Greece

Although this trip was shorter than others in the past several years, we spent more time in Greece (five weeks) than in any other individual country.

Because of Greece's location, if there was a foreign power in the Mediterranean, they invaded Greece and left their mark.  We saw those marks:  Minoan, Hellenic, Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman as well as those of non-conquerors such as the Jewish and Neolithic peoples.  

We found the people of Greece to be about the same as the people with whom we have interacted all over:  warm, friendly and eager to help hapless tourists with their luggage and provide directions, which are often (but not always) correct. 

The only negative interaction was with a German tourist who was loudly haranguing an elderly woman (in English).  I interceded sharply with a mixture of Brooklynese and Greek:  Σhuτ Δε Φuκ Uπ!  It worked. 

We enjoyed the food, especially (for me) the ready availability of lamb at good prices.  We ate a lot of Greek salads.  I found that I could get a discount on the salad by eliminating the feta cheese and having a small child vomit on it.

We used Athens as a base and spoked out from there to a half dozen Greek islands:  Rhodes, Crete, Santorini, Hydra, Poros and Aegina (spending as little as an hour on one to five days on some) and Thessaloniki, in Macedonia.

We stayed more than two weeks in Athens, the longest segment being eight days.  We had a three room apartment (with kitchen) in a hotel.  The apartment allowed us to spread out and gave Sarah plenty of space to pack while I slept.  Aegean Air charges for every piece of checked luggage; we stored our luggage at our hotel in Athens when we went to Santorini.

During our trip, we also visited a lot of temples, from the largest ever built [Olympian Zeus, (below left)] to small ones as well as the famous Parthenon on the Acropolis of Athens (below right).  They all have similar floor-plans but are in varying states of ruin.

 

Temple to Hephaestus at the Ancient Agora of Athens

Temple of Apollo, Acropolis of Rhodes          

Temple of Poseidon, Sounion in Attica

Throughout our trip, we visited many churches.  We saw some of the largest of Greece's churches in Thessaloniki and also many small ones, some of which could only hold a few worshipers at a time.  Some were more than a thousand years old and still in use.  Many had vibrant interiors.

 Agios Dimitrios - one of the largest churches in Greece (5th Century)

Church interiors:

A small rural church:

Each area we visited had at least one archaeology museum with interesting artifacts, many of which were urns.  After a while, it gets redundant.  But there is that rare find.

Big jugs, and other pottery.

The Greek Islands

There are more than 2,000 Greek islands.  Many are uninhabited.  Some are distinctive. Many are much the same with different names.  We visited six islands, three during a one-day cruise from Athens.  The rest we visited by air on three separate flights from Athens.  

There are ferries to the islands and they are inexpensive, but they take a long time and the seas can be rough in the fall.  There are three kinds of ferries which take different amounts of time and have different rates - the rates are set by the government.  Airfare costs more, but the flights are smooth and fast.  Our flight to Crete took 50 minutes versus 6 to 9 hours by ferry.

We opted NOT to take a multi-day Greek islands cruise because we wanted to customize the duration of our stays on particular islands.  This gave us more time to wander the historic streets, sample the traditional foods and browse the shops for souvenirs.  And visit museums, too.

We took a one-day cruise to Hydra, Poros and Aegina which are close to Athens.  The package included hotel pick up/drop off, a buffet lunch and evening entertainment.  

The One -Day Cruise

There are no private cars on Hydra.
Local taxis (above) meet the boats.

Onboard entertainment of traditional Greek music, dancing and singing.

RHODES (four nights)

The walled Old Town of Rhodes is Europe's oldest occupied medieval city.  It has narrow cobblestone streets.  It was built by the Crusaders during the 12th century, but the Palace of the Grand Master (below) was rebuilt (after a 19th-century explosion) by the Italians who occupied the island from the early 20th century until the end of WWII. 

 It's good to be the Grand Master.

In ancient times, The Colossus of Rhodes marked the entrance to the harbor.  Today, pillars mark the supposed spot where the Colossus' feet stood.

Temple of Apollo, Acropolis of Rhodes

CRETE (five nights)

Some of Crete's 35,000,000 olive trees

We stayed in Heraklion, the capital.  It is surrounded by a massive 500-year-old wall built by the Venetians.  The walls withstood an Ottoman siege for more than 20 years.  The old box-like Venetian fort still stands at the entrance to the harbor.  

The Venetian Lion Fountain and Loggia

Crete boasts the oldest paved road in Europe (below).  It leads to the massive Minoan palace of Knossos, which is a short bus ride from Heraklion.

Model of Knossos' Palace at the Archaeology Museum in Heraklion

The palace (left) needs work.  

The road (right) was used to bring supplies from the port at Heraklion.

