Athens - Warsawa - Amsterdam

An early start brought is to Nea Makri to have a freddo Capucino or freddo Espresso.

Nea Makri (Greek: Νέα Μάκρη), also Nea Makris is a town located in the northeastern part of Attica and the peninsula.

Town layout

The street system is gridded aligning within Petalies Gulf connecting the Aegean Sea to the east. Nea Makri is linked with Marathonos Avenue (GR-53) that ends at Marathon to the north, and which added two more lanes between 2002 and 2005 and became a divided avenue to the west which stretches up to Nea Makri and GR-83 to the north. Other main streets include Poseidonos Avenue.

History

The area was once known as Plesti, but following the 1922 Greek military disaster in Asia Minor and the subsequent repatriation of Greeks from the town of Makri, it was renamed Nea Makri (New Makri).

Location

The Penteli mountains that are covered with forests lie to the west and southwest while farmlands are within Petalies Gulf and to the north except for the downtown part of Nea Makri. Beaches cover the eastern part and restaurants, hotels, and tavernas cover the area within the shoreline. Nea Makri is located NE of Athens and the Attiki Odos (number 63), NNE of the Eleftherios Venizelos Airport, SE of GR-1 and SW of Grammatiko.

Population

Until the 1970s, most of the population was rural. As housing developments came to the area, the population boomed and filled into the settlements. Housing developments continue to this day.

A American naval communications base used to exist from mid to the late 20th century north of Nea Makri. The outbreak of the disease of 1996 did not affect Nea Makri, but the July 28, 2005 forest fire affected the southern part as smoke blanketed the southern part during the evening hours. The fire did not threaten Nea Makri at all. The threat was floods on November 24, 2005, and flooded streets and residential buildings, destroying properties as well as their homes, which was rare and caused traffic chaos as some automobiles were stranded.

We had a vry nice fishy lunch at Rafina

Rafina (Greek: Ραφήνα) is a town located on the eastern coast of Attica in Greece.

Geography

Rafina lies east of the Penteli mountains and northeast of the Mesogeia plain with an area of farmland near the coastline to the north. The Cephissus River lies to the west. It is located E of Athens and the Attiki Odos (number 63), S of Nea Makri, NNE of the Eleftherios Venizelos Airport and N of Loutsa. Rafina is about 30 km E of downtown Athens.

The Municipality of Rafina contains, besides the city itself, a large portion of the surrounding area, which is mostly woodland and farmland.

Road and sea access

The town can be accessed through Marathonos Avenue (GR-54) to the west. Other roads link with the town of Artemida, also known as Loutsa, to the south and Nea Makri to the North.

Rafina is a port town serving ferries to the southern part of Euboea as well as most of the Cyclades. Its port is the second largest of Attica, after that of Piraeus, but it will probably be superseded by the one in Lavrio, which is currently being expanded.

History

Rafina was established in the 1920s by refugees fleeing from Anatolia after the end of the Greco-Turkish War (1919-1922). Its name is an anagram of the name of an ancient Greek city which was located roughly in the same location as the modern town. Until the 1960s and the 1970s, most of the population was rural. As housing developments came to the area, the population boomed and moved into the settlements.

The beautiful small church of Agios Nicolas overlooks the blue sea just North of the town. The chappel was built after World War II by men who were to be executed but spared at the last minute. The town commandant had been assassinated and the Germans rounded up townspeople in retaliation. Another group of men were executed and those at the present site of Agios Nicolas were spared.

