Wednesday, 23 June 2021: Athens

Wednesday was much more interesting.  We had a choice of 2 excursions, Athens or Corinth. I chose Athens. The weather was super hot, 97 degrees and humid. First we climbed up the acropolis

Acropolis from below

Concert Hall in Acropolis

 and saw the Erechteion Temple  which was dedicated to both Athena and Poseidon--supposedly Athena and Poseidon were vying to become patron/patroness of the city. The Athenians chose Athena who offered olive trees over Poseidon who offered salt water. There is also a piece dedicated to an early king.

   

What is left of five of the six original statues is in the Archeological Museum. They take great pains to point out that the sixth is in the British Museum but really out to be back in Athens.

and the Parthenon.  The Turks used the Parthenon to store artillery, and in 1687 the Venetians either accidentally or purposefully lobbed a cannonball in which set off the artillery and caused a significant chunk of the roof to blow out. Earthquakes and age caused more damage.  There was some restoration going on, but there was no indication how much would be restored.

I walked right past Mars Hill (Acts 17) but didn't realize where it was, so I will have to see it next time. I separated from my group after that and went through the acropolis museum which had a lot of interesting artifacts and videos. The things I found most interesting:

A reproduction of the Parthenon portico frescoes based on a sketch from the late 1800s, what is left of the frescoes pieced together like a jigsaw missing a lot of pieces, 

and an extensive dig underneath the entire Museum which can be seen from above through a glass floor and then accessed below.

I saw miscellaneous other ruins, bought a t-shirt and had mango Gelato before rejoining my group and returning to the hotel.  

 We had a praise service on the beach then my roommate and I went snorkeling.  We saw some sponges, some fish and some rocks.  Not too exciting but something to do. It was close to 100 F so swimming felt great.