A Greek Odyssey The delights of Aegina 10th June 2018

Probably the best place to start is with a map of the island.

We are staying on the north coast that looks across directly across to the Peloponnese peninsula and Athens if you look a little to the east. Our location is Vagiia. Just to the south of us, dominating the hillside between us and Aegina Marina is the Temple of Aphasia. (The spellings here, even in the roman alphabet are a movable feast).

It was excavated in 1811 and the best sculpture removed for auction. It was bought by (Mad) King Ludwig of Bavaria. They now reside in a Munich museum. So, Lord Elgin, you're not the only one.

The temple was constructed in 580 BCE. Apparently this temple, the Parthenon and the Temple of Poseidon at Sounion form an equilateral triangle. Whether this is design or accident isn't mentioned in the books.

A view of the South East end of the island which is not inhabited and consequently has no infrastructure.

Paliachora or Old Town is a fascinating visit. This is now a ghost town with the ruins of about 40 churches remaining from what was a total of 365.
For nearly a thousand years the population of Aegina lived on this precipitous hillside with a citadel at the very top. The reason they packed their bags and moved up the hill was for self defence. Living on the coast they were sitting ducks for the Saracen pirate raids so in 896 CE, up they went. The churches were built of the rock from the hill and the homes were low and earth coloured. Invisibility was the intention. The raids continued over the centuries with 1537 being a particularly disasterous year when Suleiman the Magnificent ordered the pirate Barbarossa to attack. All the male population were killed and the women raped then, with the children taken into slavery. In the early 1820s with the War of Independence the town was briefly the capital of Greece. With some semblance of peace restored, the locals moved back to the coast and the town was abandoned.

Looking up toward the citadel. You can just make out the ruins of the surviving churches if you expand the picture.

A few of the churches still have original frescoes in them. It's hard to be sure of the dates but I guess these pictured are C14.

Further details of the frescoes.

This was a really great visit,  though at times a strenuous climb. In a very different way I had visions of Ani, that other ghost city on the old silk road.
We drove down to the little fishing port of Perdika on the South Western tip where we took a boat to the uninhabited island of Moni. In the first picture below we are leaving the port,

then here we are on the island. Apart from thousands of sea birds Moni has a resident population of wild deer and not so wild peacocks.

You can also sunbathe there.

We enjoyed a really good night out with a very nice couple, Brian and Jo who were saying at the Beachhouse. This was in Aegina Marina. The picture incidentally was taken by a Polish film producer who Helen persuaded to use his talents on us.

The fish market in Aegina, though not busy as it was Sunday.

A final shot on our last evening at Aegina.

A Greek Oddesey, on the island of Aegina

Aegina is an island of the Saronic group and is about 17 miles south west of Athens. The capital, main port and home for roughly half the population is Aegina Town. In mythology its name comes from Aegina the mother of Aeacus who was born here and became its king. During ancient times it was a rival to Athens and a great sea power. Now it is a tourist centre for both Greek and international travellers. There are also a number of weekend and holiday homes owned by wealthy Athenians.

This is the flag of Aegina, I assume the blue represents the sea and I guess the red is blood, given the gruesome and blood-soaked history of the island.

The geology of the island has a big impact on the island's ecology and activities. The Northern third is limestone which is quarried as a building material and was used for the superb statues carved here in ancient times. The limestone also supports the growth of pine forests which, apart from timber, were cultivated for resin used in wine production and for turpentine. The centre of the island is granite and mountainous. This area is used for the cultivation of olives, grapes, almonds, figs and goatherding. The south west area is what has really made Aegina's name internationally famous through the production of pistachio nuts. They have been awaded a Designated Appellation of Origin by the EU. There is even a pistachio festival in September.

Here you can see the nuts as they appear in early June.

The part of the harbour in Aegina Town designated for the local fishermen, millionaire row is a little further round towards the centre of the picture and the ferry terminal above left. Our host Tom picked us up off the ferry for a free transfer to the Beachhouse.

