My Big Fat Greek Vacation
Sunday, June 7, 2009
During the day we need to shop for food and drink for the ferry trip on Monday. While the ferries have restaurants and bars, we can save a lot by bringing our own picnic supplies with us.
The Acropolis (Frommer's)
The Acropolis is one of a handful of places in the world that is so well known, you may be anxious when you finally get here. Will it be as beautiful as its photographs? Will it be, ever so slightly, a disappointment? Rest assured: The Acropolis does not disappoint -- but it is infuriatingly crowded. What you want here is time -- time to watch the Parthenon's columns appear first beige, then golden, then rose, then stark white in changing light; time to stand on the Belvedere and take in the view over Athens (and listen to the muted conversations floating up from the Plaka); time to think of all those who have been here before you. Tip: There is no reason to head to the Acropolis during the day in summer when the crowds and the heat will take away some of the magic. The best time to visit during the summer is after 5pm -- the brilliant light of the late-afternoon hours will only enhance your experience.
When you climb the Acropolis -- the heights above the city -- you know that you're on your way to see Greece's most famous temple, the Parthenon. What you may not know is that people lived on the Acropolis as early as 5,000 B.C. The Acropolis's sheer sides made it a superb natural defense, just the place to avoid enemies and to be able to see invaders coming across the sea or the plains of Attica. And it helped that in antiquity there was a spring here.
In classical times, when Athens's population had grown to around 250,000, people moved down from the Acropolis, which had become the city's most important religious center. The city's civic and business center -- the Agora -- and its cultural center, with several theaters and concert halls, bracketed the Acropolis. When you peer over the sides of the Acropolis at the houses in the Plaka, and the remains of the Ancient Agora and the theater of Dionysos, you'll see the layout of the ancient city. Syntagma and Omonia squares, the heart of today's Athens, were well out of the ancient city center.
Even the Acropolis's superb heights couldn't protect it from the Persian assault of 480 B.C., when invaders burned and destroyed most of its monuments. Look for the immense column drums built into the Acropolis's walls. They are from the destroyed Parthenon. When the Athenian statesman Pericles ordered the Acropolis rebuilt, he had these drums built into the walls lest Athenians forget what had happened, and so that they would remember that they had rebuilt what they had lost. Pericles's rebuilding program began about 448 B.C.; the new Parthenon was dedicated 10 years later, but work on other monuments continued for a century.
You'll enter the Acropolis through Beulé Gate, built by the Romans and named for the French archaeologist who discovered it in 1852. You'll then pass through the Propylaia, the monumental 5th-century-B.C. entrance. It's characteristic of the Roman mania for building that they found it necessary to build an entrance to an entrance!
Just above the Propylaia is the elegant little Temple of Athena Nike (Athena of Victory); this beautifully proportioned Ionic temple was built in 424 B.C. and heavily restored in the 1930s. To the left of the Parthenon is the Erechtheion, which the Athenians honored as the tomb of Erechtheus, a legendary king of Athens. A hole in the ceiling and floor of the northern porch indicates where Poseidon's trident struck to make a spring gush forth during his contest with Athena to have the city named in his or her honor. Athena countered with an olive tree; the olive tree planted beside the Erechtheion reminds visitors of her victory -- as, of course, does Athens's name.
Give yourself time to enjoy the delicate carving on the Erechtheion, and be sure to see the original Caryatids in the New Acropolis Museum. The Caryatids presently holding up the porch of the Erechtheion are the casts put there when the originals were moved to prevent further erosion by Athens's acid nefos (smog).
The Parthenon is dedicated to Athena Parthenos (Athena the Virgin, patron goddess of Athens) and is, of course, the most important religious shrine here. Visitors are not allowed inside, both to protect the monument and to allow restoration work to proceed safely. If you're disappointed, keep in mind that in antiquity only priests and honored visitors were allowed in to see the monumental -- about 11m-tall (36-ft.) -- statue of Athena designed by the great Phidias, who supervised Pericles's building program. Nothing of the huge gold-and-ivory statue remains, but there's a small Roman copy in the National Archaeological Museum -- and horrific renditions on souvenirs ranging from T-shirts to ouzo bottles. Admittedly, the gold-and-ivory statue was not understated; the 2nd-century-A.D. traveler Pausanias, one of the first guidebook writers, recorded that the statue stood "upright in an ankle-length tunic with a head of Medusa carved in ivory on her breast. She has a Victory about 2.5m (8 ft.) high, and a spear in her hand and a shield at her feet, with a snake beside the shield, possibly representing Erechtheus."
