Here’s the MUST SEE’s in Athens:
Elanora
No, not a must see, but our guide for the day in Athens. She knew what we wanted to see and suggested we go directly to the Acropolis before the hoards of tourists!
The Acropolis
It’s on a big flat-topped rock floating 500 feet above Athens. You can’t miss it!
The Parthenon (438 B.C.)
We used to go the The Parthenon on Halsted Street in Chicago all the time. It was the first place I yelled “Opaa!” at a dish of flaming goat cheese.
The Porch of the Caryatids (407 B.C.)
Or Porch of the Maidens; It appears to be screened in at the moment; It’s just the porch section to one of the buildings called the Erechtheum.
The Temple of Haphaestus (415 B.C.)
It can be seen from the Acropolis and is the best preserved of all the ancient Greek temples. See?; it still has a roof!
The Dionysos Theater (535 B.C.)
This is where Thespis of Icara climbed on stage and took on the role of a character in a story: He was first actor in recorded history and a real ham! It’s how we have the word Thespian today.
And that’s the Acropolis! Now it’s time to climb down as millions of tourists are climbing up to see the same structures. Elanora says it’s time to go the National Museum of Archeology:
A mask from Mycenae (16th century B.C.)
Made out of pure gold, this artifact has been called the Mask of Agamemnon. Our guide Elanora was very well informed about ancient Greek history, as if she was a history professor; Well guess what? She was!!
The Artemision Jockey (140 B.C.)
Jockey Detail
Poseidon
Or it could be Zeus; The weapon is missing. Trident = Poseidon, Lightning Bolt = Zeus. Somehow, I would think that it would be a hell of a lot harder to make a lightning bolt out of bronze so my guess is that it is Poseidon.
Kouri & Kouros (550 B.C.)
… or Lorena and John Bobbitt if you look close enough (sorry)
[…] that dates back to, what, maybe 1968 at the Parthenon restaurant in Chicago. Not the same as this Parthenon: they didn’t have flaming cheese there. Lucky for us we have a little place in Fort Collins […]