Another view of the harbour front of Aegina Town. The cathedral is the more distant of the two churches you can see.

 One of the hydrofoils in action. They do the Piraeus to Aegina run in forty minutes.

So let's have a look at what will be our home for the next ten days. The beach immediately in front of the aptly named Beachhouse. The initial part of the beach is a small lagoon bounded by rocks and up to about waist deep. It is lovely and very safe for children especially.

Meet Spiros who is the general factotum and with his pal William, between them they take care of most of our needs. Helen is sitting in the beach bar which also does a line in simple food.

The front of the not very prepossessing apartment building. There are eight apartments all together, two to the front and two to the right side, on each level. We are round to the right on the first level. The accommodation is quite modest, but at less than 50 Euros a night, really good value.

Our kitchen, in addition we have quite a large bedroom, a hall and a bathroom. We are a friendly gang with a range of nationalities, Finns, Swedish, German, French, UK Cypriots, Irish and us. As ever English is the lingua franca. The owner Tom works hard to ensure things go smoothly.

The waters of the Saronic Gulf are beautifully clear so the snorkeling is great. The one thing to be aware of are the sea urchins which can leave you with spines in your skin and a sting.

A Greek Odyssey 2nd June 2018

Today we leave Athens and head for our chosen island in the Saronic Gulf, Aegina. It seems that it is pronounced like "egg in a basket" only without the basket bit.
We have to leave the apartment by 11am to give us enough time to get to the ferry terminal for 12-30 which is the requested one hour before sailing. We close the door on the flat at 10-50 and make for the metro station.
The Athens Metro system is modern clean and efficient. The same cannot be said for the railway network. The Hellenic Railway network runs on a loss of about $3.8 million per day. It has an accumulated debt of over $13 billion or about 5% of Greek GDP. Many lines no longer run. The average salary of railway staff is $78000 per year. We are waiting on the platform of Athens main railway station Larissa. As the world over the trains suffer from a graffiti problem. Despite all the problems our train arrived and departed on time. The fare at sixty cents seemed a little modest for a twenty minutes journey albeit for pensioners.

I'm not sure what Helen is quite so happy about, maybe it's the fare or maybe the handsome young soldier sitting across the carriage.

I spotted this ancient train parked up on a defunct platform that looked like it had been there since 1955. I wondered if anyone has thought of its tourist potential rusting away

 Having lugged our luggage from the station to our ferry gate, we discovered that the boat was still there. In fact we weren't allowed to board it yet as we were too early.

So I took this picture just to prove the point.

Piraeus as well as being a major ferry terminal is also the main commercial port for Greece

This is the pilot boat returning home. He is splashing through the waves of our wash.

Not our first glimpse of Aegina, you can easily see it from the mainland, but I have taken this from the ferry because I reckon it's about where our accommodation is. In fact we later realised that the little white church that you can see in the left quarter is less than half a mile away from our place.

Bandits at 5 o'clock, a Supermarine Seagull attempts a low sortie.

I won't be doing a daily blog from the island because I will be too busy sunbathing, but will try to give you a flavour of the place. We intend to hire a car for 3 or 4 days so I also hope to capture the highlights of Aegina.

A Greek Odyssey 1st June 2018

What we are planning to do today is to try to cover all the major sites of central Athens on foot. We walked back up past the Acropolis Museum and on towards the car park where the ascent of the Acropolis hill starts. The road is closed to traffic and we soon realise that the reason is the Acropolis rally is taking place today. I was relieved to learn that it was not a hill climb but a serious 3 day event that takes in a lot of Greece. This is the start of it.

Number 59 coming out of the first corner, so far so good.

We duly started up the hill until we could overlook the Odeon of Herodes Atticus the inspiration for cinemas all over the world. This building is still a performance venue today.

