Athens & Chaeronea

We started off last weekend with a trip to Athens. We have two more weekends in Greece that we potentially could use to return to Athens, so our main goal for Saturday was to see the Acropolis (the hill on which the famous Parthenon stands). Our first stop was the Acropolis Museum. When the sun came out a bit more we hiked on up the hill to the ruins.

Ruins of old Athens were discovered underneath the new Acropolis Museum,
so glass was put in the floors both in and outside of the building to display them.

The Parthenon was built for the worship of Athena. It is Greece's largest Doric temple, and except for the wooden roof it was created entirely of marble. It's been through attacks from the likes of the Persians, Venetians, Turks, and Nazis, and much pilfering from foreign archaeologists (ahem, British Museum).

In front of the Parthenon
Athens is the first place in Greece that we've noticed a large tourist mob.
I mean, it's almost December.

Besides the Parthenon there are several other attractions up on the acropolis. The only structures in identifiable condition are the Propylaia (entrance), Erechtheion (sanctuary in front of which the contest for the patronage of Athens took place), and two theaters. Not to mention there is a great view of the enormous capital city.

The Caryatids (lady-looking columns) of the Erechtheion

Theatre of Herodes Atticus
It's still in use daily! But only in the summers.
Pretty sure the seats don't date back to 161 AD like the rest of the theater does.

We breezed through the ancient agora (market/meeting place) and roman agora.

Tower of the Winds in the Roman Agora
Built in the 1st century AD, this structure functioned as a
sundial, weather vane, water clock, and compass

All of the sites closed at 3:00, so we were unable to enter the theaters mentioned above or the Temple of Olympian Zeus, but we could see everything from behind the barred gates as well as we could have from inside. We also stopped in at Syntagmatos Square, the plaza in front of the parliament building. Here is where protests generally take place ever since the rally that lead to the granting of a constitution in 1843. There was no protesting activity going on, as far as we could tell.

Temple of Olympian Zeus

The parliament building (and ex- royal palace) in Plateia Syntagmatos

On Sunday, Dimitris and Helen put a lamb in their outdoor stone oven to slow-cook for several hours, and then took us out for a road trip around the area. Our first stop was another monastery, this one not too far from Livadeia. Helen loves monasteries.

We then drove to Chaeronea, about 14 km north of Livadeia. It's a small town famous for the battle that took place there in 338 BCE. In remembrance of their soldiers who died there, the Thebans erected a gigantic stone lion. It's in pretty amazing condition, considering its age.

Before getting a close look at the memorial we stopped in at a cafe to have ouzo, an anise-flavored liquor popular in Greece. It's always served with little snacks for nibbling because Greeks don't believe in drinking when not eating.