Greece - Athens - National Archeological Museum

I like the occasional museum but I'm not a real beast for them. Kim, on the other hand, needs to be dragged kicking and screaming. Sooo, I have to pick them carefully. This was a good choice as you would expect with a name like the Athens National Archeological Museum...

It's a mock-up, of course, but the front looks like it will deliver.
A floor mosaic, err, stuck on the wall. Him in the middle is Hermes; the phallic (I kid you not) God of travel and other stuff.
Somebody's sarcophagus.
Some pots.
A statue of a horse. It looks like that because it spent some time at the bottom of the sea. Apparently, the Romans used to go round nicking stuff and sending it back to Rome by ships - which occasionally sunk.
The garden inside the museum.
A big brown pot. They have really good pictures on them.
A bird / lion / woman / hat thingy.
A bloke with his willy out.
Zeus - the top God. Here we see him in the middle of chucking a thunderbolt - from when the Gods were a real force to be reckoned with. Dunno what happenned to the thunderbolt. He has his willy out. The Greek Gods had their willies out a lot - except the lady Gods, who had their norks out instead.

Some people sitting around having a chat.
Yo dude, I'm gonna do a 50/50 Grind and den a Kick Flip and den I'm gonna pop a cap in yo ass. Just as soon as I figure out how to get this silly hat off and put on a back-to-front baseball cap. Oh, and do something about this dress.

The sort of helmets worn by bad hombre's.
Aphrodite amuses her nipples.
A fierce-looking lion.
Not sure what this is but I liked the dragons on the top.
This looks like someone fighting a horse - which I thought you really weren't supposed to do.
Apollo - and, yes, he's got his willy out. They must have had a shed-load of fun, these Gods. When the weather was nice, anyway.
Zeus again, up to his thunderbolt-throwing shenanegins - this time keeping his naughty-bits under wraps. Looks like he's doing the 'changing your undies on the beach' dance.
Aphrodite, the Godess of lurve and the two-backed beast. I like this because what's going on is not what appears. Pan, the horney little devil, is trying to get it on with Aphrodite while Eros looks on, and Aphrodite is just about to belt him with a slipper. Pan isn't evil - rather sexually playful. No wonder the Christians took on the image and corrupted it - the guy was having WAY too much fun.
Emperor Augustus. Not all good and not all bad. What's he doing here? The Romans ran the place for a while.
A Roman torso. Apparently, if you wanted a statue of yourself, you went to the statue shop and ordered a body. It's like going to the gym - but without wasting all that time. Then you had your head made up and plonked on the top.
Some gold stuff. This is really old, from the very early days of the ancient Greeks.
Aha, some pointy swords. You wouldn't like one of these up you.
The government's latest anti-binge drinking campaign.
Another big pot with drawings on it.
Part of a wall mural. Not bad for an ordinary house. This one's from Crete.

Greece - Athens - Day 2

After Day 1's abortive assault on the Acropolis, let's have another go.

U2 ain't what they used to be. And there's something to be said about that!

Mary and Jesus. I think they are in a band, too.
A bunch of columns. You had better like this sort of stuff 'cos we are going to see a lot more of it.
Temple of Hephaistos. Doric, peripteral, with a pronaos and opisthodomos apparently.
Theatre of Herodes Atticus.
Propylaea, which just means 'gateway'.
Me standing in front of the Parthenon which is dedicated to Athena, the Goddess of Wisdom, who probably wouldn't have approved.
The front bit of the Parthenon. Part of this building and some others, the Elgin Marbles, are currently in the British Museum, much to the chargin of the Greeks. To be fair, though, Elgin got hold of these at a time when anything could have happened to them and, it could be argued that it's better to gain your independence than to lose your marbles.

Moving right along, Kim, also by the Parthenon.
Theatre of Dionysus. Dedicated to the God of Binge-Drinking. And get this all you 'responsible drinking' muppets, "Dionysus represents not only the intoxicating power of wine, but also its social and beneficial influences. He is viewed as the promoter of civilization". Seems if he had promoted civilisation a little harder, we wouldn't have all these killjoys around today.
Elgin, it seems, missed a bit.
View over the city where we were yesterday. That's the Olympic Stadium to the upper left and Zeus' Temple and Hadrian's Arch just to right of centre.
The Erechtheum, which was a collection of tombs and temples - and, ha, sounds a bit like 'Erectum'. These chicks must have a blinder of a headache by now.
Another bit of the Erechtheum.
No wonder the whiole site looks half built. It is!
Did I mention that it is somebody's birthday?
Good time for posh grub.

Greece - Athens - Day 1

So, that's it for the UK - winter is coming and it's time to fly south. But, before all that, we'll have a 2-week break in Greece. We have a couple of days in Athens, then we will be hiring a car to check out some places on the Greek mainland, then we'll swap the car for ferries and go off to the islands.

Here we go, then; Athens day 1...

The Greek parliament - with their national flag.
Wherever you have pollies, you have security. Here they come now for a guard-changing ceremony.
And, yes, they all look a bit, well, gay! You could always tell them that, I suppose, but you are likely to get a little more than a bad haircut off these dudes.
Men in skirts - just like Scotland! Except for the better weather. And food. And they are not always drunk and abusive. And they have an ancient, civilised culture. And art - lots of art. Did I mention the food?

But, apart from that, just like Scotland.
Parishoners on their way out of church. Seems that every church in the world has their own Flanders.
A local artist eyeing up the subject of his next painting.
The Plaka area of Athens - the old part that is all geared up for tourists; shops, restaurants, cafes, etc.
Climbing up to the Acropolis looking back over the city.
The city encroaches right up to the base of the Acropolis and becomes very village-like the higher you go. This lot have obviously had enough of directing tourists and have resorted to putting up signs.

Day one's assault on the Acropolis ended right here when someone told us that it was closed today because of elections. A Japanese tourist told them that they should use Viagla, then.

Moving right along...


Down is better than up.
Hardian's Arch. Obviously he left the wall-y bit for England.

What's left of the Temple of Olympian Zeus.
Be careful you don't get mugged.
The Panathenian Stadium - built for the first modern olympics in 1896.
Long-shot of the Acropolis with a nice view of the Parthenon.
That's enough sight-seeing for one day. We jumped in a taxi and went out to the port to sort out ferry tickets and car-hire, stopping for lunch in this little bay.