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Published: October 14th 2022
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Tourist time for its up for breakfast by 7 o’clock, out the door by 7:40 and up the Dionysius Gate (because the majority of tourists use the main or northern gate) by opening time. No queue at all and no discount for 65 plus year olds since Britain left the EU (I can pretend to be British I can’t pretend to be French, Portuguese or really any other EU nation) so the Greek Government has my €20. You can pay to skip the queues and in peak time or peak season it may be worth it but our walking guide mentioned that now it’s not worth it. The Acropolis is wonderful but the Parthenon and a couple of accompanying buildings (the Theatre of Dionysius, The Temple of Nike and the Caryatids on the Erecteion (oops I thought the spelling was OK)) are magnificent. Even the fact that there are cranes, pulleys, scaffolding and bob cats littered around does not detract from the building’s auro, magic or beauty. Getting there at opening time means the crowds have not built up and that you can view things in relative peace. It also means you don’t have half a dozen new friends in every
picture you take. I deliberately took some shots on the way out to show how the crowds had increased in number. One of guides that I stopped and listened too said it would be far worse tomorrow because it’s the weekend and because there are 6 cruise ships docking. The Parthenon used to have a roof. It fact for most of its almost 2500 existence it had a roof. I think it was in 1685 during a Venetian/Turkish battle that a Venetian mortar scored a direct hit on the Turk’s munitions and the resulting explosion blew the roof off and severely damaged much of the structure. Yet a plague at the Parthenon states the ‘most severe damage was caused by Lord Elgin’ and we know that story! I try and put that photo in the blog. Almost as damage was done early last century when repairs were done using metals that rusted and severely damaged much of the marble used. It’s quite visible in places although modern repairs will age and weather and blend more and more as time goes on. Our walking guide the other day, who must be in her mid 30’s at least, has never not seen
a crane on the Acropolis working on the Parthenon. Even though the caryatids on the Erecteion (they are the female supporting columns) are all copies they are a real highlight. One was pinched by Lord Elgin and is in the British Museum and the other 5 are in the Acropolis Museum here in Athens yet the building still looks great. Same with the Temple of Nike. The proportions are just right and it simply looks great. The numbers of tourists start to swell so I went to different sections off the beaten path a bit but if you look carefully you can see how crowded some sections become.
Walked back down through the Plaza and bought a Plato t-shirt and a Pythagoras t-shirt, both clever.
Then it’s hop-on hop-off time. Did the lap then went to a couple of places (Temple of Zeus and Ancient Olympic Stadium) before hoping off at Monastiraki Square which is near home.
Lee was good enough to have a walk down to the Square and around for a while. We found an old fashioned taverna with good sardines, moussaka and even sort of OK raki! So all good.
It’s our final
night here so it’s pack and back time soon.
Will do the photos and send so caio for now.
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