Look over the edge of the Acropolis toward the Temple of Hephaistos (now called the Theseion) in the Ancient Agora, and then at the Parthenon, and notice how much lighter and more graceful the Parthenon appears. Scholars tell us that this is because Ictinus, the Parthenon's architect, was something of a magician of optical illusions. The columns and stairs -- the very floor -- of the Parthenon all appear straight, because all are minutely curved. Each exterior column is slightly thicker in the middle (a device known as entasis), which makes the entire column appear straight. That's why the Parthenon, with 17 columns on each side and eight at each end (creating an exterior colonnade of 46 relatively slender columns), looks so graceful, while the Temple of Hephaistos, with only 6 columns at each end and 13 along each side, seems squat and stolid.
The other reason the Parthenon looks so airy is that it is, quite literally, open to the elements. In 1687, the Venetians, in an attempt to capture the Acropolis from the Turks, blew the Parthenon's entire roof (and much of its interior) to smithereens. A shell fired from nearby Mouseion Hill struck the Parthenon -- where the Turks were storing gunpowder and munitions -- and caused appalling damage to the building and its sculptures.
A Britisher, Lord Elgin, carted off most of the remaining sculptures to London in the early 19th century. Those surviving sculptures -- known as the Elgin Marbles -- are on display in the British Museum, causing ongoing pain to generations of Greeks, who continue to press for their return. Things heated up again in the summer of 1988, when English historian William St. Clair's book Lord Elgin and the Marbles received a fair amount of publicity. According to St. Clair, the British Museum "over-cleaned" the marbles in the 1930s, removing not only the outer patina, but many sculptural details. The museum countered that the damage wasn't that bad -- and that the marbles would remain in London.
The Parthenon originally had sculptures on both of its pediments, as well as a frieze running around the entire temple. The frieze was made of alternating triglyphs (panels with three incised grooves) and metopes (sculptured panels). The east pediment showed scenes from the birth of Athena, while the west pediment showed Athena and Poseidon's contest for possession of Athens. The long frieze showed the battle of the Athenians against the Amazons, scenes from the Trojan War, and struggles of the Olympian gods against giants and centaurs. The message of most of this sculpture was the triumph of knowledge and civilization -- that is, Athens -- over the forces of darkness and barbarians. An interior frieze showed scenes from the Panathenaic Festival held each August, when citizens paraded through the streets with a new tunic for the statue of Athena. Only a few fragments of these sculptures remain in place, and you will have to decide for yourself whether it's a good or a bad thing that Lord Elgin removed so much before the smog became endemic in Athens and ate away much of what he left here.
If you're lucky enough to visit the Acropolis on a smog-free and sunny day, you'll see the gold and cream tones of the Parthenon's handsome Pentelic marble at their most subtle. It may come as something of a shock to realize that in antiquity, the Parthenon -- like most other monuments here -- was painted gay colors that have since faded, revealing the natural marble. If the day is a clear one, you'll get a superb view of Athens from the Belvedere at the Acropolis's east end.
Almost all of what you see comes from Athens's heyday in the mid-5th century B.C., when Pericles rebuilt what the Persians destroyed. In the following centuries, every invader who came built monuments, most of which were resolutely destroyed by the next wave of invaders. If you had been here a century ago, you would have seen the remains of mosques and churches, plus a Frankish bell tower. The great archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann, discoverer of Troy and excavator of Mycenae, was so offended by the bell tower that he paid to have it torn down.
If you'd like to know more about the Acropolis and its history, as well as the Elgin Marbles controversy, you can check the Center for Acropolis Studies, on Makrigianni just southeast of the Acropolis (tel. 210/923-9381; 9am-2:30pm; free admission). The center closes intermittently. It houses artifacts, reconstructions, photographs, drawings, and plaster casts of the Elgin Marbles -- and hopes, one day, to house the "Parthenon" marbles.