A section of re-created wall trim

The palace was not just the residence of King Knossos, but also functioned as governmental headquarters. This was the third of three palaces on the site.  The palaces were in use from 1900 to 1400 BCE.  It was discovered in the late 1800s.  The loot is on display in Crete's Museum of Archaeology and in the National Archaeological Museum in Athens.

The Minoan civilization was relatively unknown until this discovery.

Although anathema today, the British archaeologist who excavated Knossos' Palace in the early 1900s rebuilt sections (such as that above) so that visitors could better visualize what the palace looked like when it was in use.  Today, sites are left as they are found and measures are only taken to stabilize and preserve.


Artifacts from Knossos' Palace on display in the Museum of Archaeology, Heraklion, Crete:

Three of the frescoes:

Lots of pots...

...and other stuff.

SANTORINI (Thira) (Three nights)

The broken ring of the present-day Santorini Islands is what is left of Santorini, the volcano, which exploded and collapsed forming a caldera. Two islands later formed in the caldera as the result of subsequent eruptions.  There are two openings in the ring which allow the Aegean Sea (and cruise ships) to enter the caldera. 

The last major earthquake here was in 1956.  Some of the damaged buildings, even in prime areas, have not been repaired.  (See photo to left.)

Some are marked 'for sale'.

It's a steep 300-foot climb up the cliff from the dock to the street.  Those arriving by sea have three ways up:  Ride a donkey, ride the cable car or walk the manure-encrusted stairs.  Our hotel sent a van to pick us up at the airport.

Sarah hails a taxi

Many people visit Santorini for the charming and picturesque white and blue buildings and the beaches with colored volcanic sand.  There are many exclusive boutique hotels and fine restaurants clinging to the steep cliffs providing expansive (and expensive) views.  We chose to sleep and eat in the town of Fira, which is centrally located.  (Buses spoke out from here.)


We patronized the restaurant at a fine boutique hotel and sat on its terrace soaking in the sunshine and views for a while as Sarah nursed an expensive frappe.  Considering the ambiance (and the WC), maybe the frappe wasn't so expensive.

For me, the interesting part of Santorini was the caldera with the still steaming volcanic island in the center and the excavated city of Akrotiri which, like Pompeii, was buried under volcanic ash.  The Minoan city is only 5% excavated, but what they have is quite extensive and shows the high level of culture of the Minoans.  Unlike Pompeii, no bodies were found and only a single gold statue.  The feeling of archaeologists is that after two earthquakes leveled the city and the pre-eruption happenings, the wusses packed their bags and got out of town.

The excavation: 

 

The Museum of Prehistoric Thira:

< Iconic Cycladic figurine.

Jug >

 Frescoes

This goat is the only gold item found at Akrotiri. 

Sunset in Santorini

Watching the sunset in the town of Oia is a must-do for visitors to Santorini.  I'm not sure why.  It's the same sun that shines on us all and water is water.  Not that it was bad, but to see busloads of people rushing to the edge of the cliff to see this surprised me.  

Back to the sunset.  I'll let you decide.  The photos were taken over a 30 minute period.

The sun is gone, but not forgotten.

Sunset over the Island of Manhattan from our flight home

Not the Islands

THESSALONIKI  (five nights)

Thessaloniki is a major port for Greece and southeast Europe.

Thessaloniki, (also known as Thessalonica and Salonica), the capital of Macedonia in northern Greece, is Greece's second largest city.  We got a flight directly from Crete to Thessaloniki.   We stayed in the historic downtown area and were able to walk to the sites of interest and also wander around and see what turns up.  We made one trip by bus to the hilltop to see to the Roman wall (left), then walked down from there seeing the gentrification of Thessaloniki with upscale homes next to what might be called hovels.  Little is left of the Ottoman wall which defended the harbor other than a single tower (right).

Thessaloniki also has a Roman Agora, palace and basilica (which became a church, then a mosque, then a church again).  An agora is a combination cultural center and shopping mall. 

Roman Agora

Half the population of Thessaloniki at the start of the 20th century was Sephardic Jews whose ancestors left Spain at the time of the 15th-century expulsion.  A great fire in 1917 destroyed 2/3 of the city and almost all of the Jewish section.  Almost nothing remains of the old buildings in this section.  

Photo of the 'Jewish Baths' taken from our balcony.  

This building was located in the former Jewish area and 

predates the arrival of the Sephardim from Spain.

The Jewish Museum, Holocaust memorial 

and modern synagogue are nearby.

A side-trip via bus from Thessaloniki brought us to the tomb of Phillip II of Macedonia, the father of Alexander the Great, and its museum.  Discovered in 1977, this is the most complete and elaborate of Macedonian tombs ever found.  Last month, researchers confirmed the bones were the remains of Phillip II.

The tomb and museum are located under the Great Tumulus, an artificial mound.

