Pedaling Across the Agean: Day 2: Athens

Woke this morning to bright blue skies and low 80’s. we met up with some other cyclists at breakfast, and they decided to tag along with us to explore the city. Our first stop was the Parliament building to watch the changing of the guards in front of the tomb of the unknown soldier

This happens every hour, and during the period on duty, the guards cannot move unless ordered to do so by their commanding officer. The story goes that during a riot during the civil war in the 70’s, a Molotov cocktail landed at one guard’s feet and caught his skirt on fire. He stood still until he was given the order to be dismissed. The guards wear curved toed shoes with pom-poms at the tips purportedly to hide the dagger at the tipoff the toe. Can’t swear by that one.

The Parliament building was originally built as the royal palace for the 1^st Greek king, Otto, a 16 yeqr old Bavarian prince who was put on the throne in 1832 (Europe was quite incestuous in the 19^th Century) after Greece won its independence from the Ottoman Turks. He established Athens as the capital for historic and sentimental reasons. Over the next 50 years, many of the public

buildings in use today were built including the University of Athens,

the Zappeion (exhibition hall),

the presidential palace,

and the Olympic Stadium (1896).

We then walked to the central market where we hoped to find produce and spices- exotic smells and sights.

Small Greek Orthodox Church next to the Central Market

Found one nut shop!

Instead, the central market appeared to be only meats. And the smells were horrific. We all pledged to be vegetarians after this experience.

Nearby the central “meat” market was the University of Athens. We passed right through the campus as well as some beautiful residential neighborhoods

on our way to Lycabettus Hill.

There is a tram that goes up to the top through a tunnel in the hill.

This hill is the highest point in Athens and was originally a temple to Apollo, the sun god. Christians converted this to the Church of St George, and it is now a restaurant and observation deck with 360° killer views of Athens. Interesting factoid about St George, the dragon slayer; Apollo, years before St. George, also slew a dragon to "obtain light".

Parthenon looking down on the Acropolis from Lycabettus Hill

University of Athens

We hightailed back with some nice views of the Acropolis

to the hotel just in time to start our real tour at 3pm. Our guide first took us to the Temple of Zeus which we were able to see from our hotel. Most of the Greek ruins that we see today including this temple and the Parthenon, were built in the 5^th Century BCE. Previous architecture had been destroyed by a series of wars between rival cities (eg. Sparta, Corinth, Athens) over several centuries. The Acropolis (“High City”) was the Temple of Athena, and below but within sight, was the Temple of Zeus. All temples face east to allow the rising sun to strike the statues of the gods within.

Corinthian Column on Temple of Zeus. My 4th grade teacher , Mrs. Kahn, would be proud

Many of the temples were leveled during early Roman conquests but were renovated by Hadrian, a Graecophile, and was honored by the Athenians with the erection of the Arch of Hadrian

Arch of Hadrian

Next stop was the Olympic stadium from the 1^st modern Olympics in 1896. I think they would have a hard time doing the opening ceremonies today in this stadium. (Ancient Olympics were held in Olympia west of Athens.

One last viewing of the changing of the guards (in better light than this morning), a quick walk through the central subway station to the Plaka, then back to the hotel for our official opening dinner. The subways here are new (for the 2002 Olympics) and during excavation, found ruins everywhere (DUH?). So they decided to make the subway stations into attractions where you can view artifacts and actual excavation sites.