Fantastic Architecture and Harbor Feeling

This morning we went out of town... towards the ocean, with a couple of stops on the way. Athens always was a harbor town and Pireus is its harbor - nowadays a big city of its own. We took the modern "tram" (see pic) - a good way to explore - and stopped at the new Onassis Cultural Center first, and, then in Kallithea - another city of its own, grown together with Athens.



In Kallithea beginning of 2017 a fantastic new building (above) opened: the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center. Like Onassis Stavros Niarchos was one of the big "oil barons" of Greece and at least shared some of his money with the people. Renzo Piano, also architect of the Acropolis Museum (and many other buildings), planned this fantastic LEED qualified building which houses the Athens Opera and the National Library. It has a unique green, walkable roof with a café. Superb views (see pics) from there towards the city and the Acropolis, as well as towards the ocean and Pireus. The building is surrounded by an equally unique park, planted exclusively with local plants (e.g. olive and pomegranate trees, grasses, shrubs, herbs etc.), there is an open-air stage, a fitness area, a lake and other great features. This is a fantastic addition, alone because of the views! Even we took a break and has a nescafé frappé...

On to Pireus by tram, where we walked all the way around the three harbors ("limani"): the Microlimano with some smaller yachts and fishing vessels, mainly a destination to eat seafood and fish. "Pasalimani" is where the bigger yachts from all over the world are at home, and, "The Port of Pireus", finally, is where all the ferries to/from the islands anchor, and - new to us - huge cruise ships - towering high and being extremely ugly and, at the same time, not really helping the Greek infrastructure. Never would like to be on a ship like these, rather on one of the ferries to one of the islands...

We visited the Archeological Museum (same as before) and the City Market (cheap and smelly and great) and had a well-earned afternoon meal in a tiny little Estiatorio, where you passed the hot counter (offerings of the day) into the "guest room" (open-air) with five tables. No menu. We had fried maridaki (sardelles) with chorta (greens) and pasticcio (a pasta casserole) with choriatiki (greek salad) with a "side" of half a liter of local wine and bread ... Life can be good sometimes! For the whole feast we paid 27 Euro!

From Pireus we took the "Elektriki" - the first local train connection from the harbor to Athens - back into the city. Explored Kolonaki then, a pretty fancy neighborhood, the favorite address of many wealthy and beautiful Athenians. It has changed a bit, some apartment buildings are standing empty now, but there are still lots of fancy boutiques, international brand stores and chic café-bars to be found. And, they were packed with locals!



After a full day of walking we got lazy and took the "teleferik", the funicular up to the Lykabettos hill, where the views are gorgeous. Thoough, not so today: as yesterday, clouds came up in the late afternoon and didn't move at all. When we walked down the hill towards the metro station in rained out of buckets, but it was still warm. Of course, our umbrella was in the hotel.

... and one of the little miniature chapels you find everywhere, even in the middle of nowhere: