Photos from Homer's Odyssey - Monday 1st November

The guards at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, outside the parliament building in Setegma Square, Athens

The rather extraordinary marching style of the guards at the Tomb of the Unknown

Changing the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

A bust of Melina Mercouri, famous Greek actress and Government Minister and champion of the arts and culture of Greece

Temple of Nike (Winged Victory) at the Parthenon

There must be millions of shots like this but it is an impressive sight

Parthenon from another angle

Lycabettus Hill viewed from the Parthenon

MAC getting a dose of Greek culture

Homer getting a dose of Greek culture

The temple at Sunion - on one of the columns, Lord Byron had carved his name.

Sunset at Sunion

Friday 5th November

We had booked on a walking/eating tour of Athens. So we walked down top Panepistimiou subway station to meet our guide, Angelo. Angelo was an engaging character full of his own views on all sorts of subjects as well as food and the general diet and social habits of Athenians. He began by pointing out the various buildings in the vicinity which emphasized the different ages of the city and the different influences which have paid a part in the social and eating life of the city. We then moved over to a small food stand where we tasted the round, sesame crusted breads called koulouri which seem to form the equivalent of Dunkin’ Donuts in the USA!! Although a little dry these are tasty enough and they form the ‘on-the-run’ breakfast for busy Athenians. Our walking tour group consisted of a couple from Hong Kong, two couples from Australia, a couple from South Korea and a couple whose origins I did not discover. All were congenial and interested.

From here we walked, with occasional stops for editorializing by Angelo to a restaurant called Doris. Here we sat and had either Turkish or reek coffee and ate the traditional round-shaped honey covered donuts which are famous in the city. During this break, in the intervals between Angelo’s narration we were also able to find out a little about our fellow walkers.

From Doris we moved on to a traditional grocery store which stocked over 1,500 traditional Greek products most of which are organic. We tasted honey flavored with thyme, feta cheese, ouzo and olive paste. After this we were given some time to purchase any products we wanted. We bought some thyme honey and some olive paste. (Unfortunately, the honey fell foul of the security at Athens airport on the way home as it was a liquid which was over 100 ml).

From the grocery store we went on to a spice store via the main meat and fish market in Athens. This market is huge and noisy but has some wonderful produce and is a great place to browse around. Unfortunately, it is also crowded and dangerous and one of our number had her purse opened and lost her wallet with credit cards and her passport. That put a little damper on things for a while and she had to leave the tour to try to retrieve things, cancel her cards and get her passport replaced.

The spice store, called Fotsis, which had been in the same family for many years had a hige selection of herbs and spices and at very reasonable prices so we stocked up on saffron at what would in NY be knock down prices.

From herbs we moved on to a meat store, Miran, and tasted pastourma and sousouki. The former is a very spicy version of pastrami and delicious.

From here we moved on to Bougatsadiko where they make fyllo pastry pies. We were able to watch one of the staff swinging the fyllo in the air and smoothing it out , filling it with cheese ready for baking. These cheese and spinach pies are some of the tastiest food in Greece.

From here it was on the Avissinia Café. This is situated in the heart of the flea market area. Here we met the owner, tasted some other foods and the tour wound up and we bid farewell to Angelo who had given is a most interesting, entertaining and informative tour. We decided to stay on and have a light lunch at the Avissinia Café. One of the dishes was roasted hot peppers and were they hot???!!!! As we sat having lunch, we were able to watch the flea market at work. There are many stalls with all sorts of goods both high and low quality.

After we left the café, we walked to Monastraki Square and took the subway back to Constitution Square. The Athens subway is beautiful and because building it involved digging through ancient remains there are areas of the stations which have exhibitions of the relics which were unearthed as the subway was being built. From Constitution Square we walked home to the hotel. After a rest, we decided to go up Lycabettus Hill which was in front of our hotel. It is the highest point in Athens. We took the funicular railway to the top, checked out the views, (although it was dark) and had a drink in the bar at the summit.

Descending from the hill we walked a short way down from our hotel to try to find a fish restaurant but when we got there we found it was closed so we went to another place on the side of a square and had dinner there. As we had a 4 a.m. taxi pick up for the airport, we soon returned to the hotel, packed and went to bed. As Friday is party night in Athens sleep was not undisturbed and at about 3 a.m. one of our neighbors, an Italian lady decided to hold along phone conversation in a loud voice on her adjacent balcony.

