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.