A magical Mediterranean vacation COMPLETED About This Page:

[chezp]

Originally Posted by jenseib

I can just imagine how hot it is after being in Florida last weekend with heat indexes reaching 107. It was horribly hot and draining!
But it looks like it was so worth it with the shots you got. It looks so beautiful there with so much history. Just amazing the things they built so many years ago. You really wonder how they did it.

That's exactly how I feel when I see anything like this... it's just mind blowing.

[chezp]

Originally Posted by Cam22

All your pictures from the Acropolis are wonderful. I especially like the views of the city from up there.

There are some more of those still to come...

[chezp]

Originally Posted by Linnynad

Your photos are simply amazing...........I can see in your faces how hot you both were, but you do have some great ones. I can tell you we were there in May and it was seriously just as hot!! I can remember Arnaud and I sitting and taking a break and just saying over and over again, that yrs ago men were working in that heat carrying all that marble and stone to build these buildings...........crazy isn't it?? I also remember lots of scaffolding too, I guess that is never ending because our trip was 10 yrs ago.

Wow, I hadn't even thought of that, that's a really good point.

Sad to hear the lame review on Alvin. We had him for both dinner and brunch and he was great for both seatings.......his antics sounded a bit obnoxious. Sorry to hear that.

I felt really bad after I'd posted the brunch section and everyone was saying how good he was, because I knew what was to come...

[chezp]

Tuesday 8 July – part six: this place is amazing!

We headed out of the Acropolis, and took our time, which was so nice to be able to do. We weren’t part of a tour group, so we could linger as long as we liked, and stop and take a break whenever we wanted.

I figured I’d take a restroom break, but it was like waiting for a popular Disney ride – the line doesn’t look too bad when you join it (there were four or five women outside of the restroom), but then suddenly you realise it snakes round and round, and you had no idea! I quickly gave up on that, hoping that there’d be restrooms at the museum we were heading to next…

We carried on making our way down, and I kept looking back up to where we’d been, and wondering how on earth we’d managed to do that.



We made it down to the New Acropolis Museum. Now I had heard this was good from various different people, so I was expecting a lot. Let’s just say I was not disappointed.

I was blown away by the entrance…



…this is what you see beneath your feet here…



Apparently they found this during construction, and are now excavating it, and it will open to the public in due course.

We joined the line to clear security, and it was only about a five minute wait before we were inside. Now I knew from my guidebook that this museum doesn’t allow photos, which I was fine with, and I also saw there was a sign for no backpacks. Ok, fair enough. I got the admission tickets (€5 ($7)), while Mark put the backpacks in the cloakroom. Now as I was adhering to the rules, I put my camera in the backpack. In fairness, I was glad not to be carrying anything for a while, and figured my back could do with the break. In hindsight, it was a real shame I did that, as quite a few people were taking photos, and I could’ve done with it later, but I’m getting ahead of myself…

You follow a specific route around the museum. There’s nothing really on the ground level, save for the usual facilities you get at every museum – i.e. a café, a shop, a cloakroom, ticket booth etc. The main entrance takes you into a corridor that is hugely light and airy. I managed to sneak a photo of it after I got the camera back, which gives you a bit of an idea…

This is packed with displays on either side of the corridor, with everything in both Greek and English. Each artefact is carefully labelled, and you can immediately work out what you’re seeing, which is good. You really don’t need a guide here, as everything is so well laid out.

You then head up the steps at the end of the corridor and you’re on to level one. Honestly when you first get there, you just can’t take it all in. It has wonderful high ceilings, letting in lots of light. The displays were spaced well apart from each other, so that you never once felt crowded, even though there were of course a number of tour groups in there. Here is where being on your own came into its own (excuse the pun! ) as we were just able to stop wherever we wanted, and take our time. We weren’t just rushed from one highlight to another, we could admire everything, and back track if we wanted to.

There were some wonderful displays, explaining how in ancient Greek times they would’ve created the brilliant colours that once decorated these statues by using wax, and there were some examples of the colours on the occasional statue. Just like Pompeii, it really brought it home to you how amazing the Acropolis would’ve once been, had all these stunning colours survived.

On the second level is the restaurant, and a shop, and again that’s about it. We decided to get lunch here, as it looked like a lovely place. It was table service, which I thought was quite unusual for a museum. We took our seats and admired the menu. We both decided to get an appetiser, and a dessert, and I’m glad we did, when we saw some of the entrée dishes being taken out to people, as they were huge!

Of course, without the benefit of a camera to aid my memory, I can’t give you details of what we had. I know I went for what I thought was billed on the menu as a selection of Greek appetisers, but when it turned up, it was actually two dips, with a selection of bread and a selection of savoury biscuits to dunk in it. I’m pretty sure one of the dips was hummus, which I’m no fan of, but I really enjoyed both of these, as they had nice subtle flavours to them.

