’m not a professional archaeologist. But apparently it’s the part of a base and has a dedicatory inscription and is surrounded by an olive-tree wreath. It dates to the second or third BC, which is some impressive dating given there’s a limited amount left.

  • Athens – Parthenon South Slope – Marble Seat

    This is a marble seat on display at the south slope of the Parthenon, probably from the Panathenaic Stadium. I thought that this was strangely compelling, with the detailed carving at the base and knowing that it would have once been used in a packed stadium by attendees watching athletics and also gladiators fighting wild animals (and perhaps each other).

  • Athens – Acropolis Museum

    The Acropolis Museum is currently the highest rated attraction in Athens on TripAdvisor and a huge source of pride for the Greek people. It displays the treasures of the Parthenon, or at least, the ones that Greece has left. It’s a beautifully designed museum and the process to buy tickets was easy to understand and the staff were helpful and welcoming. Tickets are usually €10, but during the winter months they’re just €5, so I felt that was good value.

    I can’t fault the design of the museum, which looks glorious throughout. This is the view of the Acropolis and Parthenon from the museum which has tall windows to maximise the viewing opportunities. The museum was also spotlessly clean, there were English translations of everything and despite the high number of people there, the visitor flow was well managed.

    There’s a separate floor of exhibits which I’ll post about elsewhere, but this is the main part of the museum in my view, it’s the display of the Parthenon Marbles. They stretch around a long rectangle, just as they would have once been displayed on the exterior of the Parthenon, and are positioned in the order they were once located in.

    Unfortunately for the museum they don’t have the complete set of marbles, as around half were taken by Lord Elgin in the early part of the nineteenth century. They’re still on display in the British Museum, and it’s intriguing to see which stones were taken and which weren’t. The museum has inserted in plaster casts of the missing stones, and it’s easy to see what is original and what is a copy. There are some other gaps in the stones, such as when the building was converted into a church and a number were destroyed, but these are clearly marked.

    My own view is that the museum was disappointing as I left knowing little more than I did when I went in. The information panels around the museum were, in my view anyway, randomly located and overly complex. There was no flow by date and I came away with more questions than answers because there seemed to be gaps in the factual record.

    On the matter of the Elgin Marbles, the museum doesn’t touch on this, other than to condemn their taking. The situation was confused at the time, let alone now, so views will likely always be split on this. Elgin claimed that it took over a decade and hundreds of employees to remove the panels and that the locals must have known what was happening, but it was more complex than this and there was a lot of missing documentation when the House of Commons investigated at the time. There’s no evidence that Elgin had permission to take the marbles, so the Greeks do understandably want them back.

    The British Museum has also managed to damage the panels in a botched cleaning process which it transpired they didn’t know about, although this is now a couple of generations ago. For what it’s worth, I prefer the British Museum display of the marbles in terms of the interpretation offered about them and the curation of the stones. Although the Greek museum is clearly a more stunning building. But that’s an aside anyway as it’s nothing to do with me, it’s a matter for the trustees of the British Museum.

    One more point for confusion is about taking photographs. I merrily went around taking photographs and no-one said anything to me during my visit. On the way back down I noticed a sign saying no photos and one staff member was stopping people taking photos, but all the other staff didn’t intervene in their areas. I’m guessing that the situation is that the museum don’t mind people taking photos in principle, but they’re trying to avoid people taking them as it creates pinch points and displays at exhibits. But I can understand why some visitors are confused, and there are three reviews on TripAdvisor about how the museum authorities have made visitors cry by being rude to them. Not a good look.

    Overall, I’m glad that I went and the marbles are simply sublime and it’s marvellous that so many other treasures from the site are clearly displayed in what is a beautiful building. But curation wise, I’m less convinced about the whole museum. But since it’s the most popular attraction in the city, I think I’m in rather a minority here.

  • Athens – Another Day, Another Demonstration

    Every day I’ve been here there has been a demonstration about something taking place. Mostly about the environment and against fascism, but this was a larger and well attended event which winded its way through the centre of Athens.

    I translated one of the leaflets and the protest is related to the closing of schools, but I couldn’t find any media reports on the march to find out more.

    There were plenty of police around, who mostly looked bored, and some irritated looking locals not impressed by the smoke. And an awful lot of flyers were thrown on the floor, although the city seems to employ an army of street cleaners.

    It got the attention of locals and visitors to the city though, which I’m guessing is the entire point that it was held. So job done in that regard….

  • Athens – Coffee Cat

    He seemed quite high up, but also entirely content.