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.