Piraeus

The Piraeus is a major port and has been from ancient times. It has a number of scalloped harbours so it is ideal.

It is also a rather charmless modern city. It doesn't hold out much to offer to the tourist, other than to embark a ferry for the islands. But it does have an archaeological museum, so I wanted a gander. And it is now on the end of the metro system so easy to reach.

The museum is not all that easy to find. And when you do, well I found I was round the wrong side, so had to circumnavigate it, and the excavation site in front of it, to find the only entrance. The site gives you a good idea of the rather ugly surrounding built up area. Actually it doesn't - most looks worse than this.

But the museum, although small has a lot of worthwhile exhibits, so it didn't feel a wasted trip.

 One interesting part was that it had a number of repeated marble slabs, as below. Showing that the Greeks were doing a mass production trade in carvings.

 On room is devoted to a particular tomb.

Now the keen-eyed amongst you might notice the woman who looks like she has fallen into a ditch. But no, she, and two male companions were part of one of those sort of art projects that exist only to get a grant, because obviously no-one wants to see them, but because they involve no materials they have no cost. So this is performance art. The three of them just silently went around striking odd poses next to the exhibits. Harmless.Keeps them of the streets.

The best part of the collection are the bronze statues that for once were not found at the bottom of the sea but in a storehouse sealed off presumably to avoid them being found by looters, or it turns out anyone else for 2000 years.

 If you are wondering about the article below, its a measuring device, for standardised measures in the market place

 And so is this a measurement device, showing standard lengths, which of course originate from approximations in relation to one's arms and feet.

A rare example of a grave steale with original colouring

 So after the museum I headed to another, the Hellenic Maritime Museum, via taking some shots of the yacht marina

This is the Maritime Museum, which my guidebook described as fascinating and I would describe as somewhere to go only if it was raining. Very hard. And even then I would consider standing outside with an umbrella a better choice. Dreadfully dull, mostly just model boats with random labelling. I can't show you inside as this was the only museum I went to that didn't allow photos. Presumably they don't want to let out their secret that there is nothing to see. Having dragged out my stay to over 10 minutes, I was the only one there.

They did give me a little leaflet on the place. They proudly asserted that the idea for the Maritime Museum actually came up in the 19th century. Just took another 82 years before they got started. A familiar theme in these parts.

I then wandered around (well trekked more like) the harbours to find a good seafood restaurant.

An interesting site for a football pitch.

And eventually I settled into a decent seafood restaurant, with a wonderful view from my table.

 Then a stiff walk back which required quite a climb over the ridge to get back to the metro.

 But I found I had view of Olympiakos football ground.

 And a couple of classical buildings, including the theatre