Athens - Acropolis

February 25

We forgot to mention.  Last night when we were walking back to the hotel after dinner, there was a small demonstration in Syntagma Square.  They were there in support of Ukraine on the 4th anniversary of the war.  They focused on the 20,000 children that have been stolen by the Russians.  How sad.

Today we were with our tour director and guide again.  Finally - Acropolis Day!!!  16C.

To clear up any confusion:  The Acropolis (5th century BC) is the entire fortified hill (natural limestone) and it includes several ancient buildings.  The Parthenon is the most famous and prominent temple on the Acropolis.  It is dedicated to Athena.  We took lots of pictures here.  Just a few months ago the scaffolding was removed along the long side.

Some of the other buildings on the Acropolis include:

imagecredit https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/ancient-art-civilizations/greek-art/classical/a/temple-of-athena-nike

This is the paved marble walk up the Acropolis:

On the way up, we came across a gigantic rock that is called Mars Hill (formerly called the Areopagus).  This is the place where the apostle Paul was invited to preach when he was in Athens.  At the time, the Areopagus served as a meeting place for the highest council of Athens.  

The Temple of Athena Nike was completed in 420 BC during the Peloponnesian War.  The temple holds a strategic position on a steep bastion.  It symbolized the city's divine protection and power.  Nike means "victory", and inside the temple there was a wooden statue of a wingless Athena.  She was wingless so that victory would not leave the city.  The statue was last recorded in 1676.  But alas, victory did leave the city and the statue was lost when the Ottomans demolished the temple in 1687 in order to build defenses.  The temple was reconstructed again in the 1830s after Greek independence. 

The Propylaea is the main entrance to the Acropolis.  It was commissioned by Pericles and built between 437 and 432 AD.  It was a symbolic partition between secular and religious ground, and it also contained the world's first public art gallery.

The Erechtheion, built between 421-406 BC, is the second largest temple.  It is uniquely asymmetrical with a 4 pillared porch with 6 Ionic columns on the north side, and the Porch of the Caraytis on the south side.  The Porch of the Caraytis has statues of six graceful maidens.  Only the priests were allowed onto the porch with the maidens.  The ones here are reproductions.  

The Erechtheion is dedicated to both Athena and Poseidon, and it is here that we find Athena's olive tree.  

There are other sites to see on the Acropolis:

The Odeon of Herodes Atticus (called the Herodion), was built in 161 AD by the wealthy Roman senator Herodes Atticus in memory of his wife.  It was built of marble and had a cedar of Lebanon roof.  It could hold 5000 spectators.  It was destroyed by fire in 267 AD but restored in the 1950s.  It is just finishing a 3 year restoration. We had done some research and knew that singers such as Frank Sinatra, Elton John, and Pavarotti have sung here.  But the guides said no, no, it is much too small for someone like Elton John.  An hour later they came to us all amazed and said that yes, they found out that Elton John did indeed sing here.  

The larger Theatre of Dionysus Eleuthereus was built from the 6th century BC, seated 17,000 spectators, and is considered to be the world's first known theatre.

And the most famous of the sites on the Acropolis:  the Parthenon.  It was constructed between 447 and 432 BC under Pericles.  It was primarily dedicated to Athena.  In the 6th century AD, it was converted into a Christian church, then a mosque in 1458 with the rule of the Ottomans.  The Ottomans used it to store gunpowder, and the temple was severely damaged in 1687 from an explosion during the Venetian siege of the Acropolis.  It has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1987.

The original artwork of the temples on the Acropolis has been moved to the Acropolis Museum.  

In the courtyard you can see the ruins of an ancient Athenian neighbourhood (4th century BC to 12th century AD):

The third floor of the museum is dedicated to housing the original sculptures that came from the Parthenon.  These are the original maidens from the Erechtheionin.  When they were first moved to the museum, everyone was all excited to finally see the backside of the maidens!  To support the structure above the heads of the maidens, the sculptor made the necks extra thick and hid it with thick hair.  Each maiden has a different hairstyle.

After the tour, we were transferred to our ship, the Viking Star.  The ship can accommodate 930 passengers and has a crew of 465.  Each stateroom has a veranda, and there are no casinos and no children under the age of 18.  Wi-fi is included (yay!) and every port of call includes one complimentary excursion.

Check in was extremely easy peasy.  We boarded around noon and it seemed that the people in our tour group were the only ones on board!  Right away we headed for the buffet, had a nice lunch, and started exploring the ship.  We found the shuffleboard and a putting area.

We thought it might be a good idea to get a load of laundry done (FREE on board!), and walked to 4 different decks to the launderettes but not a single machine was free.  I guess others had the same idea!  We finally went back a bit later and nabbed a machine and went to do some unpacking in our teeny tiny stateroom.

There is a Celebrity ship that we can see that has been stuck in port here for 10 days.  They lost power due to a technical failure (no more lights, air conditioning, or toilets), had to be towed into port, and the cruise which had just started, was cancelled.

Dinner with Pierre and Robin, and then we made it an early night.  Zonked!