The Grandeur of Greece

Athens, Greece

DAY 95 – Sunday, April 10, 2011 – Our arrival early in the morning in the port that serves the ancient city of Athens, Greece awakened my long, long desire to see the beauty of Grecian architecture and the two most famous 5th Century BC sites in Athens, the Parthenon and Acropolis.

Situated in the Aegean Sea, the port city of Piraeus is just south of Athens, and it serves as the country’s largest port handling more than 1.4 million shipping containers, 20 million passengers, and over 29,000 vessels annually.  There are over 3,000 Greek islands, and the ferry boats and harbor serve as the transportation hub for all of this overwhelming activity.

Athens hosted the summer Olympics in 2004, and many improvements were made in the city for visitors, including an expansive metro system.  The city is filled with absolutely gorgeous sculpture everywhere…in parks, on buildings, in the center of round-abouts…it is almost overwhelming.

Entire ancient cities lie under the current city of Athens…archeologists have so much more to discover if they could only dig under the existing buildings.  There are no underground tunnels or other forms of transportation because  they would destroy all of the architectural treasures that lie beneath the current city’s streets and buildings.

We had a fantastic one-day opportunity to see all that we could pack in on our day-long tour.  Below are some photos of a few of the many highlights of our day:

Athens and the surrounding Greek countryside are an awesome combination of blue, blue harbors and white buildings…breathtakingly beautiful.  High on the hill to the right, shown above, is the Parthenon and the Acropolis.  No buildings in Athens can be built taller than the Acropolis and the Parthenon.

  We trekked up the marble steps and pathways to the Acropolis atop a mountain…walking where ancient people had walked so many centuries ago.  It was really windy and yet wonderfully warm up there, and you could see 360-degrees in all directions.

Much of the Acropolis had to be rebuilt because of the damage done to these ancient sites by the conquering Romans.  Nonetheless, it was amazing to see how the curves in the building, the placement of the double sets of columns, and the architectural design were utilized to give the eye the proper perspective when the full scope of the buildings were viewed.

The restored areas are being very professionally rendered, using marble from the same quarries, and even the connecting features on the walls and columns are aging with the very same patina and colors…a fantastic match.  Everywhere you look there are people at work on cranes and scaffolding, painstakingly repairing as much as can be found on the sites.

There were literally thousands of people who had journeyed to the top of the hill where the Acropolis and other ancient buildings were found.  The marble stepping stones and pathway areas were treacherously slippery due to the polishing of shoes from the millions of visitors who have been here.

View below to the Greek villages around Athens and other ruins as seen from the Acropolis.

Greek mythology was wrapped around many gods and goddesses who brought good to the people.  Carved marble figures often formed the support structure of these ancient buildings.

While up at the Acropolis we ran into another person who was wearing her world map jacket…every person our our ship covets Larry’s jacket!  So we took a front/back picture in the middle of the high winds on top of the Acropolis hill…

The Athens of today is focused on commercial trade, tourism, sports, and enjoying life and fabulous food.  We saw thousands of private yachts and we stopped counting all of the ferry boats that are constantly coming and going to or from the other Greek islands.

As we slowly sailed away from Athens in the late afternoon, the city stretched as far away as you could see, and white sail boats were everywhere on the deep turquoise Mediterranean/Aegean Sea waters, painting a perfect picture that will forever be indelible on my mind.

Our next stop….Italy and the romantic Italians!