Thursday 4th November - trip to Delphi & Meteora - cont'd

In the morning, breakfast was also supplied and then we rejoined the bus for the trip to the monasteries of Meteora. When we left the hotel, we could see the dramatic peaks outside which overlook the town but which we were not able to see in the dark the night before. Having rejoined those who were at other hotels we proceeded to a factory where religious icons are made and had a demonstration about their hand-made processes. There was an opportunity to buy souvenirs, including  icons, here. We re-boarded the bus and started the long, winding climb up the mountains to the first monastery which was actually a nunnery dedicated to Saint Barbara. The bus parked above the nunnery and we had to walk down some steps which wound through a wooded area to the entrance to the nunnery. On arrival we were met by a small building atop a rock and climbed some steps and crossed a small bridge to access the nunnery itself. We were greeted by a couple of rather glum nuns and were able to see the small chapel at which they hold their devotions. It was covered in icons of various bible passages and the sufferings of Christians through he ages. Some of these were a bit gruesome. The nuns are Greek Orthodox (as are 95% of the people in Greece). The nunnery is very small and holds about 15 or 16 nuns. It must be very cold in winter time. The setting is beautiful and serene, except that there is a military airbase nearby which emits deafening roars form the resident planes. The surrounding scenery is breathtaking and we were lucky enough to have a beautiful day, not too warm (there was a lot of climbing to do) but sunny and clear. It was certainly a magical place and worthy of its UNESCO rating as a World Heritage site. We descended from the nunnery back to the bus for the short drive to the monastery which is dedicated to St Nicholas. Here our access was reversed and we had a large number of steps to climb for the short route or a longer route via a ramp. Either way it was ‘breathtaking’ – literally. But the climb was worth it as the photos which I will post in due course will I hope show. The small chapel at this monastery was also covered with icons and the bell tower offered a panoramic view of the surrounding area and the other monasteries which inhabit this area. On a high almost vertical uninhabited crag nearby two climbers were ascending what seemed an impossible vertical face, that was really the hard way up.

Although it may be hard for some to understand why anyone would sequester themselves in such a place as this, there is no doubt that it is a peaceful and serene place to contemplate whatever one believes in.

On descent from the monastery, we drove back into Kalabaka top a restaurant owned by a lady who goes by the name of Mama!! She welcomed us into her kitchen with “Come to Mama” and we were served delicious ‘Mama’s specials’ for lunch. There were all kinds of meats and also vegetarian dishes including a wonderful eggplant dish. She was certainly quite a hostess.

Then, after a short walk in the town, we were back on the bus for the long six-hour drive back to Athens. By the time we had got back to our hotel in the evening we were pretty much done for!!

Wednesday 3rd November

We were picked up for our tour of Delphi and Meteora at just after 8 a.m. and transferred via a taxi to our bus. Our guide was Ianni who was very well-informed and gave us many facts which he repeated in case we forgot all the way out of Athens and on the way to Delphi. We passed the mountains surrounding the city and the lakes which supplied the water to Athens. We also passed by the city of Thebes famous for Oedipus, fields of olives, pistachios and cotton, much light industry which forms the 4^th pillar of the Greek economy after tourism, shipping and agriculture. Ianni also gave us useful information about the ancient myths and history which prepared us for our visit to Delphi. He told us of the 9 muses (Insert names here). He also advised that the term ‘antiquity’ means the period up to 476 AD when Rome was sacked by the Visigoths.

Soon we arrived at Delphi after a great drive up very winding roads into the mountains , (note: Greece is 75% mountains, one of the most mountainous countries in Europe), with precipitous drops on the outward side and spectacular scenery. Ianni led us up the paths and into the site of the Temple of Apollo at Delphi. He explained about the way in which the Pythia was chosen and what her function was. She was elected by the priests and she then became the Oracle. Pilgrims came and ritually bathed then bought an animal to sacrifice. They then proceeded into a chamber with a dividing wall, behind which the Pythia sat on a tripod. The pilgrim could not see the Pythia and there was fumes rising, purportedly from a fissure in the earth. The Pythika chewed on laurel leaves and was in a trance. The pilgrim would ask a question of the Pythia and she would answer in a language not understandable by ordinary mortals and which had to be translated by the priest. As the Pythia’s answer to all questions was ambiguous, she was always right. If, for example he asked whether his pregnant wife would give birth to a boy or a girl, she would say “Boy not Girl”, leaving out the punctuation so that you had to guess if she meant ‘boy not, girl’, or ‘boy not girl’. If a General asked whether if he went to war would he win, the Pythia would say that if he went to war one army would be victorious and the other defeated. For those today this seemed to be the original ‘smoke and mirrors’. Apparently, Aesop, (of fables fame), was too curious and went underneath the temple and found out that the fumes were coming from a boiler just under the floor of the temple. He told the pilgrims that he thought they were being swindled and for his troubles he was thrown from a nearby crag to his death. The Delphi site is very impressive with a wonderful Greek theater and many other buildings. At one time there were 3,000 statues and many buildings but most have been looted and have now fallen down.

