ATHENS, GORGEOUS ATHENS

If you've only got 2 or 3 hours, make sure you see the most interesting ones, said a report on the National Archaeological Museum in Athens. We spent some hours (I'm not prepared to divulge how intelligent we are by being more specific) wandering about the museum looking at the ancient exhibits. And ancient they were! It seemed that most everything dated from 500 BC to about 100 AD. So there were some really ancient sculptures and vases in particular. Most were done before Christ came. Some were bronze, many were marble. Quite a number were found by divers and recovered over a number of years, some as late as the 1900s. Still others had finished up in Germany, England or elsewhere, but had eventually found their way home. There was one which was only returned 4 years ago. (England still has some!)
There were sculptures of Aphrodites, Herakles, Pan (complete with cloven hooves), the philosopher Metrodoros, Poseidon, Zeus, the Marathon boy, the huge bronze horse and jockey of Artemision (lifesize) and many others.
The trip to visit the ruins of the Parthenon, the Propylon, the temple and other buildings on the Acropolis of Athenswas mind boggling. Great views from there too.
The Parthenon was built about 440 BC.
The activities of the guards outside the Parliament buildings was a circus let me tell you! Really neat. Yeah... I've got photos of them too.
I'll give you a summary of our week's tripping round Greece to visit Meteora, Delphi, Olympia, Sparta etc. in the next couple of days. (Thanks for the encouragement to visit Sparta Army.)