First thing I did Thursday after breakfast in the hotel, was make my way to the Acropolis.
Here's a map of Athens and where the major attractions are.
7. The Plaka
10. National Observatory of Athens
11. Philopappos
12. Olympic Stadium
This is on the south side of the acropolis, by the theatre of Dionysos. It's like a staging area for restoration of the Theatre of Dionysus. I couldn't believe how many scraps of 2500 year old 'stuff' just lying around.
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Theater of Dionysos, just down the slope on the south side of the arcopolis. It was built in the 4th century B.C. and could hold up to 17,000 people. This is very likely the birthplace of the modern Greek tragedy.
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I got to watch these guys actually carrying out the renovation of a marble slab. They were fitting on a corner that would restore the full shape of the original slab back to it's functional shape.
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They are restoring the entire site similarly with all the original materials. Apparently the completion date keeps getting pushed back. They've been at it for over 30 years now.
PBS.org has a fantastic program (viewable in the U.S. only) chronicaling the Parthenon Restoration process. Give it a look if you have some time.
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This was the first one-armed picture with the new camera. Glad to find it worked!
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This is from the back/south side of the Parthenon. This is the side with the least scaffolding visible. It really should be great when the restoration is complete.
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I was again struck at how many 2500+ year old scraps there were lying around here. I like seeing the distressed years of wear on the marble here. Amazing that it even looks this good after that long.
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This is the view from the Acropolis to the south west of Temple of Olympian Zeus. Took all of one second to decide that's where I was going after I got done up here.
And here is the reverse view from down in the Temple of Olympian Zeus back up at the Acropolis. There are more scraps of ancient marble half buried here too.
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Here's the one-arm self photo in the Temple of Olympian Zeus. These one-arm shots are much more difficult with a clunky dSLR camera, but still worth it!
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I held the camera down to the ground and tried to catch the Corinthian columns straight on. I didn't intend for this to be a tilted picture, but it turned out to be one of my favorites.
Btw, there were hundreds of bees buzzing all around me here. I had to walk through these flowers carefully. Didn't want to make these guys angry.
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The Acropolis photographs really well at night. You can see it from nearly every street nearby too.
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