Walking Tour of Athens

Wow, what a beautiful climate. After a week of frigid weather in London and Paris, Anna and I are now the proud owners of a brand new sunburn!

Today we did a grand walking tour of Athens - about 6 hours on the punishing (and slippery!) marble streets.

Everywhere you go there are large ruins, with very little in the way of archaeological cnservation. At our first stop, the Temple of Olympian Zeus, huge engraved marble stones are piled up on the grass under olive trees, and roped off. In fact, one of the colums was blown over in a storm in the 1800s. 15 columns left!

Next we watched the changing of the guard at the Parliament Building - these guys dress even weirder than the Beefeaters. Apparently the pom-poms on the shoes conceal a large spike, that was used to fight the Turks when the soldiers otherwise appeared disarmed. Rosa Klebb has been taking notes...

Quick stops at Hadrian's arch (not much left of it), the stadium that was built for the first modern Olympics (sometime in the 1800s - Frank can tell you) and the nearby Olympic village. The streets are lined with beautiful orange trees, but the oranges taste like battery acid (I had to try one, even against advisement).

On the way to the Acropolis, we popped into the Dionysian theatre - where plays by Aristophanes and Aesychlus were first heard over 2,000 years ago. Of all things, we found a tortoise here!

The Acropolis itself is largely a flat summit, with the ruins of several buildings - including the famous Parthenon, a massive temple dedicated to Athena, patron goddess of Athens (no kidding). We also ascended the Areopagus, the "Hill of Ares", which functioned as the chief homicide court in classical times. This also became a place of free speech, except St Paul was driven out of the city when he preached here.

Extraodinary as the Acropolic is, there's not much to report as there's really very little left. However, there are people with whistles who chase after you if you touch anything. A Canadian woman was apparently incarcerated for 2 months for picking up a small statue in the museum. Believe it, or don't!

We eventually descended via the Panathenaic Way (where bulls were lead to the slaughter), and I picked up a small rash from poison ivy. This route leads into the Ancient Agora - once a busy marketplace, now a beautiful series of fields overgrown with weeds and wildflowers. Birdsong and pleasant flwer smells everywhere. Lovely! Socrates peddled his brand of philosophy around here, before the Athenians sentenced him to death.

Finally we visited the Roman Agora, where the Romans preferred to do business. Kind of a smaller, less interesting area than the other. Spent another hour wandering the streets loking for the National Art Gallery (they have an exclusive Vangelis box set that I want) which we didn't find - and then looking for an Amex bureau de change, which we didn't find.

Another big feed tonight, and I tried "ekmek" icecream. It might've been mushed up baklava or some strange fruit. We're not really sure.

(PS: where Rome has cats, Athens has dogs. They're everywhere, but they're lovely. They were rounded up then neutered and collared when Athens hosted their last Olympics...)