Dino & Debbie came and had breakfast with us this morning at the Congo Palace and then drove us to church. They now have a church building in Glyfada... back in 1999 we had to take a long bus ride into Athens to get to church. I'm wearing the same clothes, but at least I've had a shower!
Michael prayed for communion with Dino translating. He preached in Greek but Dino's sister sat by us and whispered translation. It was such a wonderful time of worship! Today is Dino's sister's birthday and they are having a family celebration, so he was not able to join us in Athens for the day. But not only does Glyfada have a rail car now that runs straight through the city, it has a metro stop! The underground metro now reaches all the way to Glyfada! Dino dropped us off at the stop and I could not believe how quickly we were at the Acropolis! Back in 1999 the only way from Glyfada to Athens was on the bus, and it was very slow going through traffic jams the entire way. It took at least an hour. Now you can zip from Glyfada to the Acropolis in about 15 minutes!
The metro dropped us off directly at the bottom of the Acropolis, and we enjoyed walking up to the entrance. Athens happens to celebrate "European Heritage Days" the last weekend of September each year, so admission to the Acropolis was free! I'm sure it made it more crowded, but free is free! I came here on my first day in Athens back in 1999, and paid the admission to bring Jonathan when he came to visit. And then Michael and I went back in 2006 with Wesley. Missing cute baby Wes today!
Looking from the Acropolis over to Mount Lycabettus, the highest point in Athens (but not flat enough for a giant temple) on one side, and the Temple of Zeus & Olympic stadium on the other. I love how nothing has changed here!
View of Mars Hill from the Propylaea... We walked there next.
Mars Hill is where Paul stood as he preached his sermon in Acts chapter 17. I found some photos (on the HUG Facebook page) of me with the group singing and listening to Nate Bills preach on Mars Hill on our first day in Athens back in 1999.
From student to young mama in 2006 to old mama today... It's such a special experience to be back in the exact same spot!
We didn't have time to visit the Greek Agora, but we did spend some time in the Roman Agora. This 400 year old mosque was in great disrepair and closed to the public back in 1999 and in 2006. It was restored and opened to the public only two years ago. Right now it contains an exhibition of photos of Athens during its occupation during WWII.
The Tower of the Winds has also been just recently restored - I've never been able to peek inside before! This tower was built well before the birth of Christ and is considered the world's first meteorological station. I have many many memories of passing it as a student while shopping in the Plaka.
Then & Now with sweet baby Wes in the Roman Agora. The Gate of Athena Archegetis was constructed in 11 B.C. with donations from Julius Caesar and Augustus. I wish we had taken more photos in the Plaka, since so many of my HUG memories are from there, but we were really hungry so we just enjoyed a leisurely lunch (all our Greek favorites) outside in the heart of the Plaka and kept on exploring the city by foot. I thought we'd dip back in but we popped out by Harian's Arch and just kept going.
Temple of Zeus & Hadrian's Arch Then & Now with sweet baby Wesley. I get frustrated that I have so few pictures of such a monumental time in my life from that semester abroad, but that was before digital photos and smart phones, and all I had was a literal camera. I had to be very conservative with what little film I had. I did have Mom mail me more film at some point - It was too expensive to purchase in Greece. But I had to be very stingy in taking pictures. Hard to remember a time we couldn't just snap as many pictures as we want!
Me at Olympic Stadium with Mindy, Jalaina & Whitney back in 1999, and then with Jonathan when he came to visit a couple months later:
Sweet baby Wesley in the same spot back in 2006, and then us old folks here today!
Okay,
file this under TMI, but the WC at Olympic Stadium holds special
significance for me... You count a pregnancy from the first day of your
last period, and I counted Anna Kate's pregnancy from a stop in this WC
on October 11, 2006. Pretty sure it was free back then, but Michael and I
both had to pay to go today, but it was well worth the price to visit
such a historical site!
I'm a little disappointed we ran out of time to dip back into the Plaka or to go the the Greek Agora, but our priority was to make it to the Acropolis Museum before it closed.
This was only a dream the
last two times we were here. It's so amazing to see it finished!! When I was here 20 years ago they were raising money
and talking about the need to build a museum so that The British Museum in London
could return the Parthenon Marbles. Britain claimed Athens did not have a safe place for them. So the Greek people built this
amazing glass museum to display the marbles, and you can see the actual
Parthenon from the display room. But all that work, and Britain
still won’t give them their marbles back. Pretty crummy. I’ve seen the real Parthenon marbles twice in The British Museum, and their display area is
dark and dungeon like. This would be amazing. Right now Athens is
displaying reproductions cast from the originals (which Britain charged them to do!). C’mon British Museum...
It was so stunning watching the sun set around the Acropolis from the museum. It really is a stunning modern building. I remember roasting in the museums we visited in Athens back in 1999 - They were all very old and had no air conditioning. This museum is among the finest I've seen in the world. I'm so proud of them for achieving the dream! They were literally handing out flyers just floating the dream back in 1999.
They have just this year opened some of the excavated area under the museum to the public. They found many antiquities when they excavated to build the museum... they put the museum high on pylons above the ruins, and have continued work on excavations. Construction began on the museum just a year after we were last here in 2006, and the museum opened 10 years ago in 2009.
We ended the day with a hike up to the highest point in Athens, and dinner with an amazing view. We took the incline rail up to the top of Mount Lycabettus, but it was still quite the uphill hike to get up to that rail station at the bottom. We have sweet memories of baby Wesley being Mr. Independent on that incline rail ride, refusing to sit in a lap or hold a hand. The rail car looks pretty much the same today, but darker blue. Wesley wasn't walking yet when we were here 13 years ago, but he toddled all over this place holding on to both my hands:
Back in 1999 we were too poor for the rail car... we hiked allllll the way up. And it was no small task. I was young then.
Thirteen years ago we ate inside at the restaurant on top of Mount Lycabettus. Prices have more than quadrupled since then, so this time we ate at the much cheaper cafe outside. But we had a gorgeous panoramic view. I'm wondering why we didn't take any pictures of us at dinner, but to be honest (writing this later), it's because it hit us at dinner that our luggage was not coming. We had full faith it would be delivered while we were out, but we called the hotel to check at dinner, and they said it had not. It dawned on us we were in a pickle. I literally thought we were going to have to try to back out of the cruise. I couldn't figure out how we could go with no clothes or luggage, or how they could get it to us once we were sailing. Despite the amazing view, we both were hit with a lot of stress during that dinner. So it was a stressful end to what was otherwise a perfect day. But we took the metro back to Glyfada and just prayed our luggage would arrive by morning.
