The Ruins of Athens

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From our hotel room's balcony we had this somewhat obstructed shot of the acropolis. Nice ductwork on the building across the street!



A much better view from the Temple of Zeus...or rather what is left of it after Christian fanatics tore it down in the 4th century.

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Once consisting of 120 marble columns, this is all that is left of what must have been a marvelous structure.

This was Athens, however, and Athena ruled here so Zeus did not get his temple on the Acropolis.

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During the climb up the acropolis I stopped to take a few panoramc shots of the city and one of a theater. It also occured to me that I would not want to make this climb in 60 pounds of bronze armor on a hot day.

Those sons-of-bitches must have been tough!

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The climb to the top is breathtaking...and I was glad that I had trained for it a bit by swimming during the summer but even happier that I had a doctor look at my knee and give me some decent pain killers....

The Greek government has used marble slabs for steps in many places and they are slick and they don't seem to believe in handrails.

Once on top, the Erechtheion was staring me right in the face.



Of course, the Partheon is the main attraction but they were doing a lot of work on it. The Greeks are opening a new museum and, in fact, just after we left Greece I heard that they had begun transferring artifacts. Our guide, the lady in the red shirt, lobied tirelessly for the return of the Elgin marbles but we're Americans and we don't have them.



Apparently the Partheon was in fairly good shape until the 16th century when an Italian admiral shelled it and hit an ammo dump that the Turks had stored there. As the Saronic Gulf was the nearest visible body of water and it was at least 5 and probably more like 10 miles away, I asked her how the ships could possibly have used a 16th century cannon to fire that far. Apparently, the ships were innocent. The cannon were removed from the ships and were firing from nearby hills.

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Straight down the side...



Moving around towards the front (eastern) side where it was cooler and where the restoration work has been completed.



The opposite angle on the Erechtheion.



One last shot of the top which was almost bare of topsoil. I saw one guy slip and fall on the rocks which were a bit slick for some reason.




The next day it was off to Piraeus to board the ship. I took this photo of Piraeus as we cleared the harbor.



Then, getting poetic I suppose, I caught this shot of sunset over the Aegean.




Next stop....Istanbul.