After our visit to the site of the Temple of Apollo, we left on a bus for the nearby town to change buses at the local hotel. We joined a new group of tourists from various countries which were part of a longer tour. Many had run in the Athens marathon on Sunday 31^st October. Then we left our original group to return to Athens and we proceeded on the long drive to Kalabaka and Meteora. We stopped for lunch on the way and tested the Goody’s burger which, it was claimed, was better than McDonalds. It was certainly good but the jury is still out on this one. We also stopped at the site of the battle of Thermopylae where there is a large statue of Leonidas and trees commemorating the 300 Spartans killed by the Persians. Regrettably, the Spartans were betrayed by one of their own.

We arrived at Kalabaka after dark and were dropped at our hotels. We had elected for a ‘tourist class’ hotel and it was certainly not very impressive but adequate. We took a walk into the small town of Kalabaka which seems to be thriving. Dinner was supplied and we soon went to sleep.

Tuesday 2nd November

We decided to go to Corinth and see the canal. After we had breakfasted at a local café on coffee and croissants, we returned to the hotel and asked for a taxi to take us where we wanted to go. The hotel arranged with a taxi driver called Dimitri who came quite soon to pick us up. WE left Athens and proceeded west towards Corinth and finally arrived at the canal which is an incredible sight. It is a huge deep cut into the earth with 11 meter deep water at the bottom. I will attach photos but they do not do it justice. The canal is 5 km long and can handle ships of small to medium size due to the width restrictions. The canal was constructed in the late 19^th century and the engineers were Hungarian. In the past there had been many tries to bridge the isthmus by the Romans and others. One unusual feature is the facility to bungee jump from a position underneath the road bridge. During our stop at the bridge over the canal, we talked to Dimitri and he planned out an extension to our trip for the day. We would go to Ancient Corinth to see where St Paul preached to the Corinthians, then on to Mycenae which was the home of Agamemnon and a very important city. We arrived there and toured the ancient ruins which are very impressive. The Lions’ Gate which is the entrance to the city is well preserved. Although time was short as the site was closing we also got a short look at the interesting museum with many very well preserved relics.

From Mycenae we drove onward to Nauplia a small and charming port on the coast. We drove up above the city to a fortress where there was a remarkable view of the city and the small island of Bugli which was a fortress prison. This is accessible by a small boat  but as the water was choppy we decided not to venture out. We drove back into the small town and walked around. We then had a late fish lunch at a small restaurant in one of the narrow streets near the port. The lunch was well attended by some noisy cats who demanded to be fed and squabbled amongst themselves for first ‘dibs’ at any food which was dropped.

By the end of lunch it was starting to get dark and we walked through the small streets visiting some of the small shops, mostly selling handicrafts. MAC bought some souvenirs for her staff at the U.N. Soon it was time to rejoin Dimitri who drove us back to Athens and our hotel after a great day out.

Monday 1st. November

After getting mobilized in the morning we went down to reception to arrange some further trips for the week. MAC thought to ask if we could change our room as the construction work had been rather disturbing during the morning. They agreed and in a very few minutes we had decanted all our belongings to a new room which was much further away from the site of the construction work.

We then made a booking for the trip to Delphi and Meteora on Wednesday and Thursday. Having completed that we walked down the street and sat an outdoor café to have coffee, freshly squeezed orange juice and a piece of Greek spinach pie.

We walked further into town and to the Parliament building and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier where the ceremonial guards were on parade, together with some rather lazy dogs. We watched them guarding the monument for a while and then crossed over the street to look at the lobby of the Hotel Grande Bretagne which is very Grande. The lobby was full of people who had run or attended the Athens Marathons, held the day before, checking out. The Marathon was billed as the 2,500^th anniversary of the first marathon when a messenger ran from the site of the Battle of Marathon to Athens to relay the news of the Athenian victory over the Persians. Legend has it he dropped dead after relaying the news. After the hotel we re-crossed the street to see them change the Guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

