On Saturday I get out of the hotel around 10:30. Head straight for the Acropolis entrance. The combination ticket costs 12 Euro, entrance to several sites is included. Quite impressive, these remains! The weather is great: blue sky, a bit chilly, but pleasant enough.
Not many tourists, although at the entrance to the Propylaia seems to be a crowd. I took two series of pictures, for the photosynths below (works only with MS Internet Explorer):
Entrance to the Acropolis: the Propylaia.
Theatre of Herodes Atticus, Athens.
I spend some time on top of the Acropolis, look at the remains of the temples. A lot of reconstruction is going on there. Then walking down, to the hill of the Areopag and to the Agora. I am very thursty and abandon for a while the antique ruins, in exchange for the shopping streets around the area. There are actually many nice things to buy, I consider to get a replacement for my laptop bag (another one for my collection of squarish laptop bags), but then decide not to waste time with shopping. Accidentally I come to the flee market: great stuff that is offered there! Many chairs, old clocks, books. For some reason there are a lot of brass instruments for sale: trumpets, horns, and some strangely shaped ones. After having filled up on liquids I visit Hadrian's library and the Roman Forum. There is a part of wall, with a piece of lead cemented in. Original from Roman times? Or just put in there for protection recently?
Around 14:30 the smell of fried calamares makes me hungry, and I stop for a break. Sit outside with a view of these ruins and the Acropolis. The sun is now behind clouds, it starts to feel slightly cool again. As I move on again, the sites are then closed. So I will not go to the Olympian Zeus temple, just take a picture through the fence. I will still have a short time on Sunday morning.
After I return from my walk through the city, I am very tired. Fall asleep. Then when I wake up again around midnight, I post much of the 480 pictures I have taken today to Flickr.
Showing posts with label Athens. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Athens. Show all posts
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Friday, February 20, 2009
Evening
At the hotel I decide to have a brief rest. But I fall asleep, and wake up at 21:30. Damn, missed the dinner! Quickly rush out, should be a 15 minutes walk. Since I have a day ticket for the public transport, I jump into a bus that comes by and appears to go in the right direction. But at the next street it makes a turn and drives down several 100 meters. When I get off at the next stop, I have to walk all that distance back again...
Dinner is nice - I have Souvlaki. Afterwards, one of the local guys offers to drive us up to the Lykavittos Hill with a gorgeous view over the nightly Athens. First I think that they have switched off the nightly illumination of the Acropolis, but then I see that we are so high above it, it melts together with the other lights.
Dinner is nice - I have Souvlaki. Afterwards, one of the local guys offers to drive us up to the Lykavittos Hill with a gorgeous view over the nightly Athens. First I think that they have switched off the nightly illumination of the Acropolis, but then I see that we are so high above it, it melts together with the other lights.
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Walking along Antiquity
After dropping my stuff in the hotel room, I rush out to use the remaining day light for a brief exploration of the city. First I grab a Gyros Pita at one of the food outlets - costs just 1.90 Euro. The hotel is within walking distance of all relevant sites. I head towards south, through non-descriptive narrow streets with shops. Then arrive at the site of Agora, the old centre in antiquity. A metro line has been built straight through the ruins...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/reinholdbehringer/3298351011/in/set-72157614077249007
All archaeological sites appear to be closed after 15:00. I follow the signs to Akropolis, but decide that I will go there on Saturday. Back through the old town centre of Athens, the Plaka.
A short rest in the hotel, then again going out later in the dark. Take a few pictures of the illuminated Parthenon, but is too far away. Have a pizza in the hotel restaurant, but it is a bit strange: too hard dough. This is not a pizza. Similar to the "pizza" in Barcelona. I guess that only Italians can make good pizza! (And of course New Yorkers, and Chicago too).
Go to bed not too late, as I will have to get up early on Friday. The time difference to UK is 2 hours.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/reinholdbehringer/3298351011/in/set-72157614077249007All archaeological sites appear to be closed after 15:00. I follow the signs to Akropolis, but decide that I will go there on Saturday. Back through the old town centre of Athens, the Plaka.
A short rest in the hotel, then again going out later in the dark. Take a few pictures of the illuminated Parthenon, but is too far away. Have a pizza in the hotel restaurant, but it is a bit strange: too hard dough. This is not a pizza. Similar to the "pizza" in Barcelona. I guess that only Italians can make good pizza! (And of course New Yorkers, and Chicago too).
