Museums and island feeling

Our day started just fine: in a kafenio across the German Archeological Institute (where we spent quite a bit of time during studies), with our old friend Panos. We met Professor Valavanis in Wurzburg during archeology studies and stayed in loose contact, but didn't see him for a long time. He is going to retire from the university next year and plans become an olive farmer on the countryside ...

Museums first, afterwards: only a few steps apart from each other are four top museums and we visited three of them: there is the War Museum (which we skipped), the Byzantine Museum (great byzantine art - Peter's favorite museum today), the Goulandris Museum (famous for its cycladic idols, nice presentation, great shop and café, and, my personal favorite) and the Benaki Museum. This is a cross section through times and genres, with a focus on history, textiles and costumes - interesting, though a little bit old-fashioned compared to the previously mentioned ones.

Byzantine Museum:

Museum Goulandris:

Benaki Museum:

After three museums in a row, we needed some fresh koulouri (like soft Pretzel rings with sesame) and a leasurely walk through the National Garden, a huge park adjacent to the Parliament building. It's not necessarily manicured and highly maintained, but a neat green oasis with parrots and palms and benches. After a short break, we watched the change of guards in front of the Parliament Building, funny, because the costumes are still in the style King Otto from Bavaria introduced them. In front of the parliament Syntagma Square - one of the main squares of the city, the other is Omonia, is to be seen. We walked through new town, on Odos Ermou (pic), into the Plaka neighborhood, which is considered "old town".


Our destination this time was Anftiotika,a tiny part of the Plaka, at the Northeast slope of the Acropolis. It was settled in the middle of the 19th century by workers from the cycladic islands, and therefore it reminds of a little village on an island: all white walls, narrow alleys, steep stairways, a little church - very picturesque! In 1834, again, thanks to King Otto from Bavaria, Athens became the capital and building activities increased as well as workers flocking in from all over Greece.Also, there are great modern murals and views towards the Lykabettos (the hill we've climed yesterday) - today in a strange light because of sun and dark skies at the same time.


Climbed down again and checked out some of the branches of the Historical Museum, mostly in historic homes in the Plaka. They are small, but focus on different interesting topics, like music, crafts, children, etc. On to the Roman Agora with the famous Tower of the Winds (Turm der Winde), and Hadrian's Library.

Again, thick clouds in the afternoon, but no rain, perhaps because we had our umbrella in the backpack today! After an early dinner (Greeks don't even think about dinner before 8 pm) of kebab on a little square in the Plaka, we called it a day and walked back to the hotel.

The picture below shows another fancy kiosk - this one focused on glasses and bags - kiosks are such a great Greek institution! You can find everything there from tooth paste to beer to cookies to glasses to papers... until late night for reasonable prices!