Friday, December 21
Our tour was scheduled for 2:00 pm so we started the day with lunch. We did a Google search for Turkish Restaurants and found a Lebanese Restaurant that looked interesting called Feyrouz. It turned out to be a small place that was mainly for takeout but they had a counter area where we could eat. There was a menu on the wall but it was written in Greek. We were about to leave when the owner offered us some English language menus. We decided to stay. The food looked amazing so we ordered a Lebanese spinach pie topped with humus and something called a feyrouz (a thin dough with minced beef and herbs filled with vegetables and yogurt in the shape of a wrap). According to the owner the feyrouz is a very popular food in Lebanon.
(Spinach Pie with Humus)
The spinach pie was different from what we’re used to but was very good. The feyrouz, however, was absolutely delicious. The cost, with a bottle of water, was about $8.00. Credit cards are accepted (but we can’t find the charge). Highly recommended!
Deborah really needed some coffee before the tour so we stopped at a place called Foyrnoi. It’s a coffee shop and a bakery where, as usual, everything looked just wonderful. As is our practice we ordered two cappuccinos. They had some really nice looking baklava in the window but we opted to share a piece of orange cake. We’d had some at Christina’s and fell in love. It’s definitely a Greek treat. The cappuccinos were much larger than you’d usually get and, as we were walking away, she told us not to forget to pick up two bottles of water – they were included in the price of the coffee. The total was €5.00 / $5.75. Credit cards are accepted. The orange cake was very good. We immediately decided that this was going to be our favorite coffee shop for the next several weeks.
Our last stop before meeting the tour was at a Mastic store. Mastic is a tree resin that is only found on the island of Chios and is often called Arabic Gum (which is different from gum arabic). It’s been harvested in Greece for over 2,500 years and is supposed to contain medicinal properties. One of its main attributes is its ability to help with digestion. We bought a bottle for later use. With all we’ve been eating we probably should have bought two bottles!
Our tour started in front of the National Historical Museum which is dedicated to the modern history of Greece in a building that was once used for the Parliament. Admission is free.
We walked across the street to three large neo-classical buildings that contained the National Library, the University of Athens and the Academy of Athens. George, our guide, had studied both ancient history and archeology. He pointed out to us many of the symbols on the buildings. The Academy in particular, had a pediment that was reminiscent of the Parthenon. The freeze contained depictions of the gods and he told the story of how Athena and Poseidon competed to have the city named for themselves. Athena won the competition and has been the patron of Athens ever since. She is the goddess of Wisdom and War and is often symbolized as an Owl.
The most instructive part of the discussion was the difference between Doric, Ionic and Corinthian column capitals. We knew this at one time but had long since forgotten which was which. George had a simple system for remembering – just count the number of syllables. Doric (2) is the simplest followed by Ionic (3) and the most ornate is Corinthian (4). Even we can remember that!
(Column Capitals)
Next we walked over to the Numismatic Museum. The building was once the home of the famed archeologist Heinrich Schliemann who found and excavated the city of Troy in 1870. The front gate held a series of swastikas, which are ancient symbols from the East. What we never realized was that some swastikas open to the right and some to the left. The ones that open to the left represent wisdom and the others power. Swastikas were famously used by the Nazis as their symbol. They used the version that opens to the right.
Further down the street we came to the palace that was built by the first modern king of Greece: Otto. After the defeat of the Turks Greece became an independent country and needed a leader. The world powers decided that they should have a king that would be respected – someone who came from an existing royal family (Greece’s last royal family had died out over 2,500 years ago). At the age of 16, Prince Otto, second in line to the Throne of Bavaria, was selected as the ruler.
Otto selected Athens to be his capital. At the time the city was little more than an open field. Athens had been completely destroyed after the fall of the Roman Empire and had never been rebuilt. George said that if Rome had not been the Pope’s residence after Rome fell that the city of Rome would have befallen a similar fate. Interesting food for thought. Today this palace is used as the Greek Parliament building.
The front of the palace holds a memorial grave to the unknown soldier and, while we were there, we witnessed a Changing of the Guard Ceremony. We noticed that soldiers wore large pompoms on the tips of their shoes. George explained that when the Turks ruled the area Greeks were not allowed to carry weapons. Many Greeks wore pompoms on their shoes to conceal small knives. That tradition has been carried forth into the makeup of the uniforms that are still worn today.
(Changing of the Guard)
Next we walked through the National Garden. Originally it was a large private garden that was attached to the Royal Palace but after its completion King Otto gave it to the city as a public park. The park has a surprising variety of trees that were donated from countries throughout the world. The United States donated Floridian palm trees.
The park contains a number of excavations too. We visited one that contained the remnants of a Roman era aqueduct. Nearby we saw Zappeio Hall. This neo-classical building was built in the 1880s as the home to the Olympic committee. Today it is used as a conference center.
On the other side of the park we found the Panathenaic Stadium which also goes by the name of Kallimarmaro. We’ve already mentioned this stadium, which was home to the first modern Olympic Games. There is a charge of €5.00 to enter the stadium but George told us about a back door that only locals know about where we could enter for free. We plan to check that out on another day.
The tour ended with a quick look at the Temple of Zeus and the Arch of Hadrian, places we’d already been. In total the tour lasted three hours. George said that he didn’t normally visit so many places but he had just gotten carried away. It was a good tour with lots of valuable information.
Afterwards we headed back towards our apartment and our thoughts came around to dinner. We had planned to get some groceries and have dinner at home when we came across a restaurant called Ambrosia and just couldn’t resist giving it a try.
It’s a small, family run place where lots of locals were eating. In fact, the restaurant seemed to do a bigger take-out than sit-down business. They had a nice selection of Greek foods and the prices seemed quite reasonable. Deborah ordered a chicken gyro which came packed with french fries and I had lamb chops that came with a side of fries. The chicken was seasoned perfectly and, instead of the usual tzatziki, had a spicy sauce. The lamb chops were not the fancy Frenched version you might expect. There were six large hunks of meat on bones that were seasoned and grilled. Everything was fresh and delicious. Cost was €11.30 / $13.00. On the way out we noticed a tray of freshly prepared spinach pies. We plan to try those the next time we’re there.
(Lamb Chops)
Distance walked: 7.3 miles
Saturday, December 22
This morning we took another free tour. This was a tour centered on the Mythology of Greece. We had met our guide, Dmitry, the day before because he had participated in the free tour the day before.
To start with we retraced many of the places we’d seen the day before. This time Dmitry told us many of the famous stories from mythology. The tour crossed the city and eventually came to the Roman and Greek Agouras. The Roman one includes a clock that is still standing, is covered on eight sides with personifications of the eight cardinal points of the compass and was driven by water. He also told us the story of Hephaestus while standing in sight of the temple dedicated to his honor.
The tour was a lot of fun and included too many stories to remember or re-tell. It was a fun way to get some background on the city and it’s many famous landmarks.
For lunch we headed back to Ambrosia. We were instantly recognized. They were out of spinach pies but offered us a cheese pie in its place. Deborah took the cheese pie along with a small Greek salad and I got a pork gyro plate (they didn’t have lamb!). The gyro plate was a little fatty but very tasty. The cheese pie was amazingly good. It was made from seasoned feta cheese wrapped in phyllo dough. Before leaving we got two more cheese pies to take home. The total cost was €27.80 / $32.00.
Distance walked: 6.5 miles