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Album: By Country | By Date Greece | March 2001 < Prev: Swimming at the Chrisopigi Monastery and Farewells | Next: First Day in Cairo >
Travelogue: By Country | By Date Greece | March 2001  

March 2001 - Acropolis and Athens Museums

War Museum, Music Museum, and National Archeological Museum

The Parthenon.  Dad insisted we go back again.  He said he liked being there.  Mom said that was movie. We didn't think we'd see toucans The naked lady store Tote working on his journal
The sunsets emphasized how incredibly polluted Athens is Part of Monica's door collection.  This one is from the 12th-century Mitrópolis, Áyios Elefthérios, one of three genuine Byzantine churches that still survive. Monica loved this cathedral.  The rest of us don't know why. White columns and blue sky by Maggie.  Maggie says that she was trying to take a picture of the sky but the building got in the way.
Tote on the Areopagus or Hill of Ares.  This is the spot in which a jury of gods spared Ares from execution for the murder of Poseidon's son. Homocide trials were heard on this hill for ages.  The Supreme Court of Greece is still called the Areopagus.  To his left is the big hill we climbed later in the day, Mt. Lycavittus The Propylaea is the entryway into the Acropolis. Just in front of it and to the left is the pedestal for the offering to Agrippa, the victor of the Battle of Actium, who interceded for Athens, which had supported the loser, Mark Antony. To the right is the rebuilt temple of Athena Nike.  The Turks demolished the temple in 1686 to use the stones as defenses against the Venetians. The northern wing of the Propylaea was used by the Frankish dukes, who reconstructed the interior to make a two-story building. They were followed in the 12th century by Greek Orthodox bishops and, in the 14th century, by the dynasty of Florentine who turned it into a fortified castle with a Tuscan tower.  Heinrich Schliemann, the German excavator who discovered Troy, paid to have the tower dismantled in 1875. At the War Museum, Duncan and Tote discussing how the controls of this fighter differ from those in an x-wing. Maggie and Duncan tried to get this thing working for Tote, but they failed.
Tote refusing to do any more journal entries. Sunset from Mt. Lycavittus One thing you can see from up here is just how polluted Athens is.  Makes one wonder how the Olympic athletes will breathe in 2004 Another door from Monica's collection
At the Museum of Greek Popular Music.  These are baglamas, a type of lute.  This is the chief instrument of the rebetiko groups. These are kementzes from near the Black Sea. Monica liked this photograph of a fellow playing his kementzes Waiting for service during siesta time
The National Archeological Museum "Mask of Agammenon" from the Mycenean shaft tombs discovered by Schliemann Monica, whose reflection is in this photo, loves these fishermen.
Copy of the statue of Athena that once graced the interior of the Parthenon
f Poseidon found off Cape Artemision in 1928 and dating from about 450
At Barbi Gianninis (sic?) before we headed to the airport.