Mark went for the baked feta in filo pastry with a light tomato sauce, and this was absolutely divine. The flavours complemented each other perfectly, and I could tell a lot of similarities in terms of flavours with the tomato sauce my grandmother used to cook, who’s French. It was just so light and tasty.

As you can probably tell from this description, we shared both of these dishes. We only sampled a mouthful of the other’s dessert though. I went for the chocolate cake with ice cream, and this was beautiful. It was a fairly rich chocolate cake, but I just started to get full just as I was finishing off, always the sign of a good dish I think.

Mark had a lemon and lime pie in filo pastry, and while he enjoyed it, for me one mouthful was enough. It just wasn’t to my taste at all.

While we were having lunch, we found those naval officers from earlier, as they were all sitting outside eating. I have no idea what they were doing here, but at least we found out where they went…

I have to say a word here about the setting. Because of the baking heat, we chose to eat inside, but you could also dine outside on the terrace, and it’s literally right underneath the Acropolis, so you can imagine the wonderful view you get, although in fairness of course you also get that view from inside as well. Even though I didn’t have my camera with me, the view is etched in my memory, as it was just stunning.

On the third level, it’s pretty much given over to the frieze that would’ve run all around the Parthenon, and when you looked outside, you could see that the area in here pretty much resembled the size of the actual building outside. I was just fascinated by all the intricate detail on here, and how much of it they recovered. Even the bits they couldn’t find, they still know what was here, thanks to detailed drawings done by those who first found it.

The frieze depicts the Panathenaic procession, including chariots and slaves on chariot horses. Rather disturbingly, there seemed to be a lot of sacrifices of cows, which unsurprisingly, I wasn’t so keen on. At first you can’t quite take in how many panels there are of this, as it literally snakes around all four sides of the building, but then I looked up at the real thing above us, and realised what they’d done here. It is actually the size of the Parthenon, so this is what you would’ve seen all those years ago. It’s beautifully done.

Sadly, there are elements missing, and a number of these are apparently housed in the British Museum in London, so I think we’ll have to make a return trip there to see those at some point, as they’d obviously mean a lot more to us now.

Then you make your way back down to see the rest of level one, which concentrates on the sculptures from the Temple of Athena Nike and the architectural features from the Propylaia, and the Erechtheion.

It was an absolute joy to wander around in here in full proper air conditioning, escaping from the sweltering heat outside, and to enjoy a museum that has only recently opened (2009 one of the staff told us) and has been brilliantly done, telling the story of the Acropolis in a brilliant way. This museum is truly a real asset to Athens, and anyone who comes here and misses it really is missing out on one of the city’s major tourist attractions. I honestly can’t recommend it highly enough.

Next: we’ve said once already!

[Colexis Mom]

Such stunning shots from the Acropolis! How amazing it must have been to see, although I feel for you and Mark as you do look like you are melting in the pictures! The museum sounds great, and how nice to get out of the heat.

[lauriep]

That museum is spectacular!

[disney_duke]

Nice to have some time indoors with history. And A/C.
I know what you mean about the benefit of a camera to aid your memory. We toured the exhibits inside the US Capitol building in DC, but I can't remember much of what I saw in there! Poof - gone from memory without photos to remind me.

[xwewhisper]

Glad the museum lived up to your expectations, sounds like a great place to visit to really round out what you've seen!

[shazza]

The museum looks and sounds wonderful!

[pamcarey]

The museum sounds wonderful! I bet the air conditioning was appreciated as well!

[chezp]

Originally Posted by Colexis Mom

Such stunning shots from the Acropolis! How amazing it must have been to see, although I feel for you and Mark as you do look like you are melting in the pictures! The museum sounds great, and how nice to get out of the heat.

In a way, I'm glad it came over in the photos how hot it was - I didn't want you guys to think we were just complaining for the sake of it!

[chezp]

Originally Posted by lauriep

That museum is spectacular!

I just wish I could've shared photos from inside it - as what was inside was just as spectacular.

[chezp]

Originally Posted by disney_duke

Nice to have some time indoors with history. And A/C.
I know what you mean about the benefit of a camera to aid your memory. We toured the exhibits inside the US Capitol building in DC, but I can't remember much of what I saw in there! Poof - gone from memory without photos to remind me.

Isn't it funny (and maybe a little sad too ) how much we rely on photos to prompt our memories?

[chezp]

Originally Posted by pamcarey

The museum sounds wonderful! I bet the air conditioning was appreciated as well!

It certainly was!

[lauriep]

I have this book:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Acropolis-...ugh+its+museum

It has wonderful photos of the museum, inside and out, and also the site.