Plato's Academy

On our numerous bus rides to and from the centrum, I noticed signs for the archaeological site of Plato's Academy, and, of course, had to follow them to the site, well into some of the working-class neighborhoods, just outside the ancient walls of Athens. There's not much left, but I was there and saw the remains of one of the world's oldest and most famous educational and intellectual institutions.

Athens Museum of Archaeology

As it happened, we visited Athen's Archaeololgical Museum three times: first time, we found it closed by a strike; second time, arriving after lunch, we learned it closes at 3PM; third time was the charm. But it would have been worth four tries or even five.

Museum entrance

Notice of closure on our first visit; when we returned from Mykonos, public 
transit workers were on strike; railway workers went on strike the day we left 
Athens (we got out just in time); and there was a national strike all day

December 15th; all recession/EU bail-out/austerity related

The museum is arranged chronologically but also has special galleries for bronze, 
vases, etc; here we are in the Cyclades gallery (mid-Bronze Age, out in the 
islands), admiring the very distinctive Cycladian figurine work 

And now in the Mycenaean galleries; this is the famous 
Agamemnon death mask Schliemann found; of course 
it could have been any of scores of kings/princes/rulers,

but since Schliemann was looking for the most famous 
Mycenaean, it had to be Agamemnon

Schliemann's famous communication to the king of Greece

The golden cups...



Moving right along, the very famous Zeus/Poseidon (scholars 
are divided) throwing a spear/trident/whatever

The Jockey

Jumping back a little in time, the "boxers" fresco from 
Akrotiri/Santorini, 16th century BCE

There is so much at which to marvel...but the Antikythera Mechanism, another 
find of marine archaeology, is a knock-out; it is a complicated brass system of 
gears for calculating astronomical phenomena

It took many years and much high tech to figure out what this 
thing was and to reconstruct it, as above; no one was expecting 
a 2000 year-old computer



Interior side view of all the gears, etc.

The Hellenistic Gaul pleading for his life

Incredibly realistic bronze bust, showing how eyes were 
represented in such things

Aphrodite and Eros fighting off Pan

Head-smashed-in bronze

It's an incredible museum, worthy of many posts...but I'll leave it at this.

Delos; or, Never Trust Athenian Travel Agents (Even When Bearing Gifts)

Our plan had been to arrive at Mykonos in the early afternoon, look around, find a hotel, and then take the boat to Delos the next morning, arriving back on Mykonos in time to take the return ferry to Piraeus. Travel agents in Athens consulted the schedules and assured us all this was feasible. As we eventually learned, in Mykonos, the tours to Delos operate only on Fridays and Sundays in the off-season. We arrived at Mykonos on Tuesday, and, it was so nice a place, we seriously considered staying over until Friday's tour. Bad weather was on the way, however, and the port police could not guarantee that the Friday boat trip to Delos would not be cancelled. So, after a few more hours' sight-seeing in Mykonos, we rode the Ithaki back to Piraeus. Sadder, but wiser, just as in Greek tragedy.

I have always thought it would be fun to do a completely fictional post on our travels, grabbing pix off the web, making it all up and posting it. This would have been a great opportunity. Alas, as I write, it seems less fun than work. If you're interested, there is a great site, with great pix, for Delos at http://www.sacred-destinations.com/greece/delos. Perhaps we'll visit Delos next time.

"Never trust Athenian travel agents!" they told us on

Mykonos

Mykonos Museum of Archaeology

Mykonos is very near the Apollo shrine island of Delos, where few lived and which was so sacred no one was permitted to be born or to die there. It served through the centuries as Delos' non-sacred portal, auxiliary, and warehouse, and itself has surrendered not a few artifacts, some of Cycladian age, most of 9th-8th-7th century BCE Greece.

Mykonos' excellent little archaeological museum

A "frying pan" ceramic piece--so-called because of the shape--apparently no 
one knows what they were used for (we saw plenty more in Athens' museums)

Beautifully-painted pottery, 8th century BCE

"Who's been into the wine cellars?!"

For us, the most impressive piece was this 7th century BCE 
4-foot high funerary urn, decorated with scenes from the 
Trojan War; hardly a century after Homer himself is supposed 
to have lived

Trojan horse

Hector, Andromache, and Astyanax?

8th century griffin

"No thanks, I'm driving"

Mykonos

We landed at Mykonos' "new" harbor in the early afternoon, took the bus to the "old" harbor, and began wandering the old town's almost completely pedestrian maze of kissing alleys. Greece really does pretty much shut down to tourism in the non-summer months, but we nonetheless got the relevant information, advice, and found a quite decent little boutique hotel, the Carbonika. We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering the old town, seeing the sights, having a nice Greek dinner on the old harbor, watching the sunset, and getting thoroughly and seriously lost in what is a very distinctive and beautiful place.

Approaching Mykonos

Typical Mykonos old town view

Mykonos' "Little Venice"; apparently a scene from one of

the Bourne movies was shot here

Sea camel near the old harbor

Mykonos' signature windmills

It's a beautiful little town with many

distinctive architectural features



OK, polychrome it's not; and you can't tell

people you live in the white house with the

blue trim

Sunset view

Next morning, old harbor

Petros, Mykonos' pelican mascot for more than 50 years;

he's completely accustomed to humans; wanders around the

harbor and fish market every day, getting hand-outs and

getting photographed

View from our balcony

Aegean Cruise

We had wanted to see a bit more of the Greek islands and to mix some island-hopping with our archaeological interests. Our first choice would have been Santorini (aka Thera) and its Akrotiri archaeological site. Santorini is in the Cyclades island group and is itself the remains of a volcanic cone that blew off some 3600 years ago in one of the largest known volcanic explosions. What is of archaeological interest is the relatively recently discovered town of Akrotiri, buried in cinders sometime around 1628 BCE; sort of like Pompeii, only 1600 years older, and Minoan, not Roman. And in many ways, all the more remarkable. But the Santorini site has been closed for several years and remains closed (another long story).

We ended up choosing Mykonos, also in the Cyclades, and its site on the nearby island of Delos, said by some to be the second most important religious site for the Greeks, after Delphi; and also associated with Apollo. We conferred with several travel agents in Athens, about the ferries, Mykonos, and Delos, received appropriate assurances, and then proceeded to free-lance the trip, stuffing overnight gear into a day-pack and showing up at the dock very early the next morning. We should have consulted the Oracle at Delphi, too, but that's part of a larger story. To be continued.

We took the bus to Piraeus and arrived well before dawn's

rosy fingers touched the wine dark sea; cast-off was at 7:35

AM

Leaving Piraeus

Looking back toward Athens

At least on our little five hour voyage, islands were always

in view, sometimes quite large, sometimes small, sometimes

inhabited, sometimes not

Typical scenery; beautiful clear day



Landing at Syros

More Syros; we also stopped at Dinos

Our ship, the Good Ferry Ithaki; wait, wasn't that Odysseus'

ship's name?

Aegean sunset the next day