This is how the Lonely Planet guide introduces the Acropolis. "The Acropolis is the most important ancient site in the Western world. Crowned by the Parthenon, it stands sentinel over Athens, visible from almost everywhere within the city. Its monuments and sanctuaries of Pentelic marble gleam white in the midday sun and gradually take on a honey hue as the sun sinks, while at night they stand brilliantly illuminated above the city. A glimpse of this magnificent site cannot fail to exalt your spirit."
Below is the Temple of Athena Nike. We will walk on up the uneven but smoothed marble bedrock where millions have walked before. Approaching the Parthenon building gives me a real tingle of excitement. I have read so much about it and seen so many images, and now the real thing.

The West end with its eight Doric columns and absent, looted, exploded, collapsed pediment.
Restoration is in progress, but where do you stop?

Now the East end with a fragment of the pediment still in place.

The North side with its seventeen columns and constant stream of people treading the Panathenaic Way.

A shot showing some of the details of the East pediment. As you can see very little remains of the original structure. There have been many constructions and deconstructions, seiges and sackings, looting and pillaging, nevermind the conversions to mosques and churches all over the entire site. Remember the "classical" buildings were constructed by Pericles in the C5 BCE.

This is the most sacred part of the Acropolis and is called the Erechtheum. It has various components, facing us is the North porch with its roof supported by six female figures called Caryatids. These are plaster casts, the originals are in the museum, except for one, of course which is in the British museum. Those of you of an architectural bent will spot that the Erechtheum is of the Ionic order compared with the Doric used for the Parthenon.

Looking down from the top of the Acropolis to the East you can see the Temple of Zeus and Hadrian's Arch

Now looking West over the Ancient Agora, an area of markets and workshops. The picture shows the Temple of Hephaestus, the best preserved Doric temple in Greece. Hephaestus was the god of the forge and it was surrounded by foundries and metalwork shops.

Here we are looking across to the Lykavittos Hill. This is the highest point in the Athens baisen. There is a church built to St George on the top and a concealed funicular railway to help you get there.

Walking down through the Ancient Agora one of the most striking buildings you encounter is the Tower of the winds. Built in the C1 BCE this octagonal monument is an ingenious construction that functioned as a sundial, weathervane, waterclock and compass.

We then walked along Ermou a long shopping street/lane. The further east you walked the more upmarket it became. Part way along was this church in the middle of the road. The C11 structure was saved from the bulldozers by the University of Athens. Its dome is supported by four roman columns.

We took a taxi to the start of the funicular railway and rode to the top of the Lykavittos Hill to encounter these views. I have zoomed in a little on the Acropolis.

 Here's a real size view of greater Athens and the Athens baisen.

After the high life we walked back to Syntagma square in time to witness the extraordinary changing of the guard that occurres every hour on the hour. This almost quaint, slightly humerous event is deadly serious, even if it does seem reminicent Monty Python's Ministry of Silly Walks sketch. The uniforms that the guards wear is based on the mountain fighters of the War of Independence. The Presidential Guard is highly selective, don't apply if you are less than 6 foot 3 inches. They are honouring the tomb of the unknown soldier, in the background, as well as protecting the President. The kilts, which they have to iron themselves are said to have 400 pleats in them. One for every year of the Turkish occupation of Greece.

 Strict attention to detail is observed, with every little tassel tweaked. The 11 o'clock change on Sundays is a particularly spectacular affair.

Next a delightful shady walk through the National Gardens takes us to the Temple of Zeus. This is the largest temple in Greece begun in the C6 BCE by Peisistratus if was abandoned for lack of funds. Various other people had a stab at finishing it but it was up to Hadrian to complete it in CE 131 taking 700 years to build. It was huge with 104 Corinthian columns of which 15 remain.

And some fell on stoney ground. This column succumbed to a gale in 1852.

Here you can see details of the capital of the Corinthian column with its arcanthus leaf decoration. After the temple it was time to get back to the apartment, rest a little and then out for a steak.
It has been a long day and we walked over 25,000 steps.  I reckon that's about 12 miles or 54 holes of golf. Come to that, this blog has been a bit of a marathon as well. I hope you have enjoyed reading it. My thanks, as ever, to Carol Rodgers for her support and encouraging comments.