July 2005 forest fire

On July 28, 2005, a forest fire began near the area of the hills southwest of Rafina at 11:00 EET (8:00 a.m. GMT). The fires expanded quickly with windspeeds of 60 to 70 km/h, threatening forests around the hills and the small mountain range that runs from north of Spata to near Rafina, consuming most of the forest and burning homes in two settlements including Kallitechnoupoli. The fires also threatened Neos Voutzas near Penteli. As a result of property damage, a large number of people were displaced. Traffic was redirected or halted as Marathonos Avenue was shut down from its junction near Pikermi. Thick smoke covered the area until about 5 p.m. EET, when the wind calmed down and changed direction to the northeast near Rafina. A massive mobilization of fire departments across the region of Attica followed, and eventually most of the region's available personnel were deployed to the area. Firefighting efforts were assisted by water bombers and helicopters. The gradual decrease of windspeeds in the area slowed the spread of the fire. The fire was put under control in the afternoon and was fully extinguished by nightfall. The flames did not reach the city itself. On the same day another forest fire began in the area of Neos Voutzas at 13:00 EET (11:00 a.m. GMT).

After lunch my friends droppe me at the airport for a long flight or better a strange one. This time I was going by Warasawa in Poland which took me a much longer flight total to get to Amsterdam as I also had to stay 3 hours in between flights. I arrived in Amsterdam at 22.30.

 

Athens - Pireus

After a very good night with a visit to a typical Greek Taverna today we visit Piraeus (below text from Wikipedia).

Piraeus (Modern Greek: Πειραιάς Pireás, Ancient Greek / Katharevousa: Πειραιεύς Peiraieus) is a city in the periphery of Attica, Greece, located to the south of the city of Athens. It is the capital of the Piraeus Prefecture and belongs to the Athens urban area. It was the port of the ancient city of Athens and it was chosen to serve as the modern port when Athens was re-founded in 1834. Piraeus remains one of the busiest shipping and industrial centres of the Mediterranean and is the terminus for Line 1 (the "green line"), the electric train service now incorporated into the Athens Metro.

The population of the dimos (municipality) of Piraeus (Δήμος Πειραιώς) is 175,697 (2001). The nomarchia of Piraeus, which includes the surrounding land and some of the islands of the Saronic Gulf, has a population of 541,504 (2001). It consists of a rocky promontory, containing three natural harbours, a large one on the north-west which is an important commercial harbour for the eastern Mediterranean Sea, and two smaller ones, Zea and Mikrolimano, used for naval purposes. The port serves ferry routes to almost every island in the eastern portion of Greece, the island of Crete, the Cyclades, the Dodecanese, and much of the northern and the eastern Aegean. The western part of the port is used for cargo services and covers a huge area. Much of that part of the harbour is in suburban Drapetsona and Keratsini.

Ancient times

 

Piraeus has been inhabited since about 2,600 BC.^[1] The name Piraeus roughly means "the place over the passage". In very early antiquity Piraeus was a rocky island (the settlement of Munychia-the present Kastella) connected to the mainland by a low-lying stretch of land that was flooded with sea water most of the year and was used as a salt field whenever it dried up. Consequently it was called the "Halipedon" (salt field) and its muddy soil made it a tricky passage. The area was increasingly silted and flooding ceased, and by early classical times the land passage was made safe. It was then that Piraeus assumed its importance as a deep water harbor, and the older, shallow Phaleron harbor fell into gradual disuse.

Themistocles was the first to urge the Athenians to take advantage of these harbours, instead of using the sandy bay of Phaleron. Foreseeing a new attack by the Persians -after the Battle of Marathon- he built large fortification works and turned Piraeus into a military harbor in 493 BC. The shipyards that were created then, built the mighty Athenian fleet, which distinguished itself at the Battle of Salamis.

In 460 BC the fortifications were completed by Kimon and Pericles when Piraeus was connected with Athens by the Long Walls. The original town of Piraeus was planned by the architect Hippodamus of Miletus in the famous grid system that he devised, probably in the time of Pericles. The main agora was named after him, as an honor.