National Archeological Museum (Frommer's) (admission €6; probably closes at 3:00 on Sunday)
Renovated and expanded just before the 2004 Olympics, this is the museum to see if you only have time to see one museum when you are in Athens. Considered one of the top 10 museums in the world, its collection of ancient Greek antiquities is unrivaled and stunning even to those of us that have been there quite a few times. The Akrotiri frescoes are in display again (after being damaged in the 1999 earthquake and removed) as are two new items: two ancient treasures that have been returned to Greece by the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles -- a 4th-century B.C. gold wreath and a 6th-century B.C. marble statue of a young woman's torso. In order to appreciate the museum and its many treasures, try to be at the door when it opens, so you can see the exhibits and not the backs of other visitors. Early arrival, except in high summer, should give you at least an hour before most tour groups arrive; alternatively, get here an hour before closing or at lunchtime, when the tour groups may not be as dense. If you can come more than once, your experience here will be a pleasure rather than an endurance contest. Tip: Be sure to get the brochure on the collection when you buy your ticket; it has a handy and largely accurate description of the exhibits.
The Mycenaean Collection includes gold masks, cups, dishes, and jewelry unearthed from the site of Mycenae by Heinrich Schliemann in 1876. Many of these objects are small, delicate, and very hard to see when the museum is crowded. Don't miss the stunning burial mask that Schliemann misnamed the "Mask of Agamemnon." Archaeologists are sure that the mask is not Agamemnon's, but belonged to an earlier, unknown monarch. Also not to be missed are the stunning Vaphio cups, showing mighty bulls, unearthed in a tomb at a seemingly insignificant site in the Peloponnese. If little Vaphio could produce these riches, what remains to be found in future excavations?
The museum also has a stunning collection of Cycladic figurines, named after the island chain. Although these figurines are among the earliest known Greek sculptures (about 2,000 B.C.), you'll be struck by how modern the idols' faces look compared to those wrought by Modigliani. One figure, a musician with a lyre, seems to be concentrating on his music, cheerfully oblivious to his onlookers. If you are fond of these Cycladic sculptures, be sure to take in the superb collection at the N. P. Goulandris Foundation Museum of Cycladic Art .
The museum's staggeringly large sculpture collection invites you to wander, stopping when something catches your fancy. We stop for the bronzes, from the tiny jockey to the monumental figure variously identified as Zeus or Poseidon. Much ink has been spilled trying to prove that the god was holding either a thunderbolt (Zeus) or a trident (Poseidon). And who can resist the bronze figures of the handsome young men, perhaps athletes, seemingly about to step forward and sprint through the crowds?
Ancient Agora (Frommer's) (admission €4; probably closes at 7:00)
The Agora was Athens's commercial and civic center. People used these buildings for a wide range of political, educational, philosophical, theatrical, and athletic purposes -- which may be why it now seems such a jumble of ancient buildings, inscriptions, and fragments of sculpture. This is a pleasant place to wander, enjoy the views up toward the Acropolis, and take in the herb garden and flowers planted around the amazingly well-preserved 5th-century-B.C. Temple of Hephaistos and Athena (the Theseion).
Find a shady spot by the temple, sit a while, and imagine the Agora teeming with merchants, legislators, and philosophers -- but very few women. Women did not regularly go into public places. Athens's best-known philosopher, Socrates, often strolled here with his disciples, including Plato, in the shade of the Stoa of Zeus Eleutherios. In 399 B.C., Socrates, accused of "introducing strange gods and corrupting youth," was sentenced to death. He drank his cup of hemlock in a prison at the southwest corner of the Agora -- where excavators centuries later found small clay cups, just the right size for a fatal drink. St. Paul also spoke in the Agora; he irritated many Athenians because he rebuked them as superstitious when he saw an inscription here to the "Unknown God."
The one monument you can't miss in the Ancient Agora is the 2nd-century-B.C. Stoa of Attalos, built by King Attalos of Pergamon in Asia Minor, and completely reconstructed by American archaeologists in the 1950s. (You may be grateful that they included an excellent modern restroom there.) The museum on the stoa's ground floor contains finds from 5,000 years of Athenian history, including sculpture and pottery, a voting machine, and a child's potty seat, all labeled in English. The stoa is open Tuesday through Sunday from 8:30am to 2:45pm.
