Athens: Day2

We began our second day in Athens, after a good nights rest, by walking to the near by Temple of Olympian Zeus. We encountered a sprinkles, but other than that it was a fine morning. We were the first visitors to this site, and spent some time walking around the main area, plus the "hidden", less popular section below. This photograph is of two columns. There was a third one that was toppled by a fierce storm in the 1800s. I wondered how old the "new" buildings in Athens were, and found out later when I saw a painting of this temple from the early 1800's that showed no modern buildings between it and the Acropolis. A painting from the late 1800's showed some buildings at the base of the Acropolis. So I's assume that most of the structures in the valley are not that old.

From the Zeus temple, we walked to the Panathinaikon Stadium, the site of the first modern Olympics. You cannot go inside, so this is the best picture I could take.

Then we headed back past the Acropolis and walked up Filopapos Hill. There are lots of sites at this location, and there was no fee to enter. Along the walk to the top, we passed the prison of Socrates. At the top there is the Monument of Filopappos and a great view of the city of Athens. As we walked down the hill, we found the ancient Greek road that led form the sea to the Acropolis.

Our next stop was Keramikos, the place that was closed the day before. This is basically a big cemetery. We spent some time in the museum and then wandered the grounds. It was then that I realized that the entire city of Athens was built on the ancient city. I figured that if you dug underneath any modern building, you would find artifacts from 2000 years ago. In fact, there were pictures of pottery and other stuff that was dug up during the construction of the Metro for the 2004 Olympics.

Lunch was soon to be eaten, and shortly after we wandered into Hadrian's Library. We were happy to find out that this site is now included with our ticket we bought for the Acropolis, so we saved three euros! This is another site located in the middle of the city, surrounded by houses and businesses. It was also in the process of being renovated, with reconstructed columns, decorative mosaic floors covered with protective sheets and structures obstructed by building platforms. And, like all places in Athens, an assortment of cats roaming the grounds.

Another rest break at the hotel and we were ready for dinner. We wandered the shopping quarter again, where we discovered a shop that sold interesting, yet useless, items, such as hand painted cows. I don't know why, but I was fascinated by these cows. There were regular, standing cows, and cows sitting on a bench reading a newspaper with articles that would interest cows, such as how to handle mad cow disease. In fact, downstairs, there was an entire section of cows, big and small. However, I couldn't get myself to buy anything here, so a photo was the best I could do.

After a second day of walking for miles and miles, we returned to our hotel for the night, as jet lag was starting to set in.