Go to bed not too late, as I will have to get up early on Friday. The time difference to UK is 2 hours.
Travelling to Athens
The taxi is waiting on time - 4am. At Leeds Bradford I have breakfast. Slightly pathetic ambience. The flight to AMS leave on time, I arrive 25 minutes earlier than scheduled in Schiphol. Not much time for browsing around, have to go to Gate C9, to the Schengen area. Sitting in the next plane, I see my suitcase as it moves into the plane on the conveyor belt.
Flying over Germany - it is snowy down there. I sleep a bit. When I wake up I see the Alps: Inntal, Oberaudorf, Scheffau, Wilder Kaiser. I identify Kitzbuehel, then the Grossglockner. A warm roll is served, together with a box of small things, among them a salad. I wanted to read more, but fall again asleep. Snow also above the Macedonian mountains. Then preparing for landing.
Islands, costs, towns, olive trees. Some archaeological digs. Landing at the Athens airport. Quite modern, just opened a few years ago. My suitcase comes almost last. The directions towards the train station are unclear: the Greek wording for "to Metro" is crossed out, but the English version "To Trains" still stands, so I follow the signs. A bright sun hits the eye, blue sky. But not warm.
Indeed, the Metro is not going since a few days, due to construction work, but the "Suburban Train" is. I had not read about that suburban train anywhere on the web, but on my map printout I see it as the dashed line.
The first sight outside of the airport: the big blue/yellow IKEA. As always, this is comforting and worrying at the same time: comforting, because in case I would ever move to here, I could get inexpensive decent furniture. Discomforting, because this globalisation removes the individual experience of regions in the world. The IKEA store was also one of the first things I had seen in Beijing in summer 2007. There were three IKEAs in Los Angeles. There is one in Leeds. One in Munich. They are everywhere. Ok, the world is growing together, and some common standards are getting accepted. But it is also a bit sad, to see these blue box buildings in every corner of the world. I had not seen one in India...
The suburban train goes quite fast: my GPS shows 176 km/h. Get off at the station Nepatziotissa, then change to the metro green line. Quite a long distance into town still. One more change of trains, to the red line, then I walk out of the subway station exit. As I am trying to locate my hotel, I realise that I forgot to print the map. I vaguely remember that it is two blocks north of the station, so I begin to walk in the direction. It is sunny, so I do not mind. Soon I realise that I am in the wrong street - need to be one parallel. Finally arrive at the hotel "Titania".
Flying over Germany - it is snowy down there. I sleep a bit. When I wake up I see the Alps: Inntal, Oberaudorf, Scheffau, Wilder Kaiser. I identify Kitzbuehel, then the Grossglockner. A warm roll is served, together with a box of small things, among them a salad. I wanted to read more, but fall again asleep. Snow also above the Macedonian mountains. Then preparing for landing.
Islands, costs, towns, olive trees. Some archaeological digs. Landing at the Athens airport. Quite modern, just opened a few years ago. My suitcase comes almost last. The directions towards the train station are unclear: the Greek wording for "to Metro" is crossed out, but the English version "To Trains" still stands, so I follow the signs. A bright sun hits the eye, blue sky. But not warm.
Indeed, the Metro is not going since a few days, due to construction work, but the "Suburban Train" is. I had not read about that suburban train anywhere on the web, but on my map printout I see it as the dashed line.
The first sight outside of the airport: the big blue/yellow IKEA. As always, this is comforting and worrying at the same time: comforting, because in case I would ever move to here, I could get inexpensive decent furniture. Discomforting, because this globalisation removes the individual experience of regions in the world. The IKEA store was also one of the first things I had seen in Beijing in summer 2007. There were three IKEAs in Los Angeles. There is one in Leeds. One in Munich. They are everywhere. Ok, the world is growing together, and some common standards are getting accepted. But it is also a bit sad, to see these blue box buildings in every corner of the world. I had not seen one in India...
The suburban train goes quite fast: my GPS shows 176 km/h. Get off at the station Nepatziotissa, then change to the metro green line. Quite a long distance into town still. One more change of trains, to the red line, then I walk out of the subway station exit. As I am trying to locate my hotel, I realise that I forgot to print the map. I vaguely remember that it is two blocks north of the station, so I begin to walk in the direction. It is sunny, so I do not mind. Soon I realise that I am in the wrong street - need to be one parallel. Finally arrive at the hotel "Titania".
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