As the title suggests we have been to Greece this summer. A couple of years ago we were caught in Crete by the Icelandic volcano eruption and this caused my son to become interested in the stories in Greek mythology; you can read about it here. I promised that when he was 9 I would take him backpacking around Greece and we would see some of those places for ourselves. However, with the economic crisis in that country I decided not to risk getting caught by strikes etc and we booked on to a managed coach tour. For the next few days I am going to blog about that trip and share some of the wonderful places we visited. For the record there were no problems with strikes or unrest whilst we were there and, if you are looking for a holiday, I would say go to Greece. It's a beautiful, inspiring place and they need your tourist euros.
Day 1: The Acropolis of Athens
The first day was meant to be a free day and our Wonders of Ancient Greece tour wanted us to pay the optional 88 euros extra to go on a cruise around Aegina, Poros and Hydra. However, I was in Athens and nothing was going to stop me going to see the Acropolis. Our hotel was on the Saronic Gulf and about a 45 minute tram ride from Syntagma square. I have to say the tram was clean, cool and efficient.
On arriving, we were blown away with out first view of the Acropolis. It's an unbelievable evocative place and for all the controversy about the Elgin Marbles etc the Parthenon is imposing and breathtaking. We knew that we were going up the Acropolis the following day as part of an included tour so we stood at the bottom and gawped.
Entirely accidentally, we crossed Syntagma square, wandered into an archaeological site and found the Temple of Olympian Zeus, started in the 6th Century BC and completed by Hadrian in the 2nd Century AD. Next door was the Arch of Hadrian, through which you could see the Parthenon. It was wandering around this site that I recollected how easily countries like Greece and Rome carry their ancient heritage. In Britain the smallest section of Roman wall is carefully displayed and wondered over. Here, in Greece, parts of huge temples are still extant. It is mindblowing.
Our main objective, particularly in the searing heat, was the Acropolis museum. It's a fairly new museum and they don't allow photography inside. It's built on top of part of the ancient city (as, indeed, all central Athens is) and the designers have installed glass floors so that you can see them clearly. Inside are stunning sculptures and cult items excavated on the Acropolis. The top floor is set out as the Parthenon with parts of the frieze removed from the temple to preserve them. There is also a video about the temple with a fairly hard line commentary that says that Lord Elgin 'plundered' the Parthenon and making a very clear case that they think the British museum should return them. I don't know what to think. Part of me thinks they belong in Greece but, equally, all museums across the world have artefacts from a variety of non-native civilisations and if they were all returned then the museums would be much the poorer. Can you imagine the Louvre or the Hermitage if they returned everything that wasn't French or Russian? It's certainly controversial.
When we left the air-conditioned museum we were hit by an enervating wall of heat that our poor northern European bodies couldn't cope with and so we caught the tourist train around the Plaka district, looking at the shops, buildings and view. Incredibly, it was only 7 euros for both my son and I: in England a similar journey would be far more expensive. Greece is a great country for tourists - it's got so much to offer for really very little money, particularly in comparison to Italy which can be eye-wateringly expensive.
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