Athens, Greece

Athens is BIG--about 4 million people. From the harbor, I think you can see every one of them. The apartment/condo buildings go on and on forever. The harbor is kind of like in the center of a valley and so all of the buildings go from the water’s edge up to the foothills of the mountains. It kind of put them all on display for you.

We had an afternoon tour scheduled to take us up to the Acropolis. As it was explained to us, every town has an Acropolis—it means the top of the city. Of course, in Athens, they built the Parthenon on top of the city—the main reason for coming here.

I must say, at first sight, it was breathtaking! WOW, there is was. We have all seen pictures of it. We have all studied about it. But there it is! WOW.

As you have probably seen, the Parthenon is on top of a hill. The bus dropped us off at the base of the hill. And our tour guide took us on a long walk up to the top. The pathway was made out of marble—about a wide as a two lane road. The path spiraled its way up the hill (through hoards of vendors selling water, tour books, and trinkets).

There are actually a number of structures on the hill—the Parthenon, two smaller temples, and two amphitheaters. They were all spectacular. They were all made out of marble. There was a lot of scaffolding set up at all of the sites, with lots of restoration work going on. There were several cranes around to lift the pieces. You could see where craftsmen created “new” marble to fill in a spot where there was a missing piece. They must also use a “liquid” marble that they can pour into a mold because there would be fragments of old marble incorporated into new marble.

There were literally thousands of parts scattered around the grounds. It reminded me a lot of someone doing a jigsaw puzzle. They started with the edges, and turned all of the remaining pieces over so they can see the picture, and then they group similar pieces together, or maybe even assemble a few without putting them into the main puzzle. That’s just how it looked!

The rest of our tour consisted of a city tour—which was all very underwhelming after exploring the Parthenon!

Another interesting observation in Greece is their dogs. Where ever you go, there are dogs lying around asleep. Inside malls, inside cruise ship terminals, on the steps of the Parthenon, in restaurants, everywhere! I don’t know if they are wild dogs, or homeless dogs, or dogs just “waiting” for their owners, or what—but they are everywhere! They are usually asleep, or scratching, or moving from shade to sun or sun to shade. They are always very docile—I have never seen one growl or show any aggression—they just seen to going about their business oblivious to anyone passing by!

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