We slept in...
...It was one part intent and one part fatigue. The girls were wiped so we decided to let them keep sleeping as a tactical move which turned out to be a strategic failure. As we were wandering through the Acroplois with 27,000 of our nearest friends and Patti was reading through the guidebook she stumbled upon the advice to avoid the Acropolis at precisely the time we were in there. We usually have great timing when it comes to these things and today wasn't really all that bad. I had to really work to avoid this photobomber in the lower left, he was on to me.
While in this ancient site, very frequently you would hear a whistle blow and someone yell out 'Do not touch!' With hundreds of thousands of visitors every year if each one touched these stone relics I suppose they would eventually wear away. Erosionus (ih-roh-zhuh-us) Homospaienicus I believe is the term for this in Latin. But maybe the concern really is the 'You break you buy policy' but I am not sure how I would get one of these pillars home broken or not.
Some think the Parthenon was constructed to create an illusion for the viewer who stood directly in front of it. The idea was to present the perception of parallel lines between the base and the top. The base was constructed such that it rose in the middle with the columns being shorter there then the end. If the base and the top were actually parallel we would perceive a distortion. Here, from the side, you can get a rough idea of the bow in the base.
Except for the guidebook pictures one might think that the Parthenon is under perpetual construction.
It was notable that even the Lego Parthenon at the museum was under construction.
We cruised the Acropolis Museum where many of the artifacts that survived the millennia of wars and looting are now housed. I had to return to the backpack check to get my camera after seeing everybody and their mother taking pictures. I was under the impression that there was a camera ban. So after taking only a few shots, sans flash, I was roundly chided for my image sniping. I did get this one of the 'Magic Helios Sphere' which a few friends at work will appreciate.
We climbed up and sat upon Mars Hill, the Areopagus, were the Apostle Paul famously proclaimed Christ to the people of Athens at the very foot of the temple of their high goddess Athena -
“The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’
“Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by human design and skill. In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.”
From Mars Hill we had a great view into Ancient Agora where this well preserved temple to Hephaestus stands as one of the most well preserved of its time.
After we ventured down from the Acropolis we grabbed a sticker shock lunch in this cool little outdoor eatery area. The food was great and the atmosphere even better, but the most interesting part was escalating price tag with each increment coming in an additional bill. First there was the seating charge, then the drink and half the food charge, then another bill with the other half of the food, then another with Tzatziki Sauce. In fact every time we spoke with the waiter another bill would appear. We soon learned to fill our mouths with food and call it good.
We finished up our touring day in Ancient Agora with a close up of the temple of Hephaestus. We then walked home and picked up some tomotoes among other things with which the girls prepared their parents another great dinner. They are really starting to surprise us with their culinary ingenuity. Tara picked out some baby corns, like those that you find in salad. Later we realized that they were raw and that the cost was 40% of the grocery bill...opps.
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