Showing posts with label antiquities. Show all posts
Showing posts with label antiquities. Show all posts

Sunday, 31 January 2016

Listening to jazz at the Acropolis Museum


 
Stratonos Street was unusually quiet the evening we went to the Acropolis Museum restaurant to listen to some jazz.
 

 

 
The museum was beautifully lit and looked very inviting
 
 

 
We turned left into Dionysiou Aeropagitou
 
 
 


stopped to look at the Acropolis on our right, also beautifully lit up




 
and then we walked down the steps towards the main entrance of the museum.
 

 


The restaurant was relatively empty when we arrived as most people had not arrived yet





The view from our table: the Acropolis and the reflected restaurant lights fusing together

 
 


The food was very good and the music was pleasant





The restaurant looked inviting from the terrace




 
when I went out to have a better look at the Acropolis
 
 
 



the Erechtheion looked at its best





as did the Philoppapou monument on the hill in the distance.




 
As we were leaving we admired the olive branch display in the foyer
 



 
looked at the Archaic gallery from above
 

 

 
and stopped to have a last look at the ongoing excavations at the entrance of the museum before heading for home.

 
 


Tuesday, 15 December 2015

A stroll around Athens



We went to Athens yesterday, our first visit since we arrived in Greece last week.  We got off the bus at Makriyanni and walked through the streets of Plaka which seemed incredibly quiet after the summer.




This is the Melina café, named after Melina Merkouri.



 
Some of the cafes were quite busy with people enjoying the sunshine
 
 

 
but the tavernas were empty
 
 
 
 
as it was too early for lunch.
 

 
 





We came across this graffiti on one of the walls of a public building:

'And they came back, with their shiny new vehicles, intending to collect more taxes. As they disembarked they felt that they were walking on cotton wool, rather than solid ground. What they encountered were haunted eyes and hands that were holding stones. Many of the vehicles remained there. Those that departed never came back. Never....'




You can't walk far in Athens without coming across antiquities - this is the ancient Angora




and this is the entrance to the Roman Agora.



 
The old Mosque which is a folk museum nowadays
 
 

 
Pandrosou Street which is full of tourist shops
 

 

 
a Byzantine church on Ermou Street
 

 

 
 
 

 
the new H&M shop on Ermou Street looks truly spectacular
 

 

 
the view from the first floor
 
 
 

 
the old part of the building 
 
 

 
an old street organ with the organ player dressed appropriately
 
 
 

 
higher up on Ermou Street we came across this lot
 

 

 
who were advertising Windows 10.

 
 


Ermou Street was really busy. We have been told that November was an awful month for businesses but December seems to be picking up



 
A salepi seller - as the sign says it's a drink made out of orchid roots. I have to confess that I have never tried it
 
 


Finallly, a koulouri seller. Koulouria are yummy and Ken always buys one when we go to Athens.