Europe Spring 2025

Today, we started the day with the scrumptious breakfast at our hotel - a typical scrambled eggs with tomatoes dish, and massive pancakes 🙈 ! We then did a VoiceMap tour of downtown which covered layers of Greek history. We saw Greek parlament where change of the guards takes place ( we didn’t get to see it), then a conference hall where they celebrate important events and receive other heads of state. We learned about play writers of Ancient Greece whose dramas and comedies are still being performed around the world. We saw a huge Olympic stadium - it was first an Ancient Greek stadium, like the one on Olympia. It was in ruins and it was rebuilt in late 19th century to host the first modern Olympic Games. It is also the finish site of the Athens marathon. We also saw some impressive ruins of columns which were the remnants of a massive temple and saw the Herod’s Gate - Herod was a Roman emperor but he was a huge Helenopille - a big fan of Greek arts, literature and Gods. He played a big role in preserving many temples and art pieces. After the tour, we went to the Acropolis museum, which houses various sculptures and archeological objects found in the Acropolis. It’s a very modern museum, well laid out and with a great audio guide. It really brought to life for us the various layers of history of Acropolis and Greek arts and mythology. The museum is built over the excavated ancient village. And inside are well preserved or partially restored sculptures. Interestingly, the Parthenon and other temples were covered in stunning statues, but were knocked off by the Persians. The citizens of Athens then buried those sculptures in mud pits, and they were thus magically preserved. On the other hand, a couple of sculptures that were left intact outside, didn’t fair as well, eroded by the elements. Overall, it was a fascinating museum. Afterwards, I walked a bit with a portion of Rick Steves tour, learning about Greek Orthodox Church. I visited its main cathedral which is the seat of all of Greek Orthodox Church, like a Greek Vatican. There was also a monument to the Greek head Patriarch who was active during the Holocaust defending Jews and risking his own life. Afterwards, I went to the same restaurant again, but this time ordered a Greek salad and incredible chicken breast in fruit sauce.Les mer