This is a much shorter post and there's a big fat reason for it. We weren't allowed to take photos inside the Acropolis Museum. That, and we didn't want to go crazy seeing too much on Valentine's Day. We wanted, after swimming in so much antiquity and modernity and history the day before, to unwind and be and experience. To that end, we spent a leisurely morning at the museum, explored the gorgeous National Gardens in the afternoon and had a very charming and generous Valentine's Day dinner at a little taverna in the Plaka.
The Acropolis Museum is a fancy, brand-new building near the base of the Acropolis that has most of the statues, carved reliefs, etc from the temple as well as some really tastefully done interpretive programming to learn more about what you've just seen. And, as might be expected, big open glass walls facing one of the best views of the Parthenon in town.
One very cool thing; it's built on top of an active excavation site. Townhouses, kitchens and a baths complex from ancient Athens have all been found when they were laying the foundation. The ground floor is filled with glass floors so you can look down and watch the archaeologists work.
Short of detailing all the exhibits, let me just say that it was super-thorough. And that they pulled no punches inferring, repeatedly, how evil the British ambassador Lord Elgin had been to carry off fully half of the surviving statues and marble carvings. I felt pretty strongly about it too, until I saw Lord Elgin's tablets in London this weekend; his thieving has taken 200 years of hard wear of those statues. The stuff in England is in much, much better shape than what was left on the temple for the rain and pollution on the past two centuries. That's not justification, but it certainly soothed my righteous indignation a tad.
After treating ourselves to posh salad lunch in the museum's cafe, we set out walking through the national gardens. They're expansive and windy and easy to lose yourself in for a while, which we did happily. We plucked an orange but it wasn't ripe (February) and we tossed it back. Although I hope my admission here on the internet doesn't get me in trouble with the Greek police.
We bumped into a couple interesting spots around the gardens' periphery. The Zappeion is like the Exhibition Centre for Athens; a big convention grounds. Very classy, but pretty deserted on a Tuesday afternoon. Across the street, we hit the Panathenaic stadium; a massive hippodrome arena where the Panathenaic games (Athens' big sporting event) were once held and where, refurbished, the 2004 Olympics closing ceremonies were held. We didn't feel like paying to get in, but that didn't stop us taking a couple epic photos outside.
The late afternoon got rained out so we retired to the hostel to nap it off. Then, we got all dolled up and ventured out to a taverna in the Plaka Rick recommended for what was definitely the best and Greekest meal we had all trip.
The Acropolis Museum is a fancy, brand-new building near the base of the Acropolis that has most of the statues, carved reliefs, etc from the temple as well as some really tastefully done interpretive programming to learn more about what you've just seen. And, as might be expected, big open glass walls facing one of the best views of the Parthenon in town.
One very cool thing; it's built on top of an active excavation site. Townhouses, kitchens and a baths complex from ancient Athens have all been found when they were laying the foundation. The ground floor is filled with glass floors so you can look down and watch the archaeologists work.
Short of detailing all the exhibits, let me just say that it was super-thorough. And that they pulled no punches inferring, repeatedly, how evil the British ambassador Lord Elgin had been to carry off fully half of the surviving statues and marble carvings. I felt pretty strongly about it too, until I saw Lord Elgin's tablets in London this weekend; his thieving has taken 200 years of hard wear of those statues. The stuff in England is in much, much better shape than what was left on the temple for the rain and pollution on the past two centuries. That's not justification, but it certainly soothed my righteous indignation a tad.
After treating ourselves to posh salad lunch in the museum's cafe, we set out walking through the national gardens. They're expansive and windy and easy to lose yourself in for a while, which we did happily. We plucked an orange but it wasn't ripe (February) and we tossed it back. Although I hope my admission here on the internet doesn't get me in trouble with the Greek police.
We bumped into a couple interesting spots around the gardens' periphery. The Zappeion is like the Exhibition Centre for Athens; a big convention grounds. Very classy, but pretty deserted on a Tuesday afternoon. Across the street, we hit the Panathenaic stadium; a massive hippodrome arena where the Panathenaic games (Athens' big sporting event) were once held and where, refurbished, the 2004 Olympics closing ceremonies were held. We didn't feel like paying to get in, but that didn't stop us taking a couple epic photos outside.
The late afternoon got rained out so we retired to the hostel to nap it off. Then, we got all dolled up and ventured out to a taverna in the Plaka Rick recommended for what was definitely the best and Greekest meal we had all trip.
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