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Athens

By the time we hit Athens, we were getting a bit tired of lugging the camera out all the time. Not to mention the fact that most of the monuments were under restoration work, meaning that getting a shot without a crane, piece of scaffold, etc. was impossible. Still, we managed to get some good photos.


This was a lot of fun in Athens -- open air rooftop theatres! As with all theatres we went to, you could drink during the movie (in this place, you could bring in your own booze). The views of the Acropolis (below) were AMAZING while watching the show.

Theatre of Dionysious.

Theatre of Herod Atticus. This one has been fully restored and is actually used today for such things like Yanni concerts.

This is the Temple of Athena. When we were there, it was being COMPLETELY dismantled, stone by stone, and then put back in place to correct previous restoration errors.

The Erechtheion (both of the above pictures) was one of the very few monuments with no construction equipment set up to repair it.

The Parthenon (a.k.a. the grand daddy of all Greek Monuments). It was amazing seeing so many "wonders of the world" this trip. One fact that I did not know about the Parthenon was that during 1687, the Venetians bombarded Turkish troops stationed in Greece. An errant cannon ball hit a ton of gun powder stored in the Parthenon, causing significant damage!

There was a museum at the Acropolis. Half of it was shut down when we were there, but it holds some of the finer pieces of stone work from the site -- like this scene of a lion devouring a bull.

It's not tough to see what impacts the monuments and why they need to be constantly restored. The Acropolis is a high hill that is constantly exposed to wind. With the fine sand on top of the Acropolis, wind erosion has GOT to be a huge factor.

You were actually very close to the marble structures on the Acropolis. It was only AFTER Cori had touched these columns that we saw the "do not touch the marble" signage.

This is the Temple of Olympian Zeus. It's not as big of a draw as the acropolis (featured in the back ground).

We ran into our ten billionth "time share vendors" just outside the gates...although at the time we didn't know it. This chick had us do a survey and she asked what we DIDN'T like about Athens -- and we said "all those people at the bus stop that harrass you". That line shut her up and we got to leave scot-free. Sadly, others would be much more persistent -- and since there was absolutely NO hiding the fact that we were tourists, we had to grin and bear it any time we walked by Syntagma Square.

This is the old olympic stadium.

posted by Team Shawn Michaels @ 9:52 p.m.