Due to bad weather, our first foretaste of winter, it took two nights and three days to get from Crete to Athens by ferry. We counted on this slower approach (and our three weeks of Greek experience) to enable us to appreciate Athens more.
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Due to bad weather, our first foretaste of winter, it took two nights and three days to get from Crete to Athens by ferry. We counted on this slower approach (and our three weeks of Greek experience) to enable us to appreciate Athens more.
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 leaving Iraklio harbor |
We boarded our ferry, The Festos Palace, at the appointed time and date, and were promptly informed by the staff that the ship wouldn't be sailing any time soon. Well, we had a nice room and planned to slow down for a bit, so we made the best of these strange travel instructions. For the whole next night, day, and night our ship lay at anchor.  |
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About the time we'd screwed up courage to gather our luggage and abandon the ship, the lines were cast off, and our ferry began its eight-hour trip through dramatic but calm seas to the port of Piraeus, Athens' seaside neighbor. The ship full of travellers, some of whom had already missed flights and suffered other disappointments, heaved a collective sigh of relief at having any decisions taken out of our hands.
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 Greek islands -- that's Santorini on the right |
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We arrived at Piraeus in a nasty squall which sent everyone scurrying. We anticipated trouble finding a cab, given our earlier Athens experience, but were promptly scooped up by a fellow in a shiny new cab who turned out to be The King of the Cabbies -- or, in any case, the shop steward for their powerful union. Cabbies are often good for insight into a town, assuming they share a language, and this cabby was talkative, amusing, wry, and delightful. Before dropping us sensibly across the street from our hotel (thereby avoiding a difficult maneuver that would have cost us dearly) he told us about the upcoming cabby strike, and laughed with us about "Sunday drivers" in Greece -- especially the Germans, who never get the idea of yielding the center of the road to oncoming traffic.
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 Theater of Dionysis below the Acropolis |
We enjoyed a rainy afternoon in downtown Athens, a bustling, dirty, vertical modern city ...but the hot chocolates and street-vendor chestnuts (castanias) were delicious and the new metro state-of-the-art. The next morning, with the storm departing, we had a very few hours to explore the Acropolis before catching our bus to Patras and the ferry to Italy. |
We had chosen a hotel at the foot of the Acropolis, and on our way to the entry, passed an impressive theater on the southern slope of the hill. Athens is desperately trying to get itself dressed up for the coming Olympics (in 2004); restoring this theater, one of two along this slope, along with the subway and the requisite "venues," is part of the package.
"Will Athens be ready?" we asked our taxi-man. "As ready as we ever are for anything..." he replied laconically.
In the background (at right) you can see Greek's "modern" stacked crackerbox architecture ...too bad they forgot how to build! |
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 Artist's idea of the theater |
Few cultures have been studied as intensively as the "Classic Greek" period that is responsible for most of the building on and around the Acropolis. Nowhere is the curse of antiquity more evident ...but for most of the time since the building started, the curse has been tempered by a staunch refusal to house people on the hill. |
The formal entry to the Acropolis is designed to impress and make us feel small, and it still works 2500 years after it was built. The elements are so raw -- huge stones, commanding heights -- that our minds seem to go wild imagining it complete. Would it be better restored to its original, painted gaudy red and inhabited by the huge cult statue of Athena? (see below) Probably not. |
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 Parthenon's east face |
People lived amongst the buildings only during the occupation by the Turks; the roof of the Parthenon was destroyed when the Venetians blew up the Turk's powder magazine stored within. These buildings have been used as churches, mosques, throne rooms, and storehouses by a succession of awed but disrespectful hoardes.
