Athens Thursday Day 3

Mask of Agamemnon
Zeus (or Poseidon )
Boy on Horse
Bronze recovered from shipwreck

Athens-Thursday, Day 3

Today was a relatively light day: two museums and a couple of walks. Even I think I may have done too much yesterday; I was really tired and actually slept until 8:30 this morning. 

I visited the National Archaeological Museum in the morning which, as I expected, was outstanding. Unfortunately, the vase collection (about ten galleries) was closed; I was disappointed as I had prepared by visiting the Met's collection a couple of times. The sculpture collection (about twenty galleries) was fantastic. It includes more than a few bronzes (rare in NY) and marble statues from the Archaic through Roman periods. (I skipped the Cycladic period as I don't really know anything about it.) There were many original 6th-4th Century (BC of course) classical period originals but, as in NY, there were many Roman copies of Greek originals. The bronze Poseidon (or Zeus, as scholars are still arguing) is fantastic as is  the boy jockey on horse. 

At the entrance of the museum one finds Schliemann's Mycenaean Treasure including the so-called Mask of Agamemnon. If Schliemann had never heard of Troy, he would be renowned  for this discovery. 

I also visited the Benaki Museum which, like the Frick and the Isabella Gardener, is a private collection made available to the public. It has a small but beautiful Classical collection and a much larger Byzantine one that rivals  or exceeds the Byzantine Musuem collection that I saw earlier in the week.   

In the course of my museum visits, I did one of my favorite things: I mastered the Athens metro. It is quiet and clean and, unlike almost everything else in the city, is free of graffiti. 

Dinner tonight in a taverna recommended by the hotel. Back to NY tomorrow. There is much more to see in Greece and I hope to do it some day. This week, every day was hotter than the day before but still mostly tolerable. October, I think, would be the kindest month. 

Athens Day 2

Not necessarily in order.
Temple of Zeus
Temple of Hephaestus
My guide, Kelly Bourni
Ron and Parthenon
View of Acropolis from my terrace at sunset

Athens-Wednesday 2nd day

I am going to describe today beginning at the end. I a  sitting on my very large terrace looking out at the rock of the Acropolis. The view, while not as dramatic, reminds me of the view from my room in  Giza looking out at the pyramid. I have just returned from dinner at a modern Greek restaurant recommend by the hotel. I think it was the best $30 dollar meal I have ever had. Greece is perfect for vegetarians (or pretend vegetarians). I had a Greek salad; vegetarian ravioli; vegetarian mushroom risotto and a half carafe of ouzo  all for 25 Euro including tip. Another reason to recommend this wonderful hotel. 

This morning I set out on foot to the Byzantine Museum but made a detour to the Temple of Zeus that was begun in the 6th Century BC but not really completed until the 1st Century AD. It is on the plain below the Acropolis and was finished by Hadrian, clearly to compete with and complement the Parthenon. Not much of it is left but the standing columns show that it was built on a grander scale than its famous model. The columns are much higher and there is a triple colonnade on the north and south sides instead of the usual double. A few hundred meters before the Temple is an arch dedicated by the people of Athens to Hadrian for building the Temple. 

I then walked to the Byzantine and Christian Musuem about a mile or so away, passing through the National Garden and walking by the Presidential Palace and Parliament, (No demonstrations today.) The Museum was empty except for a single school group of ten year olds. I guess I did not get my fill of Byzantine art in Istanbul. The collection here is mostly late icons and artifacts from the 14th century on. Nevertheless, there were many beautiful items here and it was, for me, a very worthwhile visit. 

I then walked through Syntagma Square (the main square of Athens) and through several winding ancient streets to meet my guide, Kelly (short for Angelica) Bourni, a friend of our neighbor Peter Embericos. Kelly accompanied me through the Agora and the various sites below the Acropolis, most importantly the beautiful Temple of Hephaestus, before taking the uphill climb to the top of the Acropolis. We went in the afternoon when there is practically no crowd; it was hot but not scalding. I won't describe the Parthenon or other structures on top of the Acropolis but I will say that it remains a very inspiring place. On the way down, we stopped at the Theater of Dionysius and then I headed back to the hotel. 

The Parthenon confirmed my opinion that the New Acropolis Museum is one of the finest in the world. It is built slightly off angle so as to be completely parallel to the Parthenon. I have been converted to those who believe the British should return the Elgin  Marbles. As I said yesterday, maybe a Labor Government in the next 100 years will do so.  

