Last days, Athens

The experience of standing on top of the Acropolis was one of the peaks of this travel for me, because of my interest in classical art and history.  I'm no scholar, but have always been fascinated by the romance of the mythology, the amazing skills of the artists through their carvings and spectacular figurative works, and the drama of the times that is so compelling.   I guess I'm not alone because there are so many of us making the trek to these places.  This is the Athens Archaeological Museum.

It houses a magnificent collection of antiquities from the earliest civilisations from all over the Mediterranean region....around 5000 years ago to say....a few hundred years into the AD's...the more modern stuff.  I snapped away again, having a wonderful time photographing the things that took my fancy..and  there was so much that did.  I can only give you a selection of the ones that blew my hat off.  Of course I'd seen them before in books, but the real things are astounding.

This goes on and on at this museum.  I have had to really hold back from adding dozens more but it's around 2 a.m and I'm sitting on a stair well in another hotel to be able to get enough signal strength in the WIFI here to be able to use the computer.  I will try again in the morning.

________________________________________________________________

I will finish this post of Athens with a couple of images of the hilltop church and restaurant in the middle of Athens.  We wondered about it when we were on the top of the Acropolis, and decided to walk up it to see what was there.  The walk wasn't so bad, but we did get on a lift that took us up the last hundred metres or so of very steep escarpment.  But worth the effort as the vista from there was so good.    We had some cold coffee at this restaurant which is very popular in Athens.  Then we walked home. ...through some tough neighbourhoods but got home safely.  Athens has a mixed population of people ...the new immigrants are from North Africa, Eastern Europe and  Pakistan.   The locals don't like  the new conditions but that's the same everywhere now.

And this was taken by Dirk while I was doing the tourist admiring the view thing.  

The next day, we packed our bags and left around 4 pm to catch a late ferry to Ikaria, our next stop.

That's where I am typing this from and the next blog will take you there.

Love to all at home and KEEP IN TOUCH pleeeaaassseee!!