During the Peloponnesian Wars, Piraeus was the major Athenian port. In 404 BC, Munychia was seized by Thrasybulus and the exiles from Phyle, and in the Battle of Munychia, the Phyleans defeated the Thirty Tyrants in Athens. The three chief arsenals of Piraeus were Munychia, Zea and Cantharus, which could contain 82, 196 and 94 ships respectively in the 4th century BC. Piraeus, as a port, would follow the fate of Athens. After the end of the Peloponnesian Wars, when Athens came under Spartan occupation, Piraeus was to bear the brunt of the victors' rage. These walls would be torn down, the triremes found in the harbor surrendered to the Spartans or were burned, while the renowned neosoikoi ("ships' houses") would be pulled down and indeed in an almost festive manner-with music, dancing and songs.

After the reinstatement of democracy, Konon rebuilt the walls in 393 BC, funded the temples of Aphrodite Euploia, the sanctuary of Zeus Sotiros and Athena, and built the famous Skevothiki of Philon, the ruins of which have been discovered at Zea. This revival of the town was quashed by the Roman Sulla who captured Piraeus in 86 BC. The destruction was completed in 395 AD by the Goths under Alaric. During the Byzantine period the harbor of Piraeus was used at various intervals, but it was very far from the capital, Constantinople.

Ottoman times

 

In 1456, it became known as the "Aslan Liman" of the Turks (the Lion's Port), getting its name from the marble lion standing at the point where, later, the old Town Hall was built.^[1] The marble lion was removed and stolen in 1688, during Francesco Morozini's well-known expedition against Athens, and carried to the Arsenal of Venice where it still stands today (see Piraeus Lion). A copy of the lion statue is on display at the Piraeus Archaeological Musuem.

Throughout the Turkish occupation, Piraeus was mostly deserted except for a small place of habitation was around the St. Spyridonas Monastery. During that time there was only a customs house and the monastery of St. Spyridonas.

Modern Greek state

With the creation of the modern Greek state and the proclamation of Athens as the capital in 1832, the port again acquired a reason for existence and growth and developed into a great commercial and industrial center. People started to come back to the city once again. A town plan for Piraeus was also drawn up and approved by King Othon.[1] Following the establishment of the town, municipal elections were held to elect a new mayor for the city.

It quickly became the leading port and second largest city in Greece. Helping the city grow was its prime geographical location and closeness to the Greek capital.

The town flourished and lovely buildings were constructed. One of them, which continues to ornament the present town, is the Municipal Theater, an excellent example of neoclassical architecture. Today, Piraeus is the third largest city in Greece and the largest port in the country.
Large parts of the Themistoclean Walls around the shoreline survive in very good condition to this day, and are incorporated in seaside promenades. Remnants of the neosoikoi, where the triremes were kept in wintertime, were also excavated and valuable information about ancient shipbuilding and sailing was obtained by their study.
Greek shipping

In addition to being the largest marine-based shipping centre of Greece, Piraeus is also the commercial hub of Greek shipping, with most of Greece's shipowners basing their commercial operations there, largely centered around the street Akti Miaouli.

In its capacities as host to Greek shipping, Piraeus has been affected largely by the various Governments of Greece. For example, after World War II, the Greek government attempted to nationalize the proceeds of the insurance payments given to Greek shipowners who had lost vessels as a result of those vessels having been commandeered by the Allied Forces. The insurance had been provided by Lloyd's of London and guaranteed by the coalition of the allied forces. Although the Greek shipowners ultimately won their case against the Greek government in the British courts, most were uninterested in continuing to base their headquarters in Piraeus both out of distrust of the Greek government and the fact that the war had left the greater Athens area in a state of severe poverty. As a result, the Greek shipowners left Piraeus en masse in favor of operations in London, New York, Alexandria and other major shipping cities.

Athens - Acropolis

Today we started early and went by Metro to the Plaka and Monastiraki.

Most text was copied from other sites, like Wikipedia and Lonely Planet. Pictures (added later) are originals though.  

Plaka, (Greek: Πλάκα), lying just beneath the Acropolis, is famous for its numerous neoclassic buildings, making it one of the most scenic districts of Athens. It remains the traditional top tourist destination, with many tavernas featuring traditional music.

