Greece 8 - Athens/Day 2 The Acropolis and the Parthenon /The Elgin Marbles

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We didn’t sleep well. The bed was comfortable but the noise rumbled on all night . We worried about Suzy. Would she be there when we got back? We are so used to sleeping in her it felt odd to be parted from her.

Glenn was feeling ill too. All through the holiday he had had a tickling cough and the threat of something coming on. Today he started with a chesty cough. Our breakfast was thrown in. We ate various breads, croissants, cheese and ham, yoghurt and jams with copious cups of coffee. A full cooked breakfast , the so called American breakfast included fruit , eggs and bacon . The bread was fantastic slathered with thick butter washed down with wild cherry cordial. I find it odd people watching when they pick up their breakfast. There are the little birds who pick at the smallest morsel. Mr Average who does not overeat but just eat sensibly and the Greedy who pile their plates high as if they are never going to get anything else to eat for a month.



After the breakfast we pounded the streets in the direction of the Acropolis. It opened at 8 and we were not too far away. We began to realise that Athens was not quite as big a city as we first thought . We had bought a hop on hop off bus ticket and due to me booking the wrong dates had to pay twice . Looking at where everything was we were never going to get our monies worth. Going to the Acropolis early we hoped to miss the queues and get up there before Athens woke and got too hot to do anything.



Outside the south slope we fell into conversation with a couple from England. They were staying for four days. Yet again Brexit came up in the conversation. They voted out and hated the remainers who constantly moan about the result and want it changed . Where is the democracy in that? They felt that Europe was trying to make us suffer and make an example of us . This is something we notice in most conversations with folks about Brexit. They complained about Junker who seems hell bent on making it hard for us to leave and like us they just wish the EU would take notice and change its ways. The walk up was excruciating particularly as Glenn was increasingly feeling unwell. We passed through the Beule Gate built in 267 AD, walking upwards we came to a small temple of Athena Nike . It was built between the years 426 and 421 BC to commemorate a victory over the Persians. We had the place to ourselves virtually. Many of the monuments on the slope were in a state of collapse and this was dismantled and rebuilt in 1935.



Further up the slope we entered the Propylaia which was started in 437 BC, sadly this too has suffered badly. Firstly struck by lightening and then blown up by the Turkish. As we climbed higher Athens stretched out in front of us to all directions. It is not a pretty city from above. No pretty skyline or good looking buildings. Just high rise modern stuff. Halfway up we entered the Theatre of Herodes Atticus which could hold 5000 spectators . Built between AD 161 and AD174 it is now used for all weather concerts.



Above this, feet aching , chest aching from the climb. Glenn coughing and nose running as the cold is well and truly coming out we reached the Theatre of Dionysis the birthplace of Greek tragedy. This was the first theatre to be built of stone. Impressive and lovely to see without many people about.



Finally up to – the Pathenon – one of the worlds most photographed buildings. Iconic you couldn’t miss it for all the world nor would you think it anything else . So iconic. It took 9 years to complete and has been a church, a mosque, an arsenal and has been blown up. It probably will take longer to repair it than it took to build it. On the hillside opposite we could see the monument to Pilopappus.. Outside in a corner the guards sang the national anthem and raised the Greek flag. One thing we have noticed here are the number of Greek flags on public buildings, on monuments and on private houses. For a country so low there is a certain pride in the flag and the culture. My favourite bit was the carytids on one of the temples. I had always wanted to see them and even though they are copies they are still worth seeing in situ.



By now the crowds were coming in by bus. Time to go and visit the Acropolis Museum built after decades of planning and delay. It cost 130 million to build , a state of the art, glass floored museum. The glass was to allow folks to see the Christian earlier foundations found when building commenced. Security was high with the latest X Ray equipment checking us and our belongings. We paid our 3 euros entry fee and wondered why we don’t charge for our museums. Maybe it is because the Victorians believed that museums were educational and if there was an entry fee the poor would not visit and therefore would not be educated and enthralled . The reception was all concrete and glass and the exhibits sparse, well spread out and not as good as I thought they would be. Perhaps we have been spoilt by other museums. There didn’t seem much on the first floor. Just escalators and more glass, somehow rather sterile. The top gallery was the one where the frieze from the Parthenon was displayed. All around the walls high up were copies and bits of the originals. Now we knew what was going on here when we looked at the empty boxes where something should be but clearly wasn’t . It could be lost on some visitors as there was very little written about what we were looking at. Think Elgin Marbles. The Parthenon Marbles or the Elgin Marbles was we know them are held in our own British Museum. We saw them a few years ago when we visited the capital and we even had a copy in front of our hall in school. They were acquired between 1801 and 1803 from the occupying Turks. They sold them to Lord Elgin who subsequently sold them to the British Museum for 35,000 pounds in 1816 after the ran out of money. Great controversy surrounds them. Some argue that we should give them back to the Greeks as the Turks had no right selling them. Others believe we have looked after them better than the Greeks or Turks would have. You cannot rewrite that sort of history. It happened and virtually every museum around the world has something belonging to someone else. Imagine a wholesale shift of every historical item back to its country of origin. It just wont happen. Athens wants them back . Will they become some sort of bargaining chip regarding Brexit. Looking at historical places and items now I wonder if it might have been better if things in Burma that have been destroyed would have been better in some European museum or even the ancient buildings that have been destroyed recently by so called Islamic state .



Our next stop would be the bus to the ARchaelogical Museum –now this is the one thing I really wanted to see in Athens. We still have the Forum to do, The Temple of the Winds and a general wander around.

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