As you can see (at left), the Parthenon, cluttered with scaffolding and cranes, is also on the Olympic to-do list. |
The Acropolis, like all antiquities, served as a high-class stone yard. The plainer stones have found themselves in newer buildings down below, and for centuries western europeans helped themselves to the best of the statues. Most famous thief: Lord Elgin, who pried almost all the bas reliefs off the Parthenon (because they had writing on them), then absconded with a caryatid from the Erechtheion. The Louvre and the British Museum cling to their loot, shame on them, to this day. |
 Erechtheion's Caryatid Porch |
 | Here's how the achaeological artist envisions the southeastern view of the Erechtheion complete with caryatid porch prior to the thievery of Lord Elgin. For more artist's conceptions of what this hilltop looked like at its finest, visit our Acropolis Museum page. |
It's tough to fault the looters in light of the Greeks' inability to protect their inherited wealth. We can see from the remains that these buildings were magnificent, undoubtedly among the most beautiful ever built. The sculptors and stone cutters managed stone like clay. But the ages have not been kind to the stones on the Acropolis, especially not the last polluted century. All of the caryatids are copies; the remaining four had to be taken inside to keep them from fading away in Athens' toxic atmosphere.
The Greeks, goaded by Melina Mercouri, a cultural heroine, have proposed a large new museum to house fragile antiquities, including the marble carvings stolen by Lord Elgin back from the British. In the present enthusiasm for pan-European amity, we hope the Brits give back the spoils. Of course, no one holds out any hope for the French giving back what Napoleon stole. |
 Two caryatids |
 Erechtheion's northwest porch |
Smaller and less awe-inspiring than the Parthenon, the Erechtheion, the last completed work of the legendary sculptor and architect Pericles, is more approachable and admirable, I think. It celebrates the reconciliation of Athens' two tutelary deities, Poseidon and Athena. Historically, this probably means the integration of the conquering Mycenaeans with the pre-Hellenic culture that was here first. But the legend is better: in a contest to see who was the better god, Poseidon poked the hilltop with his spear and created a salt-water spring. In answer, Athena's spearpoint brought forth an olive tree. The Athenians voted Athena the winner. |
Much of the rocky knob of the Acropolis is given to stone yards containing bits of statuary and columns, stones, friezes, and details waiting patiently to be restored to their rightful places. I always thought that columns were solid, but it makes much more sense to make them hollow.
roof detail, photographer's shadow ...oops! |
 column segment
How DO you make a roof out of stone? In rainy England, they used a lot of lead, but here, where timber is scarce, stone is abundant, and workers seemed to be able to carve it like butter, cunningly fitted tiles and capstones were laid over timbers. The roofs failed, of course, because the timbers eventually rotted, but in Athens' dry climate the rafters lasted up to 500 years. |
The reconstruction effort is intense, which in Greece means that lots of guys (and even a few gals) in hard hats stand around, smoke cigarettes, look up at the structure from time to time, and say whatever passes for "Wow" in Greek. Strikingly, the Acropolis is almost completely free of tacky tourist developments, and the guides are only moderately vicious. The restorers have done their best to make up for this oversight by closing most of the hilltop to tourists and covering it with aluminum trailer "offices" and ugly scaffolding.  workers on perpetual break at the Parthenon |
 more stones in the boneyard
Archeology is one of Greece's foremost "growth" industries, and a century from now, when they finish (assuming nothing distracts them) our great great grand children will be thankful for the methodical care being taken with the restorations. It's tempting to be critical of the slow-moving Greeks, but in other places where they have lavished care -- their new Metro, for example -- they have managed to complete a modern effort without doing violence to the past, and that's not an easy challenge. |
Athens is built on hills, and the views down into the city from the highest of these, the Acropolis, reveal the many cultures that coexist uneasily here. Across a six-lane speedway (it's illegal to drive slowly) from our hotel, the remains of a temple and another of Hadrian's walls can easily be seen. Looking down toward reality reminded us that we had a bus to catch ... but we still had the Acropolis Museum, an unassuming building tucked into a hole in the hilltop. Could it be as interesting as these magnificent ruins? |
 Temple of Olympian Zeus |
 fragment of a carved snake |
Down in a pit in the Parthenon's east court, under the view from the city below, the modern conservators of the Acropolis have built a lovely little museum to protect and display some of the more fragile bits. Despite clearing skies, we went in and discovered a small but distinguished collection of wonders taking refuge from the insults of polluted Athens. Click to the next page to see what we found... |
Yeats lauds a Greek sculptor who "handles marble as if it were bronze" but as a California-born stick builder, the way these guys used rock as if it were wood is what unclips my suspenders. Okay, they had great rock and lots of slaves, but still, imagine the lifespan (not to mention the weight!) of a roof made like the one at right? |
 another roof detail |
 Parthenon's southwest corner
When built, the Acropolis was meant to serve as Athens' gathering place and town square. The Parthenon, while dominated by the "cult statue" of Athena, was a town hall, and was used for all sorts of meetings and celebrations. Western European cathedrals are one-trick ponies by comparison.
