How can you come to Athens without visiting the Acropolis? Christine and I were there within the first couple of hours of being in Athens. And naturally, Eve needed to visit, so this morning we set off to the Acropolis. With her broken foot in a boot, Eve needed to access the disabled entrance and the chair lift and elevator. We managed to convince the taxi drive to drive us to the west entrance where the access would be; the road around the Acropolis is off-limits to most vehicles. We asked an information person about accessing the elevator and learned that the elevator has been out of service due to a rock slide and will be out of service for months. That’s not good. Eve, then, like the trooper she is, navigated her way up to the Acropolis minimizing as many steps as possible. It is difficult walking there in the best of circumstances, so she was challenged.

Having been to the Acropolis on Saturday, and the Acropolis Museum on Monday, I was full of new information about things to look for. The weather was much nicer today, sunny and a lot less windy, which made it very pleasant. We went early enough that the hordes of tourist buses had not yet arrived and had some opportunity to navigate without bumping our way through tourist groups.
I was interested in looking closely at the areas on the Parthenon where the pediments were and where the friezes were around the outside of the cellas, the two interior rooms in the Parthenon. The friezes told the story of a festival celebration and all the preparation and procession to honor Athena. There were some 378 sculpted figures in the friezes, many of them horses. Also, I wanted to visualize the 92 metopes, the nearly square slabs of marble that were sculpted with very detailed figures and scenes, that were surrounding the entire Parthenon. Most of the metopes were destroyed when Christians arrived and destroyed the pagan images and turned the Parthenon into a church. At the museum, I saw a short video about the history of the Parthenon and in one section was a recreation of people up on the temple hammering the metopes and pushing off the sculptures from the pediment. It kind of broke my heart to see that, but certainly this is what has happened throughout history. A conquering entity arrives and destroys and/or repurposes things for their own use. The Parthenon has been many things, temple, church, mosque, etc.
As you saw in the post from our first visit, I also liked wandering around the “boneyards” looking at the old pieces and wondering where they came from. In one pile, there were hundreds of the tops of Ionic columns, the curlicues all lined up in stacks. There was also something I didn’t expect to see, an iron canon barrel and canon balls. There wasn’t any sign about that so I haven’t a clue when the area was a fort.
The Parthenon is under massive repair, preservation, and reconstruction. The Greek government got serious about saving the Parthenon in 1983, and the work has been underway since then. Workers were all over the Parthenon. While we were there, I did see a large piece of marble removed from the top and lowered to the ground to undergo repair and cleaning.
Eve enjoyed her visit to the Acropolis and did a number of sketches. I am perpetually amazed by her artwork and one of my favorite things when we see her is to look through her sketchbook. She draws and paints a lot when she is touring, so her couple of years in Europe have been great fodder for her sketchbook.
We made our way down the south slope stopping at the Theater of Dionysus, another large amphitheater. The slopes of the Acropolis had a very vibrant life and sitting in the Theater of Dionysus, with the huge sacred rock behind use was pretty awesome.
After our Acropolis morning we had lunch at the Arcadia Restaurant, one of the restaurants lining our street and across from the Acropolis Museum. The food in Athens has been fantastic and I feel like I’m eating a lot more here than I did on the cruise ship. I’ve certainly gained weight on this trip, but we’ve really enjoyed the food. We had something called saganaki, which was a fried cheese with fig sauce that was absolutely scrumptious.

We had a long rest in the afternoon, which prepared us for a night out. One of the things Christine wanted to see was some Greek dancing. Eve researched this and found a dinner and show place in the Plaka, within walking distance from the hotel. I must say that the hotel was in a perfect location, not only for the view of the Acropolis, but within walking distance of the museum, the Metro station, and the Plaka.
We ambled up our street into the smaller streets in the Plaka. It’s fun to walk at night seeing all the shop lights. It’s a different feeling at night than during the day. We found a lovely bar/restaurant where we sat under trees on a nicely lighted terrace and enjoyed Sangria (bottled, the original from Spain; the same kind I buy by at the Wegman’s liquor store). Even though not homemade Sangria, it’s a beverage Christine likes, and in the wonderful setting, it was very nice to relax and drink in not only the Sangria, but the atmosphere.
We arrived at the place where the Greek dancing was to occur. It’s a large room with mostly long tables (to accommodate tourists who come via their tour bus) and a small stage. We were seated at a table that was next to a table of 2 couples from Pittsburgh. One of the ladies was celebrating a birthday and the other couple was celebrating a 40th wedding anniversary, so they all were in a very festive mood. Dinner was so-so, but still of Greek traditional food. While we ate, we heard live music played by a trio, one musician playing on the traditional Greek lute-like instrument, the bouzouki. It is rather like a mandolin, but with a long neck. Most of the bouzoukis I’ve seen have very ornately decorated tops, as did this one. It really has a lovely, uniquely Greek, sound.

Then a female singer came on stage and sang several songs, some were, I presume, traditional Greek songs, but many were popular songs and the attendees loved singing along. But then the dancers arrived. There were 3 men and 3 women in traditional Greek costumes. Over the course of the evening, there were several costume changes and various traditional dances specific to some of the Greek Islands were performed. It was interesting and entertaining and the dancers did a good job getting the crowd involved. There were several audience participation dances, and the 2 ladies next to us indulged. We, did not. It was more fun to watch everyone else.
It actually was a very fun evening and I think we all enjoyed it, especially Christine. She got her wish to see some Greek dancing and certainly in the spirit of Zorba the Greek (we’ll need to watch that movie), it seemed to be very authentic, including smashing the plates and dancing around.

We strolled back to our hotel, stopping for a little gelato and pastry treat on the way home. Once again, a great day was had by all.