Wednesday 23 May Campervan day five

Got up late (really? how unusual!!) and hit the road by 11 or so to complete our drive to Athens. We were hoping to stop at Thermopylae on the way, but only ever saw one sign indicating that it was some way further ahead, and next thing we knew we were passing through a town quite a bit further on down the road from where Thermopylae was meant to be. We would have turned back, but from what the campervan man said there is not anything there anyway, so we pressed on. We do at least have some idea of the geography of where the momentous battle took place between the famous 300 Spartans and the Persians, and the mountains in which it was fought. “Throw down your arms”, “Come and get them”.  “Come home with your shield or on it”. 

Greek roads are really interesting. The main roads are all toll roads, and cost a LOT to use (forking out 7 or 8 euros every hour or so). Traffic throughout most of the country is very light, yet, beside these main roads are an endless series of monumental road construction works, on which all work has obviously stopped as the Greek government has run out of money. We noticed bridges in particular - hundreds of them, some completed, some only half done, but with no roads leading to or away from them. Bridges to nowhere. We started to comprehend some of the financial woes that this beautiful country is experiencing - unjustified construction booms, building things that are not actually necessary. And now lying unfinished, unproductive and useless, while the country struggles to pay the interest on the money loaned to build them. Tragic.

On to Athens, and we managed to find a nice campground in the northern, leafy and affluent suburb of Kifissia. A nice contrast to our time spent right in the heart of the city. We caught the metro into the centre of town, and went to see the Acropolis Museum, which we didn’t see last time because (shock, horror) my organisational skills missed the fact that it was closed on Mondays!! It was well worth the extra effort. We spent a couple of hours gazing at all of the treasures recovered from the Acropolis over the years, including the original Caryatids (with a pointed gap left where Lord Elgin carried one of the maidens off to the British Museum). The top floor of this museum is great, featuring massive windows looking straight up to the Parthenon on top of the Acropolis right beside the museum, and set up to mirror the Parthenon itself, so all the metopes, frieze and pediments are displayed in the positions that they actually would have been on the Parthenon. Made it easy to understand how it all fitted together. I traced the frieze, which features the Panathenaic procession, starting at one corner, and proceeding along three of the walls before meeting the waiting gods at the final wall. It was lovely, and the interpretation panels were great at explaining exactly what I was looking at.

We finished around 6pm, and ventured into the Plaka district for tea and a final bit of shopping. Romy followed her grandmother’s tradition by buying her first pair of earrings in Athens, and the kids all got necklaces made by a man who twists silver wire into the shapes of their names written in Greek. He recognised Danae as a classic Greek name, but pronounced it very differently than we do - more like Danny, but with an long ‘i’ at the end. Kia discovered that her entire name looks exactly the same in Greek as it does in English.

Home to the campervan for one final night. It has been a brilliant tour around Greece (or Hellas, as the residents call it). We have seen a lot in the short time we have been here, and have enjoyed it all. What an interesting and lovely country this is. It is in the mire now, but it has seen and endured worse times. It is the birthplace and repostitory of Western civilisation, and it will endure this current crisis, and it will carry on, polishing its past glories for the rest of the world to admire.

Stylida - Greek seaside resort

Entrance to Acropolis museum

Glass floors to show all the excavations taking place under the museum

Decoration from the Parthenon

Romy is savaged by a stone lion

View of Acropolis from museum

One of the Parthenon metopes, showing the battle between the centaurs and the lapites

Part of the Panathenaic procession depicted on the Parthenon frieze

North pediment, metopes and frieze

Surviving part of the south pediment

This museum is well used to kids being dragged around it by their parents - they provide a bag of games for the kids to play, and lots of nice places to sit and play them

Our last souvlakis in Greece! Dinner in the Plaka district of Athens

If only we had more space in our luggage!

Man making necklaces for the kids.