We then walked onwards down the hill across the square, saw the portion of Hadrian’s aqueduct on display and walked towards the Acropolis. We climbed up towards the ticket booth where were met by a guide who offered hers services to us which we decided to accept. Her name was Miranda-Maria Skiniti. She was a very knowledgeable guide and proved to be well worth recruiting as she gave us a very informative tour of the site pointing out not only the archeological but also the architectural parts, the history and the roles played by the gods and mortals who made ancient Greece such a seminal place in the development of man. These are things  which we would otherwise have missed. We passed the small exquisite Temple of Nike or Winged Victory and then on to the main building and saw the amazing but almost hidden features which make the whole building so stunning. She explained the significance of the square root of the number 5 in the way in which the pillars where placed and the internal relationships of the building were aligned. We also saw the other adjacent sites from above, such as the Pnyx, (known as the first democratic parliament), the Agora, the theater of Dionysus, the Medical School, as well as Hadrian’s Temple and Arch.

Miranda left us with the invitation to go to Sunion in her car to see the sun set which we accepted.

Before leaving we took some photos of Porridge and Homer at the Acropolis but we were then stopped by a park ranger who said such photos were not allowed and made me delete mine from the camera. She was unimpressed with Homer’s Greek name. MAC had, fortunately sneaked a photo before me and was able to retain it so the visit of the intrepid bears to the Acropolis has been recorded for all time.

On coming down from the Acropolis, we met Miranda again and got into her car. We stopped on the way for a delicious pastry for lunch and then drove to Sunion through the southern suburbs of Athens, past many mansions of the rich shipping community here. We saw the old Athens airport which has been bought by the Crown Prince of Qatar which will develop it into a 7-Star hotel, shopping mall and other diversions. We also stopped at some hot springs which had been formed by a volcanic eruption and which had left a small lake filled with warm sulfurous water used by people for its restorative powers.

Onward to Sunion where we arrived just as the sun was setting on this dramatic headland at the southern tip of Greece. The site is dominated by the Temple to Poseidon, god of the sea and also of volcanoes. This is a magical place, so much so that Lord Byron engraved his name into one of the pillars showing that even poets and lords can be vandals!! We shared a beautiful sunset with a small crowd of people including some of the marathon runners whom Miranda had shown around Athens in the previous days.

Then we drove back to Athens and bid farewell to Miranda who had given us an unforgettable day.

We had a nice dinner in a local tavern and retired to our newly quiet room for some well-earned rest.

Sunday 31st October

We woke up to Halloween (after an extra hour of sleep as summertime ended in Cyprus), with a couple of trick or treating lunatics delivering cups of tea in dog and cat masks who were trying to keep up the traditions of the date. The day dawned warm and pleasant and the pool saw some use in the morning. The morning was spent lazily as befits the last day in Cyprus. Lunch was some delicious pita bread sandwiches full of salad and meat bought from a local deli.

After lunch we had to pack and get ourselves ready to leave. After sad hugs and leavings, we left at about 3 p.m. This had been a really fun and relaxing week and we were sad to leave although looking forward to our week in Greece. Porridge said his goodbyes to Rosie Bear and as those who meet on holiday always do, he promised to write regularly and keep in touch….we’ll see. Homer got back into his suitcase compartment in his usual relaxed way as of one who has traveled much.

The drive to Larnaca airport was quick and uneventful there being a very good highway all the way through Limassol and other towns. The landscape is quite barren and scrub-filled but there are also a lot of mansions and villas, many of which are not occupied. It appears that there was, as in other places like Florida, a building boom which went (at least temporarily), bust when the economic downturn came.

Processing at Larnaca was very fast indeed and we had dropped the car, checked and were sitting having a cup of coffee in just a very few minutes. When we went to the gate we were a little surprised to find a large crowd of fully ‘burkaed’ and white robed Moslems waiting at the gate. After events of the last few days, this caused us some amusement but not really any discomfort. The flight left on time at 6.30 p.m. and was uneventful. Arrival at Athens was amazingly smooth and we were through immigration, collected baggage and into a taxi in less than ten minutes.

After a half hour ride into Athens, we arrived at our hotel The St George Lycabettus ‘Boutique’ (!) Hotel which is in a small street near the Lycabettus Hill. We had dinner in the rooftop restaurant with a wonderful night view of the Parthenon.

Our hotel room which promised an outside view, delivered this, but also delivered a large building site opposite. At 4 a.m. on 1^st November, a large diesel excavator started up and at 7 a.m. work started in earnest. On the good side, this will make sure we get up in the mornings, on the bad side; this will make sure we get up in the mornings.

Today we plan to walk some and perhaps reach the Acropolis. Later in the week we hope to take some trips outside Athens.

More later.

I can't upload photos right now but will when I get home.