Day Two Athens

Sunday, April 17, 2011

We spent the whole day exploring Athens. We woke up really early to catch the city tour with our travel guide. We scored the front seats!

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We first visited the place where the very first Olympic event happened. This is actually where the Olympic torch is brought to after being light in Olympia Greece before it travels the world to the city host.

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Then we went to visit Temple Of Zeus. Five things interesting we learned ...

1. The temple was built to honor the God Zeus
2. He was the god of weather (he welcomed us with rain the while day ... Thanks Zeus!)
3. There were 104 columns originally but only 16 remain
4. The columns are Corinthian style and the flourish at the top is actually mimicking the plant found at the base of the site
5. The temple was mostly destroyed by early Christians who destroyed any icons worshiping false gods

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and because I have more interesting fact ,..

6. The temple wasn't bombed in World War II because Hitler apparently loved Ancient Greek History

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The word marathon originated in Greece. It's a city about 26 miles from Athens The Persians invaded the city and they sent a runner to warn Athens ... Therefore the marathon was born

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Acropolis ... Acro mean edge and polios is city ... Meaning at the edge if the city. The Athens acropolis was build to honor the god Athena The goddess if wisdom and strategy (you go girl!).  The Parathion is the most engineering sound building i the world it has never been replicated.  Once we reached the top it started to pour down rain and the wind was intense.  All our umbrellas snapped - this pink one was picked up for $5 from a street vendor - they were out in packs!  Once we made it down to the bottom again, it stopped raining and we were bummed ... but we told a 'tiny white lie' to get back up by telling the guard I left my camera cap up there ... hehehe, so we went back up and was able to walk around more leisurely without being pelted by rain and wind!  We also climbed up to the Rock of Athens - where the Apostle Paul preached to the Athenians about the god of the unknown ... Jesus Christ on top of the rock of Athens. So cool we stood there.

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I probably should have one post dedicated to the dogs and cats of Greece - they are everywhere, but they look taken care of.  In fact, some of the dogs have collars.  Apparently there is an organization in Athens that take care of the dogs - feed them, spay/neuter them, etc.  They are very friendly and sweet!

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The museum, holds all the antiquities and the only free wifi in the whole city ... Love it ... we were able to eat lunch there too.  It was rated as the #1 museum in the top 10 museums of the world - pretty impressive.

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We found this beautiful meadow of flowers at the foot of the Acropolis - we couldn't resit taking some photos here! Thank goodness for my wide angle lens I was able to take a lot of pictures of us together without having to ask someone. That's a good thing because my camera intimidates people, lol, and they always come out blurry or just awful!

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