Wandering among the ruins

Friday, May 17

As we started out this morning, we soon encountered a long line of parading young people, singing, chanting, and carrying signs indicating that they were demonstrating in support of some environmental agenda.  They numbered in the hundreds, and appeared to range in age from elementary to middle school years.  A few hours later, near the Roman Forum, another group with what appeared to be a similar message was on the march. Either there were lots of kids playing hooky today or there was some pretty interesting permission slips on file!

We walked a sort distance to the Ancient Agora, the administrative, economic, cultural, commercial and political center of Athens from the 6^th century BC.  The restored 2^nd century BC Stoa of Attalos, was the precursor to modern shopping centers, and now houses a museum on the first floor, which we visited before wandering around the site, guided once again by Rick Steves’ audiotour.  Other than the well-preserved Temple of Hephaestus and the 10^th-century Church of the Holy Apostles, the sprawling site would have been pretty unintelligible to us non-archeologists, but the audio commentary really helped us make sense of it all.  

From the Agora, we walked a short distance to the remains of Hadrian’s Library, one of the 2^nd-century Roman Emperor’s contributions to the culture of Greece and Athens that he valued highly.  The library was succeeded by several churches, and evidence of those structures is also present. 

A couple of blocks from the library are the remains of the Roman Forum, which we’d seen from above yesterday.  The octagonal Tower of the Winds, a combination clock, sundial, weather vane and water clock in the Forum, is very well preserved.

Having spent hours wandering among the dusty ruins, we decided to spend the afternoon seeing  what Greece’s archeological finds look like when they’ve been cleaned up, organized, labeled and presented to the world.  We took the Metro to the National Archeological Museum and – once more – used a Rick Steves audioguide to walk and talk us through the sprawling collection, which includes treasures unearthed from the breadth of Greece’s eras and geography. We were especially happy to see items recovered from many of the places we’ve visited during our travels here; seeing them evoked flashes of recognition and fine memories.

While we were in the museum, Zeus began hurling (LOUDLY rumbling) thunderbolts outside and the rains came down.  Needless to say, this made our (unusual) choice of an indoor activity this afternoon seem prescient; the fact that the rain stopped by the time we left the museum made us feel downright lucky!

We had dinner tonight at a neighborhood restaurant our property hostess (and next door neighbor) had recommended.  Food was good, there seemed to be lots of locals around, and the after – dinner raki provided the boot we needed to make it ‘til bedtime!