Istanbul to Athens — April 2023

 

At the Parthenon

Link to more photos. As always, view the photos individually to see the captions.

After Victor expressed interest in seeing Greece, I looked to combine it with a bit more, and signed up for this 12-day tour. It went well. The temperatures were a bit cool, and there was some rain on several days. Getting there and back required very long flights, of course, and ten hours time change.

In Istanbul, we began with a visit to Topkapi Palace, center of the Ottoman Empire and home to the sultans. We then got in line early for the Hagia Sophia mosque, the first of several mosques we visited during this trip. We were supposed to next visit the Turkish and Islamic Art Museum, but it was closed due to an electrical outage. Fortunately, it re-opened the next day and we went then. That busy day also included the Istanbul Spice Market, the Grand Bazaar, a carpet-weaving demonstration (including carpets that change color depending on which direction you view them from!), and a Bosphorus cruise. We passed by Turkey's brand new first aircraft carrier, and saw a very long line of people waiting to see it.

We left Istanbul for Edirne, where we stopped at several mosques and a historic health museum. (I had no idea that the first smallpox vaccinations were in Turkey.) The traffic lights at busy intersections include the entire stanchion. (See the 9-second video included in the photo album.) This deserves to spread widely.

The next day we entered Greece. We spent the night in Kavala. The well-preserved aqueduct impressed me. We had great views from our hotel.

We had the archaeological site of Philippi almost to ourselves. In Thessaloniki, we ate all meals together and had a short cruise in the gulf. We were gifted with bags of mountain tea, oregano, and thyme.

At the Royal Tombs in Vergina, we viewed the Vergina Treasures. On our way to Meteora, I asked if we could stop for photos of Mount Olympus. We did, but it was somewhat obscured by clouds. We went to several monasteries in Meteora precipitously perched on massive pillars. 

Before reaching Athens, we stopped at the Leonidas Monument in Thermopylae. Leonidas, King of Sparta, led the famous 300 Spartan soldiers and other Greek soldiers who fought to the death and held off a vastly larger Persian army for three days in 480 BCE.

In Athens, we got to the Acropolis early. By the time we left, the crowds were huge. There's quite a bit more than the Parthenon. I particularly liked the caryatids of the Erechtheion, but it was only later at the Acropolis Museum that I learned that they were replicas, with the originals only in the museum. Also at the museum was this model of the complete Parthenon:

When I saw the Elgin Marbles in the British Museum in 1975 I wrote, 

"... half the Parthenon...! With all that ... right here [in London], why does anyone go to Athens...? I really never knew so much of the Parthenon was in London. Only the skeleton remains on the Acropolis, I suppose." 

Now, at the Acropolis Museum, many items are marked "(BM)" indicating that the originals are in the British Museum, and they want them back, of course.

Later, we briefly viewed Hadrian's Arch and the Panathenaic Stadium, the only stadium in the world built entirely of marble.