Great Tumulus 

The entrance and exit to the museum can be seen to the left and right of the photo.

Athens (17 nights total)

Although we started our trip in Rhodes (only being in Athens at the airport to change planes), I'm putting our three stays in Athens (not counting the plane-change) together.

Athens, Greece's largest city, is where the well-known Acropolis (of Athens) is located.  The Acropolis top has several temples, including the famous Parthenon.

The Odeon of Herodes Atticus [Herodeon Theatre] (left), at the base of the Acropolis, is still used for theatre productions from Spring through October.  We saw a bus-load of actors in costume (no dressing rooms at the theatre) being driven through the theatre gate.

 The Erechtheion (right) showing the Caryatid porch and the olive tree given to the city by Athena to induce them to select her as their patron goddess.

Since our apartment was only a few blocks from the Acropolis entrance, we got to the Acropolis so early that there was no one nearby to take our picture.

 After a while, the problem was resolved.

The Temple of Athena Nike is the smallest of the Acropolis temples.

As we were leaving, the crowd grew.

Views from the Acropolis:

Temple of Olympian Zeus (left) and the Temple of  Hephaestus (right) in the Ancient Agora of Athens

Athens has a new Metro system which is easy to use, clean and fast, although a trip to/from the airport takes about 40 minutes from Akropoli, our station.  There are plenty of escalators and elevators.  Signs are in Greek and English.  There are mini-museums at some stations showing historic artifacts unearthed during construction.

 Athens Central Market

We had the only apartment in our building with an Acropolis view.  Sarah checked out the Parthenon each morning and evening from our terrace to see if it had changed - it didn't.  But I kept my camera ready just in case.

Our building had a laundry on the ground floor, but the washer didn't spin well.  I put up a clothesline on our terrace and used solar drying.

No solar drying at night.  The light from the Acropolis is not enough to dry clothes.

Athens also has many museums; we had the time to visit a bunch and did so.  We saw a lot of pottery, statues, icons, frescoes, friezes, metopes and other things which I cannot distinguish.  You can look them up.

The new Acropolis Museum (2009) has a lot of nice stuff which they took off of the Parthenon and other buildings on the Acropolis. They don't allow photos of many of the best pieces.

The museum has a full-size skeletal model of the Parthenon.  The columns are steel.  Metopes, friezes, statues, etc. will be placed on this model for preservation and display.  Copies will be placed on the actual Parthenon.  In the above photo, Sarah examines a metope which has been placed at floor-level so that visitors can get a closer look.

The shorter side of the Parthenon.  Pediment at eye level.

The Caryatids
These are the actual Caryatids from the Erechtheion on the Acropolis. 
The ones on the Erechtheion are copies.

Restorations and removals are on-going. 

The National Archaeological Museum has extensive collections of artifacts of different periods.  I was particularly impressed with the Minoan gold objects.  Click the link and see stuff that's better than my photos.  We toured the archaeological museums on the major islands we visited, but the best of those islands' artifacts are in the national museums in Athens.

 Minoan Gold

The Byzantine and Christian Museum, a national museum, has Byzantine and Christian items.

  This museum is housed in a villa (above) - from the outside, it seemed small, but the multi-floor split-level museum is under the courtyard and extensive.  This ultra-modern museum is a work of art in itself.  The presentations are well-done.  It's not just a collection of icons, which one can see for free at any of the many churches in Greece - and we did.

Enlarge the above photo and take a look at the detail

The Changing of the Guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in front of Parliament:

There is a guard change every 15 minutes, a more elaborate change on the hour and a  change with a marching band on Sundays.  We were there on a Sunday and saw all three.

Neoclassical Trilogy: 

Athens Academy, 

University

 and Library

. 

Constructed in 1885

The Panathenaic Stadium was refurbished several times over the last 2500 years.  This stadium was used in 1896 for the first modern Olympics.  It originally had wooden seats, but in 329 BCE the seats were replaced with marble.  It seats about 80,000 - more if they're skinny (or friendly).

Some Olympic events took place here in 2004.  The Marathon ends here.

We took three day-trips from Athens.  The three-island cruise described above, a bus trip to see the Temple of Poseidon in Sounion in Attica (and caught a lot of scenery on the way down) and the metro to Piraeus, Athens major port, where we were the only visitors to a very nice (but small) archaeology museum. 


The Archaeology Museum of Piraeus covers all of the bases in a small area.  Of particular note is a collection of bronzes found in 1959.  They had been collected and put in a storeroom near the seaport in 86 BCE when the city was under siege.  This is an archaeologist's dream.

With the amount of time we spent in Greece (with no time off), you'd think we must have done more.  You'd be right, but I'm keeping this short (at least as short as I can - I have to cover all of the bases, too.)

To see the complementary post, Grecian Judaica, click here.