Rochelle inspecting a crane |
As our time for perambulation on the Acropolis drew toward an end, the sky cleared and the sun warmed the stones. After a couple of hours among the columns and statues, the awe is tempered with a sense of how this place could be built ...but the will to build it remains awesome, as does the awareness that would direct a city to preserve its best hilltop for such a development. Our planners and futurists have a lot to learn from the ancient Athenians.
Parthenon columns
Modern construction methods, using cranes and scaffolding, are much in evidence here, detracting at times from the beauty (and at other times lending a strangely beautiful counterpoint) as the Athenians scramble to get the tourist sites up to snuff in time for 2004. |
It's worth noting that construction cranes (the European National bird?) are used much more commonly in Europe than in the US. Even a small cluster of new two-story houses will likely have their own construction crane. Of course, when one builds with stone and masonry for the ages, one wants all the lifting convenience possible...
It's also worth noting that in the three hours we were there, we only saw a handful of workers actually working -- dragging a big block around with a forklift.
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 scaffolding at the gateway
We were clambering down when the first serious wave of tourists was starting up to the Acropolis. Athens is a hotbed of foreign university programs, and the Greeks are deeply embroiled in newfound pride about their ancient heritage, so most of the climbers were groups of students, some excited and bright eyed, some blasé and indifferent, shepherded by teachers busily interpreting the place in a multitude of tongues. |
It doesn't take much of a memory to summon the time of the Greek colonels, backed (shamefully) by the US "to resist the spread of communism" who had a similar attitude toward Greek's antique wonders. On our way down the hill we did homage to Melina Mercouri, courageous in the face of a dictatorship that stripped her of her citizenship. "I was born Greek and will die Greek," she asserted, while the dictator, she said, "was born a fascist and will die a fascist."
modern caryatids |
The contrasts between the ancient glory, modern urban squalor, and the self-conscious chicness especially of the Athenian women was particularly evident among these young climbers. "Of course, our social status REQUIRES that we be bored by all this..."
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"... We see ancient cultural chains broken, past traditions crumble and wonderful special characteristics wither away. Our common memory is threatened, our soul shrivels, our creativity is stifled, our present becomes rootless. 'He who has nothing old has nothing new', says an Arab proverb. This past must emerge from the museums in order to become a source of inspiration and creativity, to become the instrument and the joy of the people..."
-- Melina Mercouri, Mexico City, July 29,1982
World Conference on Cultural Policies, organised by UNESCO |
With Melina's words ringing in our ears, we wended our way down the hill and through the warren of back streets to our hotel and our bus to Patras. Too little time in Athens -- we missed a great museum -- but also plenty of time in this busy, polluted city that has almost forgotten its capacity for greatness.
We loitered on the quay at Patras amidst the Greek gentlemen drinking their "Nesses" -- Nescafe whipped with cold water -- and watched the sun go down and our ship come in. We were truly on our way home now, the strangeness and excitement of travel winding down to a close: a bittersweet complex of anticipation and memory.
Superfast sunset |
 bus window view of the Corinthian Canal
Our ferry to Italy departed on time just as we sat down to a fashionably late dinner -- our last horiatiki salad. The lights of Patras and the towns along the Gulf of Corinth dwindled behind us; ahead, we looked forward to more short explorations in northern Italy, Provence, Bruges, and then home before the weather turned nasty. |
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