Athens

Well, that's it folks!

We flew into Athens Friday morning for two days before flying back to Calgary. Athens was a great city as a quick layover city. The tourist area around the big sights was mostly pedestrian only streets full of great shopping and tons of restaurants with cozy outdoor patios that we really enjoyed.

We had to wake up at 1:45 am Friday morning in Jerusalem to drive the 45 minutes to the airport for our 6:00am flight. The security at Ben Gurion airport was as insane as the Eliat airport and dare I say worse even. We arrived a little earlier then 3 hours before our flight and while the interrogations and multiple bag searches took me only 2 hours, Sarah got unlucky and she was pulled aside for longer intensive searches that had her literally running for the plane making it 20 minutes before take off. We were pretty exhausted in Athens so we just hit a couple museums the first day: The Acropolis museum and the Benaki museum. We ate an early dinner and I was asleep by 830pm...I slept for 12 hours and woke up feeling pretty good!

Day two we walked to Lykavittos Hill and took the funicular up to the top for some spectacular views of Athens. At 277 metres Lykavittos Hill is the highest peak in Athens and can be seen from pretty much every area of the city. It has great 360 degree views of the city.  After lunch we went to the Acropolis to see the Parthenon.

Lycavittos Hill.



 

The Parthenon as seen from Lycavittos Hill.

 

Church at the peak of Lykavittos hill.

The Parthenon is a temple on the Athenian Acropolis dedicated to the maiden goddess Athena, whom the people of Athens considered their patron. Its construction began in 447 BC when the Athenian
Empire was at the height of its power and it was completed in 438 BC. It is the most important surviving building of Classical Greece. Its decorative sculptures are considered some of the high points of Greek art.

Like most Greek temples, the Parthenon was used as a treasury.  In the 5th century AD, the Parthenon was converted into a Christian church dedicated to the Virgin Mary and after the Ottoman conquest it was turned into a mosque in the early 1460s and had a minaret built in it. On September 26, 1687, an Ottoman ammunition dump inside the building was ignited by Venetian bombardment and the resulting explosion severely damaged the Parthenon and its sculptures.

 

 

 

 

In 1806, Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin removed some of the surviving sculptures, with the Ottoman Turks' permission. These sculptures, now known as the Elgin Marbles or the Parthenon Marbles, were sold in 1816 to the British Museum in London, where they are now displayed and we were able to see them when we were in London six weeks earlier. Since 1983 the Greek government has been unsuccessfully been trying to get the British Museum to return the sculptures.

We strolled along some great little shopping streets on the way back to the hotel were we picked up a few last minute trinkets and somehow managed to pack up all our treasures into our ever expanding luggage before dinner. Again we had an early 3:00am bus ride the next morning to the airport were we made our way home via Frankfort. We finally got back into Calgary at 4pm Saturday night.

As much as I love traveling it is always so nice to be home again. I managed to stay awake until 9pm and had a great sleep in my own bed last night. I have 2 days off until I return to work so I will attempt to get my leaves raked and the yard cleaned up for winter today.

Thanks for reading about our amazing adventures in Turkey, Jordan and Israel!

Until next time!