Pireaus & Athens, Greece
Pireaus and Athens, Greece Monday,
April 18, 2022
Looking towards the harbor from Parthenon Hill
Yes, we’re getting dizzy.
Yes, we’re glad for the daily
journal that I (Jen) take on each tour to document important facts or stories
from our various guides and which remind us of what photo goes with whichever
stop. For two days in a row, we’ve been
able to return to the ship before 4:00pm and we both hit the bed for naps!
If it’s Monday, it must be Greece.
The port area is in the large city
of Pireaus whose suburb line with Athens is signaled by two huge football(soccer)
stadiums—one on each side of the main street.
Our guide summarized our time with her which would take us to the
Acropolis (literally in Greek “high hill city”) with free time to walk and
photograph, a driving tour of Athens, then almost 2 hours to stroll in the
Plaka (tourist shops along streets upon streets of shops) before heading back
to the ship.
Prior notice was for temps in the
low 50’s. No mention of the possibility
of rain, but oh well. Today in Athens,
about 60 guests are disembarking as it is the end of one of the segments of the
new itinerary and most of these folk came on board only for the trans-Atlantic
sail and the stops with tours between Miami and Athens. Unfortunately for them, many of the ports
were changed or passed by because of weather.
We’re not sure how many may be boarding for this next segment from
Athens to Barcelona. Those of us who
have been sailing since December or January watch with interest and
hospitality.
Hmmmm. Sorry about the tangent. Jerry and I had been
in Athens about 35 years ago and were curious to see what may have
changed. Some of the architectural
structures have been improved upon, but much of the scaffolding seems to be
permanent…kidding, of course. The
informative placards throughout the Acropolis complex mention the discoveries
of each area and detail the timelines for rebuilding with as much of the
original stonework as possible. Some of
the rebuilding was unsuccessful and required tearing down and starting
over. I can’t imagine the hours of
discovery and frustration and hope. As
the wind blew and blew, the clouds threatened, and the crowds formed (we got
there early enough to not stand in line at the entrance gates), we marveled at
the marble foundations and protrusions we were walking on as we photographed
the standing structures.
Did you know that marble is
earthquake resistant? This is the main reason the stone had been chosen as far
back as the 5th Century BC.
Other fun facts:
·
Greece has 3000 islands; most are uninhabited
·
History dates back 10,000 years.
·
The blue-eyed owl is Greece’s symbol of
protection and wisdom
·
“Hellenic” Greece comes from Greek word for sun,
“halos”
·
98% of Greeks belong to the Greek Orthodox
Church; 1% are Catholic; the rest are a hodge-podge.
For photos:
The theater on the Acropolis can
hold 4000 and is still used in the evenings when summer temps cool from the
sometimes ghastly 120 degrees.
The stadium, built in the 5th
Century BC hosted the world’s first Olympics in 1896. The winning trophy was a vase filled with
olive oil.
Showing its age? The Parthenon is 2500 years old, and it is
believed that the ceiling had stars painted on it to symbolize the heavens. “The
Parthenon and the other buildings were seriously damaged during the 1687 siege
by the Venetians during
the Morean War when
gunpowder being stored in the Parthenon by the Ottomans was hit by a cannonball
and exploded.” (Wikipedia) But,
Wiki helps me add, noble attempts to restore the structure in the 1800s did
more harm than good and had to be dismantled; “Originally,
various blocks were held together by elongated iron H pins
that were completely coated in lead, which protected the iron from corrosion.
Stabilizing pins added in the 19th century were not so coated, and corroded.
Since the corrosion product (rust) is expansive, the expansion caused further
damage by cracking the marble.”
Notice any corners? The entire Parthenon is built as an optical illusion. There are no square corners and no pillars are straight. Everything is curved in order to match the natural curvature of the human eye.
An ancient Greek temple, the
Erechtheion was built in order to represent the idea of the perfect woman’s
body. These women are designed to be seen and appreciated. It is believed to have held a large statue of
Athena weighing 1100 kilos in gold.
If there is a glass statue of a
runner, it is made of 19 tons of glass and represents a runner on its way to the stadium. The word, marathon, comes from an ancient
foot race to the city of Marathon 44 km from Athens.
The Annunciation of Mary is the name of the Greek Orthodox Church near the Plaka. In one of the shops, as I was looking at a room of icons for sale, the saleswoman told me that this is Holy Week for the Greek Orthodox (not last week) and that Holy Friday, Saturday, and Easter Sunday were NOT to be missed in any Greek Orthodox Church. Anywhere. Then, as we talked, she asked me what religion I was. After I answered and then added that I’m a retired pastor, she visibly jumped and said with a huge smile, “Oh! Do they ordain women in America?”
Clouds and wind and cool but still no rain, luckily. We drove around some of Athens, then we were given two hours in the Plaka. Unlike the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul, these streets-upon streets of shops are not covered, they had arts and crafts, clothing, and items that weren’t only for tourists. We enjoyed every moment, finding some artwork, doing some bargaining, and rushing back to the bus just as the rain began. It was a short drive to the dock and we headed in to get dry and to catch up on sleep.
Looking up towards the Parthenon
Jerry in front of the Porch of Caryatids
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