Athens Day 2

September 19:  Our second full day in Athens began for me with coffee and treats at a bakery with Varis; Betsy went with Jan and Ron for more substantial fare at a different bakery (a 'mega bakery').  We convened and walked to the Acropolis parking area in order to board a bus that would take us to Piraeus, the port city that serves Athens.  On our way, we stopped for a look at the historical Keramikos Cemetery, an ancient city burial ground, which is fenced off and undergoing active excavation.  Comment - it must be hard to build new buildings here because there are ancient foundations underlying the entire city.  The new Acropolis Museum solved this by building on concrete pillars and installing see-through floors that look down to Roman-era city ruins.

Once at the Acropolis, we waited for the bus and then enjoyed a slow ride out to Piraeus, passing a number of Olympic venues (stadiums).  I finally looked up when the Olympics were last held here - 2004.  Our plan was to visit the Maritime Museum in Piraeus when someone asked if it was open, given that it was Monday.  Oops, we didn't know.  I looked it up using my phone and sure enough it is closed on Mondays.

Karen, Betsy and I rode the bus back to Athens, passing by the big ferry port and a couple of smaller marinas and bays full of yachts.  Jan, Ron and Varis transferred to another bus for a ride along the coast, east of Piraeus.  Piraeus is the 3rd largest city in Greece and is densely packed with 3 and 4 story buildings.

We, returnees got off at the Acropolis Museum stop and wandered through the Plaka area of small shops and quintessential Greek eateries (sidewalk tables under umbrellas or large trees/vines).  We stopped in at an art shop owned and/or operated by a Greek cultural organization that only sold products made in Greece.   They carried art created by students of a local school and by professionals.  There were a variety of interesting items.  Betsy bought a Greek pitcher (Myceian era-style) and I picked out an original watercolor of two columns (reminiscent of the Temple of Zeus, but also will serve as a reminder of our Italian bike riding trip in June).

We continued our walk toward another bus stop, stopping for refreshing fruit smoothies at a cafe across from Sindagma Square (which I referred to as "Freedom Square" in an earlier post).  We then caught the bus for a short ride north to the Archaeological Museum.  We spent a good 2+ hours wandering around their massive collection of historical Greek artifacts from various excavations, both on land and from the sea.  There were lots of marble statues, pot shards (including some interesting pottery pieces described as frying pans),  bronze weapons, sculptures, and tools, gold ornaments, and the like.  The collections were organized in chronological order starting at Paleolithiic  to Neolithic to Mezolithic to Myceian to Greek to Roman eras (I probably forgot a few eras), ranging from 30,000 B.C. - 400 A.D.  I took a few pictures of items along with their explanatory notes, which when I do a photo book, I will arrange together.  

To rest our feet before heading to the hotel, we had an ice cream break in the basement cafe.  It was set along a court yard and garden containing a few whimsical modern sculptures that evoked earlier art.

We walked back the hotel and met up with the rest of the group to walk to dinner in the Plaka area.  It was Karen's last night in Athens so she picked the restaurant - we went back to the restaurant we had lunch in the day before.  This time, we ate on the rooftop terrace under the edge of  the Acropolis and a small piece of the Temple of Athena, which was nicely lit.  We watched the sun go down and the nearly full moon rise, and enjoyed the views over the city.  We all ate "lamb in clay pot" (oven baked lamb shanks with potatoes and other vegetables).  The setting and the meal were about perfect.    We walked downhill and back to the hotel past the Roman Agora.