As you leave the stoa, take a moment to look at the charming little 11th-century Byzantine Church of the Holy Apostles, also restored by the Americans. The church is almost always closed, but its delicate proportions are a relief after the somewhat heartless -- too new and too well restored -- facade of the Stoa of Attalos.
Now another list...
Acropolis. If you do nothing else while in Athens, visit the Acropolis, or "High City," a testament to the Golden Age of Greece. Perched atop a rocky outcrop, it dominates the modern city and is Greece's most famous symbol. Foundations were laid here for a temple honoring Athena in 490 BC but were destroyed by the Persians; following the Susa peace treaty, Pericles undertook reconstruction on a monumental scale. Buildings include the architecturally complex Erechtheion temple, most sacred of the Acropolis shrines, and the Parthenon, built between 447 and 438 BC. Dionyssiou Areopagitou, tel. 01/321-0219. Admission: 2,000 dr., joint ticket for Acropolis and Acropolis Museum. Open weekdays 8-6:30 (winter 8-4), weekends 8-3.
Acropolis Museum. Tucked in the southeast corner of the Acropolis site, the museum has nine rooms filled with sculptures found on the Acropolis plus the votive offerings to Athena. It houses some superb works, including the Caryatids and a large collection of colored korai (statues of women dedicated to the goddess Athena). Acropolis, tel. 01/323-6665. Admission: 2,000 dr., joint ticket for Acropolis and Acropolis Museum. Open Mon. 11:30-6:30, Tues.-Fri. 8-6:30, weekends 8:30-3; winter hours vary.
Ancient Agora. This marketplace was the hub of ancient Athens: Here Socrates met with his students while merchants squabbled over the price of olive oil, the Assembly met before moving to the Pnyx, and locals gathered to talk about current events. The Agora first became important under Solon (6th century BC), who founded Athenian democracy; construction continued for almost a millennium. Today, the site's sprawling confusion of stones, slabs, and foundations is dominated by the best-preserved Doric temple in Greece, the Hephaistion, built during the 5th century BC, and the impressive reconstructed Stoa of Attalos II, which houses the Museum of the Agora Excavations. Three entrances: from Monastiraki on Adrianou; from Thission on Apostolou Pavlou; and descending from Acropolis on Ayios Apostoli, tel. 01/321-0185. Admission: 1,200 dr. Open Tues.-Sun. 8:30-3.
Archaeological Museum. Besides an admirable collection of funerary stelae, urns, monuments, and korai, this museum's prize exhibits include the exquisitely made Piraeus Kouros, probably a cult statue of Apollo from the 6th century BC; a 4th-century bronze of a pensive Athena; and two bronze versions of Artemis. Harilaou Trikoupi 31, Piraeus, tel. 01/452-1598. Admission: 500 dr. Open Tues.-Sun. 8:30-3.
Byzantine Museum. The only museum in Europe concentrating exclusively on Byzantine art, this collection is housed in the mansion of the Duchess of Plaisance, built from 1840 to 1848 by Kleanthis. Rooms are arranged to look like Greek churches of different eras, and the upper floor contains mostly icons, many quite valuable. Much of the museum is closed for restoration. Vasilissis Sofias 22, tel. 01/721-1027. Admission: 500 dr. during restoration. Open Tues.-Sun. 8:30-3.
Goulandris Cycladic Museum. The museum has an outstanding collection dating from the Bronze Age, with especially notable slender marble figurines, the primitive Cycladic form of the Great Earth Mother. A new wing for special exhibits opened in 1994 in the gorgeous Stathatos Mansion. Neofitou Douka 4 and Irodotou 1, tel. 01/722-8321 through 01/722-8323. Admission: 400 dr. Open weekdays 10-4, Sat. 10-3.
