Sunday, June 14, 2015

A Day around the Acropolis

The Parthenon
It's Sunday so I had some time to play tourist again. Jeff and I took the Metro to the Acropolis. We first spent a few hours in the Acropolis Museum, which is surprisingly good and captivating. The history lessons, sculptures, and the Parthenon frieze and pediments are impressive. The museum is built over an excavation site, with openings and glass floors on the first floor, so one can look down and see what's happening.


After a sandwich and coffee for lunch we walked up the hill to the Acropolis.

View of the Acropolis from the 3rd floor of the Acropolis Museum
The remains of the buildings on the Acropolis are very impressive. (Un)fortunately, there are currently extensive restoration projects under way, and scaffolding was covering the East side of the Parthenon (as can be seen in above photo) and large parts of the Propylaea. Nevertheless, it was a great experience to walk among ruins that are more than 2000 years old, and I got some nice photos, too.

The Erechtheum and the olive tree, that was planted in remembrance of the first olive tree given to the city by Athena

The Acropolis with the Propylaea as seen from Areopagus Hill.
Not surprisingly it was hot on the Acropolis, so the frozen lemonade sold across from the exit gate was very welcome. Expensive, but good.


On the way down the hill to the Metro we briefly stopped at Areopagus Hill where above photo is taken, and took a slight detour along the Panathenaic Way through the Ancient Agora, the ancient city center of Athens.

2 comments:

christa said...

tolle Fotos, man sieht wenig Leute dort rumlaufen

Bernhard Beck said...

Zum einen waren wirklich laengst nicht so viele Leute da, wie es haetten sein koennen. Zum anderen habe ich versucht die Fotos ohne Leute zu machen. Es waren einige Tourgruppen da, aber ansonsten hielt es sich in Grenzen.