I did more walking today than I can remember doing in some long while.I am tired but happy.

Athens-Tuesday

I arrived in Athens at 9:30 after a 2 hr+ flight from TLV. Ava Hotel is very similar to the Senato in Rome and is terrific. I have a beautiful suite with a very large terrace that has a view of the Acropolis (not the Parthenon side but still...). The room has a kitchen and has an excellent wireless connection. I know the Grande Bretagne is the place to be in Athens but this can't be beat. 

I was quite tired so after a short walk to get oriented in the neighborhood and a a quick lunch (Greek salad and Greek crepe), I did the most touristy thing possible: the open air double-decker bus ride. That gave me a chance to sit down and see the city for an hour and a half. The only demonstration that I saw was near some government building and it was rather small. The Times travel section this past Sunday said things are improving so that must be so. 

I then went to the new Acropolis Musuem. This has to be one of the greatest "new" museums in the world. The building is beautiful and the presentations are first rate. A prime purpose of the Museum is to pressure the British to return the Elgin Marbles. The pediments, friezes, and metopes are presented as they would appear on the Parthenon but most of the metopes and pediment sculptures are plaster casts of the British Museum's originals. The Greeks have invested tens of millions of Euros to provide a home for the Elgin Marbles; maybe in another century. Some of the metopes have actually been returned from German museums --more pressure on the UK. 

The sculptures are in galleries that have floor to ceiling glass windows that look out on the Acropolis (including the Parthenon!). Just fantastic. I only spent 21/2 hours there so I will probably return.

One extremely interesting thing is the restoration of the sculptures from the "original" Parthenon that was destroyed by the Persians around 480BCE. That too was a beautiful structure. Because the Athenians saw the destroyed statuary as holy, they buried all the broken pieces in pits on the site. The pits were discovered in the late 19th century (2,500 years later) and put together. I sort of remember seeing them in the old Acropolis museum but the presentation here rivals the "new" Parthenon. 

My plan tomorrow is to go to the Acropolis itself, the ancient Agora, the theaters on the slopes of the Acropolis all with a guide. 

Jerusalem

No blog necessary... but Inbal (Laromme) continues to treat us very well.  

I arrived to the hotel at around 2 am on Friday and by 10 Adele and I were at the Israel Musuem to see the Herod Exhibit, which was great. Ehud Netzer finally found the actual tomb after twenty years of looking in the wrong place. Sadly, on the day he was organizing the museum exhibit, he fell at the Herodium site and died. 

Herod was a megalomaniac and he destroyed all the palaces and the theater on the bottom of the Herodium hill so that he could have a smooth mountain on which to place the tomb. The tomb was visible from miles around, had a conical crown (like the so-called Tomb of Absalom in Jerusalem), and had a round colonnade on a square pedestal. So it was square, topped by circle, topped by cone, with the whole thing being about 150 feet high. The tomb itself (the round part) was excavated and brought to the museum. The sarcophagus itself is quite plain and doesn't come close to the magnificent "Alexander the Great" Sarcophagus  in Istanbul. No photos allowed!

Yonatan's wedding was non-stop celebration: dinner for 100 Friday night; Kiddush lunch at the Khan Theater and the wedding in the nature preserve that presents all the  biblical plants. The wedding was romantic with bride and groom reading "love letters" to each other under the Chupah and Yonatan singing to Chana. 

Mom and I had Shabbat lunch after the kiddush at Julie and Yaakov Schorr's home and Julie invited Fred and Paula who live across the street. (They are not related at all.) 

Paula was just recently elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a very big deal. 

Fred has become Chairman of the Board of Haifa University. 

On Sunday, Ben Zion Hochstein gave us a tour of Shaare Zedek Hospital, of which he is chairman. I finally saw more of it than the eye clinic (Miriam!) 

I took the tram (light rail) for its entire length from Har Herzl to some distant Jewish neighborhood on the other side of some Arab villages. It took about 45 minutes and I saw parts of the City I had never seen before. I recommend it as a tourist attraction. 

I left Israel this morning (Tuesday) on a 7 am flight, so I left the Inbal at 4 am. What fun!

Istanbul– fourth day

The Alexander sarcophagus
The mosaic from the Byzantine palace
2 Views from the terrace where I had lunch today.