Greece - the sites

Athens

The Acropolis

When we arrived at our hotel, we were told to go up to the roof for views of the Acropolis. What spectacular views! The Acropolis is all lit up at night and sits high above the rest of the city.

The majority of the buildings on the Acropolis date back to Pericles in the Golden Age around 460-430 BC. The temple of Athena Nike is now completely enclosed in scaffolding. Much of the Propylaea is still intact and leads up to the Parthenon and the Erechtheion. Most of the statues, sculpture and friezes are plaster or concrete casts of the originals, which are housed in various museums around the world. The Parthenon is in particularly bad shape as it was used as a church in the Byzantine period, when the Christians defaced most of the 'non-Christian' carvings and then it was used as an arsenal in the 1600s and was blown up during the Venetian siege in 1687. It is always disappointing to see each culture take over and destroy previous ones with little regard for historical significance and beauty.

Ancient Agora

The Ancient Agora was the meeting/market place of Athens. Part of it has been rebuilt to house some of the statues. The Temple of Hephaestus is still in reasonable condition and gives a nice view of the rest of the site.

Roman Agora/Tower of the Winds

We accidentally stumbled into the Roman Agora, which contains the Tower of the Winds, while we were trying to get to the Theatre of Dionyses.

Theatre of Dionyses

A disappointingly small theatre. I was expecting a much larger and grander theatre given that it was next to the Acropolis. My favourite theatre is still the one at Pergamon in Turkey.

Olympian Zeus

The temple of Olympian Zeus has a really cool fallen column. The temple columns were the tallest in Athens at 17m. One of them has fallen sideways and broken into its component pieces in a rather orderly fashion.

Hadrian's Library

Hadrian's Library is part of the Acropolis ticket but is not mentioned anywhere in the literature. I was determined to find it but to no avail. Then, when we were looking for the train station, we happened upon it! The Library used to contain tens of thousands of scrolls, reading rooms and 2 lecture halls. Not much remains now except for part of the front facade.

The Acropolis Museum
The new Acropolis Museum opened on the day we arrived in Athens but we didn't visit it until our last day there as it was impossible to get tickets. The museum is laid out very well, with pieces from previous periods and lesser known sites on the Acropolis in the lower floors, leading up to the Caryatids (I love these 6 women who hold up the porch of the Erechtheion) and then up to a full scale layout of the Parthenon frieze, metopes and eastern and western pediments on the top floor. There was a heavy emphasis on all the pieces that reside outside of Greece, primarily on the large group, known as the Elgin Marbles, that sit in the British Museum (a note of BM is on each plaster cast that was taken from that collection). Not to weigh into the argument but the Greeks should just get over the fact that Elgin took all the good bits of the Parthenon and one of the Caryatids 200 years ago. There is no way the British Museum is going to give any of it back as this would set a bad precedent for them as most of their exhibits were taken from other countries without the permission of the currently recognised ruling governments. The Brits for their part should stop pretending to justify themselves with arguments like 'it is much better for the pieces to be in London as they are showcased as part of world history, not just Greek history' and just say, 'nope, you aren't getting them back!'

Delphi

We went on a day trip to Delphi, where I had a long discussion with the Oracle and asked her deep and meaningful questions (!) Seriously, the site is on a mountainside with the temple of Apollo, theatre and stadium on the upper side of the road and the gymnasium and temple of Athena on the lower side of the road. Nobody goes to the temple of Athena as it is very poorly signed and they are all exhausted from the visit to the upper side.

The Oracle apparently used to sit inside the temple of Apollo, in a crevice that you can't see now. There isn't much left of this temple. More impressive is the stadium, which is right up the top of the hill. Most of the seating is still intact and you can see how spectators would have watched the races inside.

The temple of Athena with its Tholos in the middle is in a similar state to the Apollo temple. Bemusingly, the UNESCO sign proclaiming it a world heritage site has been propped up against the railings with 2 pieces of rock to stop it toppling over. The lack of respect is just mindboggling.

Nafplio

Nafplio was our base for our trips around the Peloponnese peninsula. It is a nothing resort town that is slowly dying. We saw several abandoned hotels and houses that hark back to better times.

Epidavros

Epidavros was the site of the Temple of Asclepios, the god of medicine and healing, one of Apollo's sons. People went there to get help with curing various sicknesses from hearing loss to mental illness. They are still in the process of piecing together the ruins and rebuilding them into their original positions (with plaster casts where the bits are completely gone). Turkey did this years ago with their ruins and have done a particularly good job with the Library facade at Ephesus.

There is a precursor to Ronald McDonald House at Epidavros. A huge hotel-like place was constructed for friends and family of patients to stay while their loved ones were being treated.

The best find at Epidavros is a beautiful Corinthian column capital that is in almost perfect condition. It was found buried in the ground and is believed to be the template for the columns on the site.

Mycenae

Mycenae (Mikines for the Greeks) was the seat of the ancient Mycenaen culture, which flourished around 1600-1200 BC. The founder was said to be Perseus (of Medusa fame) and the wall of the city, which he got Cyclops to build for him is still standing. It is a phenomenal sight. Agamemnon, Menalaus's brother and leader of the Greeks at Troy, was king of Mycenae about 5 generations after Perseus. It is interesting that this site is more intact that the various sites that were built during the Golden Age (400-300 BC). They obviously don't make things like they used to!

Santorini

The ferry to Santorini was long and tiring. We had to get up before 5 to get down to the port at Piraeus and didn't arrive in Santorini until 3.30pm. Phew! Never again! I had heard about the Greek ferries being a popular form of transport but they compare unfavourably even to their attrocious airlines.

We stayed in Fira, the main town and took trips over to Kamari, one of the famous black volcanic beaches and Oia (pronounced ee-ah), which is home to the church with the blue top and white walls that everyone takes photos of. The problem with Fira and Oia is that there is absolutely nowhere to rest other than in exhorbitantly priced restaurants and cafes. There are no public squares or shady benches and few public toilets. The sun shines glaringly off the white paint and exhausts your eyes.

The sunset, which is proclaimed to be one of the best in the world, is, in my opinion, not as good as the one over Uluru. That one, I still believe, is the best one I have ever seen.