July 4, 2025

This was to be an open day, free to explore. After the excellent hotel breakfast we walked to a small church, The Holy Church of St Nicholas Rangavas. There was a tour group inside, we had to wait until they left. The art work and ornate decorations were worth seeing. The tour guide said during the nearly 400 year long Ottoman occupation of Greece churches were not allowed to ring or even possess church bells but this church has a bell from long before the occupation, having hidden it in the basement. Next we walked the antiflotika neighborhood where homes were built to mimic the brightly colored homes on the Greek islands, specifically the cyclades. This picture is from that neighborhood. It’s possible to get the acropolis in just about every picture.

We walked to the “sort of famous” Mniskleous Stairs, where eateries are on both sides of its considerable length and people sit on the stairs on either side.

Despite the heat we continued to walk. We passed the Roman agora, the ancient Greek agora, and eventually reached the Museum of Illusions. It was the highlight of the day. The two corners of the room are equidistant from the camera

This is a cushion I’m sitting on, the long upright post is 3 or 4 feet in front of me, the two shorter posts are 6 to 8 feet in front.

Lunch at L’ amiral and gelato at Mona Lisa, then to Church of Dimitrius Lombardiaris, closed and locked. Here it is:

On a side of the acropolis hill, it survived an artillery attack, thus the name Lambardiaris (bomber). I was interested to see the Church of St Dionysius built on the site where Paul preached the Aeropagus sermon (Acts 17:16) but it was also closed. In Rome and Florence every church was open, here almost none. We went to the National Gardens again, really a park. Found the tortoises we had heard about. Finally ate at Messi. So far lots of moussaka, souvlaki and Greek salads.

July 5, Saturday

The rental car was delivered to us at the hotel, as promised. But the drive outside of Athens was little more than 8 blocks from the hotel when the “driver” wanted to be dropped off at a bus stop, “just drive straight” he said. We eventually found our way to Corinth to see the canal and a bonus, bungee jumpers.

Straight and deep, that’s the Aegean at the top of the picture, the gulf of Corinth is the other end of the canal. That connects to the adriatic. The bungee jumpers had to wait for the boat to pass, that’s how far down they go. Next stop Mycenae, an outpost of the Minoan civilization. The ruins are another acropolis. Peggy really wanted to see the beehive tombs, we eventually found a few. This one is according to legend the tomb of Clytemnestra, sister of Helen of Troy.

And of course the Lion’s Gate, the entrance to the hill city of Mycenae. Two lions are facing each other on top of the lentil.

This civilization predates the Greek golden age, Socrates, Aristotle, Pericles, by about a thousand years, roughly 1,500 BC to 1,300 BC. The Trojan war probably occurred during that time frame and stories handed down from it became the Iliad and the Odyssey. Next stop on our tour of the peloponnese peninsula was Nafplio, an important port in the middle ages it became a colony of Venice, then of the Ottoman Empire and was briefly the capital of Greece in the early 1800’s. Here’s Syntagma (constitution) square with an abandoned mosque on the left side and the walled, fortified portion of the city above.

We didn’t have time to visit the theater at Epiduras, finally made it to Galeta around 6:30 PM. The evening meal was at Babis, a truly local “Greek” place, no English being spoken here, although they tell me Babi was speaking it, I couldn’t tell. Here we are with Babi, the ferry we will take tomorrow is in the background.