31 December ’04, Friday. New Years Eve in Athens Greece…. We thought about going into town for the big celebrations with fireworks, but they stop running the buses, trams, and trains at 11pm. Unfortunately, that would put us about 15 to 20 miles away from “Bumble Bee” without any transportation except for a cab. Now a cab here in Athens would just about break the bank and that is if we could find one to get. Well, let’s back up a day or two… On our arrival here we bought a 4 day pass to 6 of the more sought after ruins in Athens. We really thought that we would have the time to see them in the first 2 days at most…well, that didn’t happen, as the weather had something to say about it. Wednesday we awoke to rain so we kind of just vegged here until about 3, and then we decided that since the rain had let up, we might as well head into town for a night time visit… What a choice that was. We had a wonderful time. By the time we got off the tram, it was just getting dark, so all the ruins were lit up and looking just awesome. We walked all around the major sites, stopping, looking, and reading about some, and also just people watching. About 8 we wandered into a large park in the center of Athens. They were having a Christmas celebration complete with a very tall and beautiful Christmas tree, Santa Claus, music, and lot’s of sweet booths (kind of like the Bite of Seattle). There was one booth that we just had to spend some money at…they were selling “Crème Brulee”…it was the best !!! Before we knew it, it was time for us to head for the tram if we wanted to get home before midnight. Yesterday we awoke to rain again, but we decided we would head into town anyway, so we ate a light breakfast and headed out. The night before, we had walked into an electronics shop just to look around…before we left, we had arranged to pick up a new 17” slim-screen monitor this morning. It was absolutely driving me crazy not having my computer working. We picked it up this morning prior to heading to The National Archaeological Museum. Doing this today, because of the wet weather, just seemed to be the right thing to do. What an incredible visit that was, we were impressed !!! “Jockyboy” of Artemision, which is a large bronze statue of the 2nd c. BC, that was found underwater. Another bronze casting that I was taken with, was the statue of Zeus. That was also found under water. Both of these were apparently found in shipwrecks and were in really good condition. After about 4 hours we had taken in the whole museum, so we made for home. This morning (Friday), we again donned out rain gear and headed out. This time we just had to see the sites that we had been putting off come hell or high water… What we went to see was “The Acropolis, the symbol of Athens, the sacred rock, linking the fabulous ancient civilization with the modern city. The monuments on the Sacred Rock date back to the prehistoric era and antiquity. We also saw The Temple of Athena Nike (Apteros Nike), The Propylaea, The Parthenon, which is a masterpiece it’s self, The Temple of Hephaistros, another architectural masterpiece, and the Roman Agora. Oh yes, we also visited the small and the large “Theatres”. You might say…We Saw It All !!
We had a little rain as we left “Bumble Bee”, but fortunately it stopped for the whole time we were at the ruins…BUT, on the way home…it really let loose. We’ll have some Champagne tonight and toast all of you …
Here’s to a HAPPY AND PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR !!!!
We had a little rain as we left “Bumble Bee”, but fortunately it stopped for the whole time we were at the ruins…BUT, on the way home…it really let loose. We’ll have some Champagne tonight and toast all of you …
Here’s to a HAPPY AND PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR !!!!