Greece Trip - Walk through Gardens & Museums

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We walk out of the gardens to the Parliament building and watch the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown soldier, biggest tourist spot so far..... We leave and walk up Eleftheriou Venizelou. This is a very pretty street lined with Embassies and art museums. The residential neighborhood to the north is very nice and upscale. There are a lot of people walk around. We begin to wonder if anyone in this city works? Everyone seems like they are in a big hurry to get somewhere. We think they must be hurrying to get a good seat at the local cafe to drink coffee and smoke cigarettes, because that is what we noticed most about the average Athenian... sitting in cafes and smoking, I want to live here, minus the smoking.

We go into The Museum of Cyclades Art. 3200 - 2000 BC, many years before the Parthenon, a mysterious civilization on the Cyclades islands created the prototypical Mediterranean marble sculptures. These are simply forms (mostly women and possibly goddess of the region). They have influenced such artist as Modigliani and Picasso. We take our time letting the info sink in. I still have a hard time wrapping my pea brain around the idea that sometime came from 3200-2000 BC.

We walk back to Syntamge Square, this is the center of modern Athens. It’s busy! The Syntamge Metro Station is of interest to me, we head down. The Metro in Athens was completed in 2004, for the Olympic games, so it’s new and beautiful. But it’s as much a museum as a transportation hub. When the city was excavating for the metro, archaeologist found thousands of priceless items dating back to the Classical times. Today, many are on display in the station(s). We saw some items at the Acropolis stop too. Does the average Athenian even appreciate the wonders of these ancient treasures? I think they do, most locals we spoke to seems very proud and honored to be Greek.

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Photos

Feeding Pigeons
I thought she was so cute feeding the Pigeons in her Mickey Mouse coat.

Comments

[CM]

Metro Station as Museum
Wow - how interesting to have so many relics in the Metro stations. Reminds me of Grado and Aquileia... http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Italy/Friuli-Venezia-Giulia/Aquileia/blog-102929.html