Little Mitropolis. This church snuggles up to the pompous Mitropolis, the ornate Cathedral of Athens. Also called Panayia Gorgoepikoos (the "Virgin Who Answers Prayers Quickly"), Little Mitropolis dates to the 12th century; its outer walls are covered with reliefs dating from the Classical to the Byzantine periods. Reliefs of figures and fanciful zodiac signs decorate slabs set above the entrance. Most of the paintings inside have been destroyed, but the famous 13th- to 14th-century Virgin, said to perform miracles, remains. Cathedral Square.
Mikrolimano. The most touristy part of the port of Piraeus, this graceful small harbor is known to old-timers as Turkolimano. Sitting under the awnings by the sea and watching the gaily painted fishing boats is the next best thing to hopping a ferry for the islands. During high season, it's a good idea to have lunch here, as many of the restaurants lining the harbor are packed in the evening. Akti Koumoudourou.
Monastiraki Square. This former Turkish bazaar retains Oriental vestiges from the 400-year period when Greece was subject to the Ottoman Empire. The square takes its name from Panayia Pantanassa Church, commonly called Monastiraki (Little Monastery). It once flourished as an extensive convent, perhaps dating to the 10th century. The square's focal point, the Tzistarakis Mosque (1759) houses the Museum of Traditional Greek Ceramics. Just south of intersection of Ermou and Athinas, tel. 01/324-2066. Museum admission: 500 dr. Museum open Wed.-Mon. 9:30-2:30.
Mt. Lycabettus. A steeply inclined teleferique (funicular) takes visitors to the summit of Athens' highest hill, crowned by whitewashed Ayios Georgios chapel with a bell tower donated by Queen Olga. On the side of the hill, near the I Prasini Tenta café, a small shrine to Ayios Isidoros is built into a cave. From Mt. Lycabettus, you can watch the sunset and then turn in the other direction to see the moon rise over Hymettus. Funicular at Aristippou and Ploutarchou, tel. 01/722-7065. Admission: 800 dr. round-trip, 400 dr. one-way. Open Fri.-Wed. 8:45 AM-midnight, Thurs. 10:30 AM-midnight.
National Archaeological Museum. Too huge to cover in one day, this magnificent collection extends from Neolithic to Roman times, with sculpture, ceramics, jewelry, and frescoes, to name but a little. The most celebrated finds are in the central Hall of Mycenaean Antiquities, Room 4, the stunning gold treasures from Schliemann's excavations of Mycenae in 1876. 28 Patission 44, tel. 01/821-7717. Admission: 2,000 dr. Open Mon. 12:30-7 (winter 11-5), Tues.-Fri. 8-7 (winter 8-5), weekends 8:30-3.
Plaka and Anafiotika. Plaka is the main residential and tourist district of Athens, inhabited since prehistoric times. The early 1980s witnessed a renewal of the area, which had been taken over by noisy discos and tacky pensions. The section of Plaka known as Anafiotika is the closest thing to a Cycladic village in the city. In the shadow of the Acropolis and still populated by many descendants of the original Anafi islanders who settled here, Anafiotika is an enchanting area of simple stone houses, nestled right into the bedrock, some changed little over the years, others stunningly restored. On northeast slope of Acropolis rock.
Syntagma (Constitution) Square. This is the center of modern Athens. At the top of the square stands Parliament, formerly the royal palace, completed in 1838 for the new monarchy. Here you can watch the changing of the Evzone guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, which happens every day at different times, except on Sunday, when it is scheduled for 11:25 AM. Where Vasilissis Sofias becomes Panepistimiou.
Tower of the Winds. The octagonal Tower of the Winds (Aerides), in the Roman Agora, is the most appealing and well preserved of the Roman monuments of Athens, keeping time since the 1st century BC. It was originally a sundial, water clock, and weather vane topped by a bronze Triton with a metal rod in his hand, which pointed in the direction of the wind. Expressive reliefs around the octagonal tower personify the eight winds, called Oi Aerides (the Windy Ones) by Athenians. Pelopida and Eolou, tel. 01/324-5220. Admission: 600 dr. Open Tues.-Sun. 8:30-3.
Just in case...
Amphitrion Holidays, PIRAEUS: 3, Defteras Merarchias Street, 185 35 Piraeus Tel: 210 4112045, 210 4138103 Fax: 210 4170742, E-mail: travel@amphitrion.gr