Kat & Mat's big bike trip
Day 84 Athens
Today was the earliest we've got up on the entire trip! We booked on the 8am Acropolis and museum tour, which meant meeting at 7:40 and getting up at 6:45 - that's early for us!
It was well worth it though. Our guide walked us up to and around the Acropolis, past the Theatre of Dionysus which held up to 70,000 spectators, the Odeon of Herodes Atticus (a music concert venue still used to this day), the Propylaea ceremonial gateway and the three Athena temples: the Temple of Athena Nike (baby temple), Temple of Athena Polias and of course the Parthenon. Angel was an excellent guide, taking good care of the group by stopping in the shade and warning us about the slippery marble paths, and explaining everything in an interesting, animated way.
The second part of the tour was the new Acropolis museum which opened in 2009 and really made the visit. It contains many day-to-day artefacts from the settlement around the Acropolis and statues and carvings from the temples, some of which have been preserved and restored. The original marble would have been pure white and sculptures and carvings were painted in many colours.
The top floor of the museum contains the interior and exterior friezes and pediment carvings (the triangular spaces near the roof at each end), spaced and arranged exactly as they are in the actual temple. The carvings are a mixture of originals and replicas, made either to replace the ones pinched by Lord Elgin or destroyed by the 1687 explosion which happened during a war between Venice and the Ottoman Empire.
It turns out Lord Elgin took not only the inner frieze but also one of the six maidens from the Temple of Athena Polias and the carving of Dionysis from one of the pediments (and probably lots of other things too).
We were very glad to complete the 3-hour tour before the heat of the day, and staggered back to our apartment for lunch and a rest.
In the evening we met up with Line, our cycle buddy that we met in Italy back in May, and her girlfriend.
Love, Kat & Mat x
On the day
🍕 1 banana
💧 2 espressos
👀 3 athena temples
👀 2 yellow cars
🐾 2 insect bites
🎲 2 cycling buddies
👀 1 unesco world heritage site
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