Nearby Monastiraki (Greek: Μοναστηράκι), on the other hand, is famous for its string of small tourist shops as well as its crowded flea market and the tavernas that specialize in souvlaki. Another district notably famous for its student-crammed, stylish cafés is Theseum or Thission (Greek: Θησείο), lying just west of Monastiraki. Thission is home to the remarkable ancient temple of Hephaestus, standing on top of a small hill.

I have to say it is nice and hectic, but off the main roads it is even cosey. What is terrible though is meeting a person every minute trying to sell you something, from sigaret lighters, sunglasses, CD/DVD to crafted African woodwork. You're not a minute without someone, especially when sitting at a restaurant or cafe.

We visited and photographed especially the Tower of the Winds,

The famous Tower of the Winds is just a block up from Adrianou on Aeolou street and it is a part of the ancient Roman Agora. It is meteorological station from the first century built by the Syrian Astronomer Andronikos Kyrrhestes. It had a hydrolic clock fueled from a reservoir on the south side and inside was a mechanical device that represented the sun, the moon and the five known planets. The freize which represents the winds and their personalities is the most interesting part of the building and deserves a closer look.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
The Mosque on the grounds of the Roman Agora was called the Mosque of Mehmet the Conqueror, built around 1458 for the visit to Athens by Sultan Mehmet a fan of the ancient Greek philosophers. Later the Mosque was known as the Wheat Bazaar Mosque because it was next to the yearly wheat market. It was briefly a Catholic church during the five months that the Venetians occupied the city. The minaret was demolished after Greece won it's independence and the mosque became a school for teachers and then a bakery for the army. Now it is just used for storage by the archaeologists working on the Roman Agora.

Across from the Tower is the doorway of the Medrese, originally a theological school founded in 1721 by Mehmet Fahri. During the War of Independence the Turks used it as a prison and hung many Greeks from the platanos tree and after the war the Greeks used it for the same purpose. In the minds of the Athenians it became a cursed place. The poet Achilleas Paraschos in 1843 predicted that one day it would be chopped up and used for firewood. He was right. In 1919 the tree was struck by lightning and the rest was chopped down and used for firewood. The building itself was demolished except for the door.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next step was the Agora:

The Agora (market) was Athens' meeting place in ancient times, the focal point of administrative, commercial, political and social life. All roads led to this bustling and crowded place, where Socrates once expounded his philosophy and, later, where St Paul disputed daily in an attempt to win converts to Christianity.

The site was first developed in the 6th century BC. It was devastated by the Persians in 480 BC, but a new agora was built in its place almost immediately. It was flourishing by Pericles' time and continued to do so until AD 267, when it was destroyed by the Herulians, a Gothic tribe from Scandinavia.

A good place to begin an exploration of the site is in the reconstructed Stoa of Attalos, originally built between 159 and 138BC; its expensive shops were a popular stamping ground for moneyed Athenians. It houses the Agora Museum, where there's a model of the Agora upstairs along with a collection of finds from the site. The Temple of Hephaestus, on the western edge of the Agora, dates from 449BC and is the best-preserved Doric temple in Greece.

 

To the northeast of the temple are the foundations of the Stoa of Zeus Eleutherios, one of the places where Socrates spoke to the masses.

Near the southern entrance of the market is the Church of the Holy Apostles, which was built in the early 11th century to commemorate St Paul and his teachings. Have a look at the Byzantine frescoes inside.

After a simple, but nice Greeck lunch we started the climb to the Acropolis.

 

That day it was rather warm so it was a good tyring but rewarding journey.

The Acropolis of Athens is the best known acropolis (high city, The "Sacred Rock") in Greece and in the world. Although there are many other acropoleis in Greece, the significance of the Acropolis of Athens is such that it is commonly known as The Acropolis without qualification. The Acropolis was formally proclaimed as the pre-eminent monument on the European Cultural Heritage list of monuments on the 26th of March, 2007[1]. The Acropolis is a flat-topped rock which rises 150 m (512 ft) above sea level in the city of Athens, Greece. It was also known as Cecropia, after the legendary serpent-man, Kekrops or Cecrops, the first Athenian king.

