Athenian Odyssey

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Today we packed in as many sites in Athens as possible. We started off with the Acropolis. They're just about finished cleaning the Parthenon, and - wow! - it is just gleaming. Then downhill to the Agora, the old civic centre. Here there is one of the best-preserved temples in Greece, the Hephaistion. Fortunately for us temple-lovers it was turned into a Christian church early on, and so remained intact.

Then a pair of museums: the Acropolis Museum, which contains all the sculpture found on the Acropolis (except for the tasty bits "borrowed" by Lord Elgin and others), then to the National Archaeological Museum which contains every other Classical masterpiece found in Greece (or so it seems). I kept running into marvellous works I've encountered before in books or lectures. We rushed through both museums; I'll have to return to them when I'm back in Athens in a few weeks.

We had dinner in the Plaka, the old town right under the Acropolis. Traditional Greek dishes like moussaka, keftedes and Greek salad. We were entertained by bouzouki music and a group of four dancers. At one point they formed a Greek conga line, but sadly I was too wedged into my seat to join in.

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