Athens visit

On Saturday, having left the Benaki Museum on Pireos Avenue where we had seen the Documenta 14 exhibition, we decided to walk to our next destination which was the Kappatos Gallery on Athinas Avenue. It was a hot day, and the walk along Pireos Avenue is not a pleasant one: it's a run down area, there's a lot of traffic, and the pavements are very narrow.

We passed the iNO mural

and soon we could see the chimneys of the Gazi complex.

The old gas factory has been converted into an art space

there's some interesting street art on the side of the building

The chimneys dominate

The old gas containers have been converted into gallery and performance spaces.

It was a relief to leave Pireos Avenue behind us and start the walk along Kerameikos

We soon arrived at the Kerameikos Archaeological site and Museum

The site covers the old potters' quarter, which was located here because of the abundance of clay mud carried over by the Eridanos River. The public graveyard was also located here, situated just outside the city walls. This is where Pericles delivered his funeral oration in 431 BC. The cemetery was also where the Hiera Odos (the Sacred Way, i.e.  the road to Eleusis) began, along which the procession moved for the Eleusinian Mysteries.

we could see Lycabettus Hill in the distance

we walked past the Holocaust Memorial, which is sadly neglected.

We chose to walk along the end of Ermou Street, another rather unpleasant walk, as it's very congested and in need of regeneration

but we wanted to have a look at the odd bits and pieces on sale of what's left of the old flea market

Some of the old buildings here have been restored.

You  can see the contrast here, one restored, the other in dire need of some love and attention

this one is a hotel now.

We reached Monastiraki square, the Byzantine little church on the left, then the old Mosque which is a folk museum now, and the Acropolis hill in the distance

and then we turned left into Athinas Avenue, a working class area, full of traditional shops, and where the main Athens market is situated.

A stroll around Birmingham

 

We spent a few hours in Birmingham just before the new year: we saw known landmarks but also the changes that have occurred in the city in the last year. We were very pleasantly surprised.

 

 

We took the train to Moore Street, and the first thing we saw coming out of the station was the iconic Selfridges building.




(You can see more about it here )

 The new tram has transformed the city centre

We were surprised to see that the German Christmas market was still on: it was apparently extended this year to commemorate 50 years of cooperation between Frankfurt and Birmingham.

Another surprise was seeing that the fountain in Victoria Square had been filled with plants. We have since found out that attempts to identify and plug a leak have failed leaving the local authority facing unsustainable £2,000 a day running costs.

In the same square is Iron:Man by Anthony Gormley (you can see more about this sculpture here )

The carousel was popular

The building work in the city centre meant that it took us a while to reach the library (more about the library here )

 

In front of the library, Gilliam Wearing's A Real Birmingham Family (you can see more about this here )

we then moved on to the canal area.

By the bridge over the canal






is this sculpture that gives kids an enormous pleasure

but we were more interested in the canal

and the reflections in the water

of the buildings of Birmingham's industrial past

that have been converted into restaurants and bars - this area is buzzing at night.

the Ikon gallery was closed so we retraced our steps

had something to eat from the market while standing by Iron:Man

and walked to the newly redeveloped New Street station to catch our train. The new façade of gleaming steel panels above the entrance is like a wonky hall of mirrors giving distorted reflections of the city.

The big and spectacular change is the huge 24 metre-high atrium inside which allows natural light to flood in to the station which is five times the size of Euston's. Escalators lead to shops and the new Grand Central mall. The original roof was damaged beyond repair in German bombing raids during WWII and the station was eventually buried within its 1967 concrete-reworking.