Early human occupation

 

While the earliest artifacts date to the Middle Neolithic era, there have been documented habitations in Attica from the Early Neolithic (6th millennium BC). Once into the Bronze Age, there is little doubt that a Mycenaean megaron must have stood on top of the hill, housing the local potentate and his household, guards, the local cult facilities and a number of workshops and ordinary habitations. The compound was surrounded by a thick Cyclopean circuit wall, possibly between 4.5 m and 6 m in height, consisting of two parapets built with large stone blocks and cemented with an earth mortar called emplekton. The wall follows typical Mycenaean convention in that its gate was arranged obliquely, with a parapet and tower overhanging the incomers' right-hand side, thus facilitating defence. There were two lesser approaches up the hill on its north side, consisting of steep, narrow flights of steps cut in the rock. Homer is assumed to refer to this fortification when he mentions the "strong-built House of Erechtheus" (Odyssey 7.81). It was during that time that an earthquake caused a fissure near the northeastern edge, one that ran all the way down to the marl layer and in which water collected. An elaborate set of stairs was built and the well was used as a protected source of drinking water during some portion of the Mycenaean period, as it was invaluable in times of siege.

The Dark Ages

It seems that the Acropolis might have been spared the violent destruction of other Mycenaean palaces, as there are no signs of fire or other large-scale destruction in what few artifacts of that time survive. This agrees with the standard Athenian folklore that the area resisted the Dorians successfully. Not much is known as to the precise state of building on the rock leading up to the archaic era, except that the Acropolis was taken over by Kylon in the Kylonian revolt, and twice by Pisistratus: all attempts directed at seizing political power by coups d' etat. Nevertheless it seems that a nine-gate wall, the Enneapylon, had been built around the biggest water spring, the "Clepsydra", at the northwestern foot. It was Pisistratus who initially established a precinct for Artemis on the site.

Archaic Acropolis

 

A sizeable temple sacred to "Athena Polias" (Protectress of the City) was erected by mid-6th century BC. This Doric limestone building, from which many relics survive, is referred to as the "Bluebeard" temple, named after the pedimental three-bodied man-serpent sculpture, whose beards were painted dark blue. Whether this temple replaced an older one, or a mere sacred precinct or altar, is not known. In the late 6th century BC yet another temple was built, usually referred to as the Archaios Naos (Old Temple). It is thought that the so-called Doerpfeld foundations might have belonged to this temple, which may have been sacred not to Polias but to Athena Parthenos (Virgin), at least for as long as the Polias "Bluebeard" temple stood. It is not known how long these temples coexisted.

To confuse matters further, by the time the "Bluebeard" Temple had been dismantled, a newer and grander marble building, the "Older Parthenon", was started following the victory at Marathon in 490 BC. To accommodate it, the south part of the summit was cleared of older remnants, made level by adding some 8,000 two-ton blocks of Piraeus limestone, a foundation 11 m deep at some points, and the rest filled with earth kept in place by the retaining wall. The Mycenaean gate was demolished and replaced with the Old Propylon, a monumental colonnaded structure whose purpose was strictly ceremonial, rather than defensive.

The Older Parthenon was caught unfinished by the invading Persians in 480 BC, and was razed to the ground burnt and looted, along with the Archaios Neos and practically everything else on the rock. Once the Persian Wars were over, the Athenians brought some order to the location, firstly by ceremonially burying objects of worship and art that were rendered unsuitable for further use. This "Persian debris" is the richest archaeological treasure excavated on the Acropolis, as its burial had protected it from further destruction through the ages.

