Athens

As an Israeli it is not easy to travel anywhere in the world at the moment. Attacks targeting Israelis have been made over the past year in Western Europe, and the UK is not much fun these days either. Mister Handmade in Israel and I really needed to take a break from the current stresses and strains of living here and Greece seemed to be the best option and a popular place to go at the moment. We visited Rhodes many years ago, but had not been to Athens or any of the other islands. I first started planning a rather complicated trip which involved internal flights, but soon realised that with all the current flight cancellations in Israel, it was much simpler to fly back and forth from the same destination. So in September we travelled to Greece, starting our trip in the capital city, Athens. We had a wonderful few days exploring the city and all it has to offer.

We stayed in the Plaka neighbourhood, which was close to everything that we wanted to see. We started our visit with a walking tour of the historic centre of Athens. We strolled past the Acropolis and ancient theatres and stadiums, seeing the Arch of Hadrian, Zappeion Hall, the National Gardens, the Panathenaic Stadium, where the first Olympic games of the modern world took place, and the Presidential Mansion and current Greek Parliament building along the way.
The following morning we returned to the Presidential Mansion opposite Syntagma Square to watch the Changing of the Guard ceremony, above. The Evzones, an elite light infantry unit, accompanied by a military band, march from their barracks just behind the Presidential Mansion, along the Vasilissis Sofias Avenue to the Tomb of the Unknown soldier, where a ceremonial changing of the guards takes place.

We visited the National Archaeological Museum and saw some of the most important artifacts of Greece, dating back to 5000 BCE. It is considered one of the world's best museums for ancient Greek art and we were amazed by the treasures they have on display. We spent several hours there but it's really the kind of museum where you could spend a week and still not see everything!

Afterwards we walked to Mount Lycabettus and took the funicular up to the top of the hill. Mount Lycabettus is the highest point in Central Athens and the views of the city were incredible!
The myth about the hill is that it was created by the Greek goddess of wisdom, Athena. The legend is that she was carrying limestone to use for the construction of the Acropolis, but dropped it when she was startled by bad news given by a raven. As for the hill's name, Lycabettus, the story goes that it is in recognition of the wolves that used to live there, because the word for "wolf" in Greek translates to "lycos". 

Next on the agenda was of course the Acropolis of Athens, above. The ancient citadel is located on a rocky outcrop above the city and contains the remains of several ancient buildings of great architectural and historical significance, the most famous being the Parthenon, the Propylaea, the Erechtheion and the Temple of Athena Nike. The Acropolis is dedicated to Athens patron goddess, Athena. Its existing buildings were primarily constructed in the second half of the 5th century BCE. The word Acropolis is from the Greek words akron, which means "highest point, extremity", and polis, "city". The term acropolis is generic and there are many other acropolises in Greece.

We downloaded the free Rick Steves' Acropolis audio guide and used it to explore the hill. Having that insider knowledge made a huge difference in understanding how the Acropolis was laid out. I highly recommend it.

The Acropolis Museum is located in a new, large building opposite the site. It houses the archeological remains from the ancient site. Among the museum's collections are sculptures from the Hecatompedon, from the Temple of Athena Nike, portions of the Parthenon frieze, and five of the Erechtheum's original six caryatids (the sixth is in the British Museum, London). The new museum was also designed to house the rest of the Parthenon sculptures (often called the Elgin Marbles), which were removed from the Parthenon by Lord Elgin in the 19th century and are currently housed in the British Museum. The Greek government has repeatedly requested repatriation of the marbles, and a top-floor gallery of the Acropolis Museum has been set aside in anticipation of their return.

It had been a long day but I still wanted to see Anafiotika, a tiny neighborhood under the Acropolis Hill. Anafiotika was built in the mid-19th century when craftsmen from the island of Anafi settled in the area. They had come to Athens to help transform the new capital of independent Greece into a modern metropolis and refurbish King Otto's Palace (today's Greek Parliament building).

Anafiotika, below, is also referred to as "the hidden village" and is indeed a wonderful oasis away from the busy streets of Athens. As we strolled through the neighbourhood, with its white walls and bougainvillea flowers, it felt like we were on a Greek island!

Our final day in Athens was spent at the Jewish Museum of Greece. The small museum traces the history of the Jewish community in Greece, starting with the deeply rooted Romaniote community established in the 3rd century BCE, through to the arrival of Sephardic Jews and beyond the Holocaust. Photographs, documents and religious artefacts cover all aspects of Jewish life and tradition in Greece. Among the many fascinating pieces of history to discover at the museum is the story of Bishop Chrysostomos and Lucas Carrer, the mayor of Zakynthos, who conspired to save the 275 Jews who lived on the island of Zakynthos, from Nazi German round-ups.

The Jewish Museum of Greece is located very close to both the historical and the commercial centre of Athens. From there we walked through Plaka to the Monastiraki neighbourhood, known for iconic landmarks including the ruins of Hadrian's Library, the Tower of the Winds in the Roman Agora of Athens and the rebuilt Stoa of Attalos. Continuing on we saw the the Temple of Hephaestus, part of the ancient Agora of Athens, perched above the modern city of Athens near the Acropolis.

Our last stop was to see the Holocaust Memorial of Athens, which is shaped like a broken Star of David. It was unveiled in 2010, close to the synagogue where Jews were captured, and commemorates the extermination of the 2,500 years old Greek Jewish community. Athens was the last European Union capital to commemorate those who perished at the hands of Nazi forces.

Greece lost more of its Jewish population in the Final Solution, proportionately, than almost any other country in Europe during the second world war. Around 65,000 men, women and children were dispatched to their deaths in Auschwitz between 1941 and 1944. The names of the places in Greece from where the Jews were deported to concentration camps are inscribed on the memorial's triangular pieces. Situated close to the modern synagogue, which was unfortunately closed when we tried to visit, the memorial stands as a solemn reminder of those dark pages in European history. 

The Holocaust memorial is only a few feet away from the main gates of Athens, so our visit there also enabled us to glance at Kerameikos, one of the largest archaeological sites of Athens. The archaeological site is filled with tombstones and statues, the earliest tombs dating from the Early Bronze Age (2700-2000 BCE). But we had seen enough. It was time to return to our hotel and pack up our belongings before our next stop, the island of Aegina.

* This post has been shared on  Wordless Wednesday (on Tuesday) and My Corner of the World.