Athens - Piles of old rocks

I had read somewhere that you could see Athens in a day.  You might be able to visit the most important sites, but you would see very little.  After two very full days - one with Marcella and one by myself - I have seen most of what I wanted to see.

The highlight for me was the Ancient Agora and the other buildings on this site.  Sure, the Acropolis is majestic as it looks out across the city demanding attention, but it's a look but don't touch site and there are always, quite rightly, scads of people.  Ancient Agora is a tree filled site with wandering pathways,  one of the most intact temples in Athens, and Stoa - long thin multistoried building - in which you can wander around .  It houses a museum with the ubiquitious statues and busts.  As I looked out from the second floor, I pretended I was Caesar's wife until I remembered she was Roman not Greek.  Besides which, Caesar had her killed. 

The museums in Athens are magnificent.  I saw the new Acropolis, National Archaeological, Keremeikos (cemetery) and the Ancient Agora museums.  You'd think, having a history degree, that I would love museums, but rows and rows of ancient vases and statues are kinda dull.  What I did like was the way that the artefacts are presented.  Restoration is part of the display - including on the sites, most of which had people working on restoration and excavation.  In the Stoa there is the occasional clear pane in a line of frosted glass that allowed you to peek into the areas where people were working.  The new Acropolis museum is built on an achaeological site and you walk over glass panes with the excavation below you.  This them of light and 'peeking' is continued in the rest of the building (don't wear a skirt!!)  Some of the statues are quite beautiful such as the Caryatids which you can watch being restored in situe.  There is an interesting video about the Parthenon and then, of course the replica of the Parthenon and the magnificent views up to the real thing.

Most of the women statues in the sites and museums are clothed and most of the men are in thier full, willie snapped off glory.  The few that still have their willies makes me very sorry for Greek women (-waggles little finger-).  Greek men have a hobby of 'harpooning' women tourists and comparing notes afterwards.  I wonder if they realise that the women also discuss their conquests and giggle at Greek men's lack of um....

Anyway, I have strayed from the highlights of Athens.  The food has to be right up there, but I have a date with an Art museum, Pireaus and Sounio so I'll have to tell you about that next time.  In the meantime, this is what I've seen:

Monday: Syntagma Square - National Gardens and zoo - Zappeio gardens and palace - Panathiniac (olympic stadium) - Temple of Zeus - Hadrian's Arch - Theatre of Dionysos - Herodes Odeum - Acropolis - old area?? - Monastraki -hotel - lycabettes hill - kolonaki - hotel
Tuesday: New Acropolis Museum - Monastraki - Roman Agora and Temple of the Winds - Ancient Agora - Keramikos museum and cemetery - National Archaeological Museum - hotel - traditional greek restaurant - open air movie.