The Periclean building program

 
Most of the major temples were rebuilt under the leadership of Pericles during the Golden Age of Athens (460–430 BC). Phidias, a great Athenian sculptor, and Ictinus and Callicrates, two famous architects, were responsible for the reconstruction. During the 5th century BC, the Acropolis gained its final shape. After winning at Eurymedon in 468 BC, Cimon and Themistocles ordered the reconstruction of southern and northern walls, and Pericles entrusted the building of the Parthenon to Ictinus and Phidias.

In 437 BC Mnesicles started building the Propylaea, monumental gates with columns of Penteli marble, partly built upon the old propylaea of Pisistratus. These colonnades were almost finished in the year 432 BC and had two wings, the northern one serving as picture gallery. At the same time, south of the propylaea, building of the small Ionic Temple of Athena Nike commenced. After an interruption caused by the Peloponnesian War, the temple was finished in the time of Nicias' peace, between 421 BC and 415 BC.

During the same period the building of the Erechtheum, a combination of sacred precincts including the temples of Athena Polias, Poseidon, Erechtheus, Cecrops, Erse, Pandrosos and Aglauros, with its so-called the Kore Porch (or Caryatids' balcony), was begun.

Between the temple of Athena Nike and the Parthenon there was the temenos of Artemis Brauronia or Brauroneion, the goddess represented as a bear and worshipped in the deme of Brauron. The archaic xoanon of the goddess and a statue made by Praxiteles in the 4th century BC were both in the sanctuary.

Behind the Propylaea, Phidias' gigantic bronze statue of Athena Promachos ("she who fights in the front line"), built between 450 BC and 448 BC, dominated. The base was 1.50 m high, while the total height of the statue was 9 m. The goddess held a lance whose gilt tip could be seen as a reflection by crews on ships rounding Cape Sounion, and a giant shield on the left side, decorated by Mys with images of the fight between the Centaurs and the Lapiths. Other monuments that have left almost nothing visible to the present day are the Chalkotheke, the Pandroseion, Pandion's sanctuary, Athena's altar, Zeus Polieus's sanctuary and, from Roman times, the circular temple of Augustus and Rome.

Archaeological remains

The entrance to the Acropolis was a monumental gateway called the Propylaea. To the south of the entrance is the tiny Temple of Athena Nike. A bronze statue of Athena, sculpted by Phidias, originally stood at its center. At the centre of the Acropolis is the Parthenon

 

or Temple of Athena Parthenos (Athena the Virgin). East of the entrance and north of the Parthenon is the temple known as the Erechtheum.

 

South of the platform that forms the top of the Acropolis there are the also the remains of an outdoor theatre called Theatre of Dionysus. A few hundred metres away, there is the, now partially reconstructed Theatre of Herodes Atticus.

Site plan of the Acropolis at Athens showing the major archaeological remains

Site plan

1. Parthenon
2. Old Temple of Athena
3. Erechtheum
4. Statue of Athena Promachos
5. Propylaea
6. Temple of Athena Nike
7. Eleusinion
8. Sanctuary of Artemis Brauronia or Brauroneion
9. Chalkotheke
10. Pandroseion
11. Arrephorion
12. Altar of Athena
13. Sanctuary of Zeus Polieus
14. Sanctuary of Pandion
15. Odeon of Herodes Atticus
16. Stoa of Eumenes
17. Sanctuary of Asclepius or Asclepieion
18. Theatre of Dionysus Eleuthereus
19. Odeon of Pericles
20. Temenos of Dionysus Eleuthereus
21. Aglaureion

Amsterdam - Munic - Athens

The least interesting part of the trip. It was extremely busy at Schiphol Airport so I was just in time for the boarding. Plain left late, so again just in time to board at Munic for the last part of the flight and arrival in Athens was as scheduled. Marijke met me at the airport to drive as a Greek (that is fast ..) to her husband at work. Together we went to their beautiful house in Kifisia to have a nice late lunch at one f the many restaurants in the neighbourhood. Ending that day with some nice bottles of wine at home .. tomorrow the real experience will start.