Panathenaic Stadium, Athens

Last day of our Greek holiday, so some gentle sightseeing after having done the "heavy" stuff yesterday. I recommended the Panathenaic Stadium, as a site I really liked, but which is less visited, in part because you can see its general form from the street. But to my mind it is well worth exploring inside, in part for the views from the top tier of seating. But I know I am going to be biased here because it combines two of my passions, Classical architecture and athletics!

The stadium is both ancient and modern. It is on the footprint of the ancient stadium in Athens, but totally rebuilt (in the ancient manner) for the 1896 Olympics, the first modern Olympiad. Although it is still used for athletics, mostly training, it is totally unlike a modern stadium because of its shape. Long and thin. Modern athletes could not cope with the sharp bends. But that probably tells us something about ancient Olympic events. They did sprints, like our 100m, just up a straight, and longer distance events, in which case the stadium would be fine for running, say, a mile race. But for a one lap sprint it would be hopeless as you would have to reduce speed so much to get round the tight bends.

The modern stadium is probably rather more pristine than the original - better techniques in cutting marble. Although the marble is mostly more modern than the 1896 date for the stadium. They ran out of money/time in the 19th century and so for the Olympics most of the seating was made of wood and painted white. Only later were funds available to complete the originally intended marble.

There is an obvious photo opportunity set up here - a podium finish. Thibault not quite in the right costume, but as you can see we were not exactly having to fight off other tourists. In height of the season there are queues to get a snap of family members posing!

There is also a small Olympic museum, which I think is fascinating in its own right, even though it doesn't have much in it. But what it does have is a complete set of Olympic posters. And these are wonderful as a history of design in the last century or so. Especially as each of them reflected "modern" design when they were made.

The iconic London 1948 Olympic poster

These posters from the early part of the 20th century are interesting if only because we sort of associate this type of image with the Nazis. But really this idealised athletic male muscle was popular throughout Europe before being tarnished with the Germanic brand!

This is the original tunnel out of the stadium (to what is now the museum)

It is definitely worth the climb to the top

We found this wonderful ouzo bar. And to be honest the wonderful thing was the simple decor. Just put out all your most colourful drinks on shelves, backlight them and hey presto.

A climb up to Mount Lycabettus for the views over the city. Not the gentlest of sightseeing as it is a fair climb, but fortunately this was a nice October day, not a scorching August one.

And the views are terrific

And then our last dinner. It had to be this - masses of grilled meat with views across to the illuminated Acropolis

 

Athens

So after our day in Messinia we hit Athens for an evening out. And had a very good one. Starting with a wine bar...

Followed by very decent restaurant

For our full day in Athens I rather took the lead as I have been a number of times before. Tried to find sightseeing that would appeal to us all, so included the military museum. Which spans ancient to modern.

This is a medieval flame thrower!

Model of an ancient trireme

But we also did all the ancient sites in Athens covered by our one day ticket!

Temple of Olympian Zeus. Huge, but the scaffolding rather detracts from the impressive pillars. It is one of the largest temples of the ancient world, roughly 50 x 100 metres and almost 20 metres high. And as befits its colossal size, it took a very long time to build. Like a lot of such projects it would go in fits and starts as resources became available. So apparently it was started in the sixth century BC, but only finished by the Emperor Hadrian, who had the wealth of the Roman Empire to throw behind prestige building projects, in 131 AD. So, colossal, but over 600 years in the making. And then pillaged by barbarian invasion only a century later, with much of its marble reused for other building projects in later centuries.

The entrance to the temple of Olympian Zeus would also be more imposing if there wasn't a main road right behind it

The ancient cemetery is one of the better, but lesser known ancient sites in Athens. Again it isn't usually where the tourist buses stop so there is plenty of space to wander at will

The way I tempted Thibault and Clarissa into the cemetery (not their usual idea of a good time) was with the promise of  tortoises. I managed to deliver!

The agora, the ancient shopping centre that has been extensively restored/rebuilt, is well worth a visit. There is a good museum upstairs

Temple of Hephaestus

The so called Tower of the Winds, an ancient combination of sundial, water clock and weather vane.

But of course the main site in Athens that everyone has to see is the Acropolis

The Erectheion

The caryatids - the marble maidens acting as pillars - are copies - the originals are now in the Acropolis Museum. Unfortunately, they were not bought/pillaged/rescued by Lord Elgin like the Elgin marbles, so they suffered a lot of erosion from acid rain, (Athens was horribly polluted from the rise of the motor car and general industry) before the originals were brought indoors and out of the elements. The Elgin marbles would be a lot less distinct if they had stayed in situ. Modern cities are not kind to old stonework.

The Parthenon

And with sites done we could hit the town at night for its surprisingly buzzy nightlife.