Athens......

End of the first week of our holiday.  Now this is a city which needs way, way more than a flying visit.  The Odyssey docked at Piraeus and we were taken into the city by bus.

 Our first stop was the stadium where the first of the modern day Olympic Games were held in 1896. A much simpler affair than the transormation of east London which is taking place right now..

We then drove past many imposing buildings and caught just a glimpse of the famous Evzoni.

Our next stop was the amazing Museum of the Acropolis It is built with glass floors above the ruins of the older city. 

eventually this older part will be open too.  Inside where photography was strictly forbidden,  we were made very aware of the pieces that are in the British Museum, known as the Elgin Marbles.

Our final stop was the Acropolis itself.  We strolled up the wooded hill

and I caught a glimpse of this gentleman. I would have loved to seen him face on.

We paused at the first stone built theatre,

and kept climbing with our goal in sight.

  finally reached the Parthenon.


The top of the Acropolis is one huge restoration site and was crowded with tourists like us so I am quite pleased with this photograph because, I managed just one and a half people. Memo to all tourists, please do  not wear bright red, I so often find that I am just going to press the button and someone wearing brilliant scarlet appears in the viewfinder!!!!
I don't know if any other city in the world has such a viewpoint as this, which ever way you turn the city spreads out before you.

As you can see one day could not do justice to the amazing city.

I liked this reflection in the building behind our mooring



Navplion contd...

We arrived at the folk museum just twenty minutes before it closed, I could have spent a day.  Here are just a few of the wonderful costumes on display.

and something for the gentlemen

 There was beautiful lace

and I loved these purses

on the way out we liked this window

This is just a fraction of the museum.  Wish I had

 had more time.

Just time for a stroll through the square,

and a delicious ice cream

and a last look back at the town from the harbour.

Obligatory texture picture!!

I am still having problems, this post has taken over an hour to write.  I hope they fix it soon, Can't cope!

Navplion...

I had never heard of Navplion , what a delight. Elegant houses, some looked like Venice and the streets were made of marble..

Interesting shops full of beautiful clothes, shoes and jewelry and in one street this shop which was in its own little time warp.

     How I wish we had one of these in our town.

The town is dominated by the castle on the hill,

but on this occasion we decided not to climb to the top and walked to the beach instead.

One of the highlights of the day was the wonderful folk museum which i will save as the new blogger system for adding photographs is driving me nuts.  At the moment I can only load one photograph at a time and then I have to exit and go to edit before I can add the next.  Why is "new improved" usually a recipe for disaster?.

Milos.......

the voyage continued. Milos is another volcanic island.  There is a lot to see on the island  and we were spoilt for choice.  We chose  to go to Plaka the main town where we climbed the hill for a great view over much of the island.

                                                       and this was the view from th top

Exhausted we retired to The Patio for lunch and then watched the energetic people on the ships marina.

As we left we had a view of one of the fishing villages 

 and we had the satisfaction of saying "we climbed that hill"

Ah, time for dinner

When you least expect it.....

stuff happens.  Today I went to help  steward  The exhibition that the EG South East Area are mounting at Hall Place, Bexley, Kent. Weather wise a totally dismal day.


Whoops, I was interrupted and posted the above instead of saving it!!!!!


Yesterday was not a good day, after I left the exhibition I went to do my weekly shop and the clutch on my car snapped.  That will curtail my shopping at the Knit and Stitch this week.


Apart from the exhibition I was going to tell you about my visit to the British Museum this week.  I haven't been able to follow it on the radio but I have been fascinated by the idea of the BBC series A History of the World in 100 objects from the British Museum. Armed with my booklet and map I set off to find these treasures.  Here is the oldest object in the Museum

A chopping tool.  Nearby there was a lovely lady with a similar tool and you could actually hold it.  What an amazing sensation, to hold something that had been made and used nearly 2 million years ago.  It fitted the hand perfectly, I wanted to keep it but the lady said no.

This is a very poor photograph of textile fragments from Peru, dated about 300BC. Each one is only about 3 inches square

You can examine them closely here 

Again a not very good photograph of a double headed snake from Mexico, covered in a mosiac of tiny chips of turquoise.

again a better picture here..

I only managed about a quarter of the objects in my four hour visit.  Mainly due to th fact that I kept being side tracked by other wonderful objects.

 This beautiful gallery, The Age of Enlightenment, would take a day on it's own.

Great day, can't wait to go back and do some more. Here's a bit of ancient texture for you.