Tag: archaeology
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The Long Way Home
12-13 September 2022. Returning to Athens, then Home. We managed to get a pretty good night’s sleep. Most of the hard packing work was done last night, so we were left with cleaning up the last-minute stuff in the morning, which we did after a trip to the restaurant for breakfast. Afterwards, I went to…
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The Temple of Diktynna
11 September 2022. The Sanctuary of the Cretan Artemis We all had a decent night’s sleep last night, waking up around 8 am. My CPAP battery bank lasted just long enough to get through the night. We cleaned up before heading to the restaurant for a light breakfast and to recharge respective phones and battery…
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The Labyrinth of King Minos (Part 5)
8 September 2022. The Palace of Knossos. We stopped back at the Airbnb before heading down to the old Venetian Port to catch a cab back to Nikos Kazantzakis International Airport. There, we picked up the Enterprise rental car that I had reserved for the remainder of our Cretan adventure. It was a BMW SUV…
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The Labyrinth of King Minos (Part 3)
9 September 2022. Iraklio, Crete. This is the third and final tranche of photos from the Archaeological Museum of Heraklion. Up to this point, I’ve focused on the Minoan & Mycenaean civilizations. I certainly have a few more photos on that topic that I’ll be sharing herein, but I’m going to finish up in the…
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The Labyrinth of King Minos (Part 2)
9 September 2022. Iraklio, Crete. This blog post covers the second tranche of photos taken at the Archaeological Museum of Heraklion. The object shown above is the so-called Chieftain Cup found at the Minoan palace of Agia Triada. Archaeologist Robert Koehl has argued that this chalice represents a homoerotic same-sex rite of passage, perhaps associated…
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The Labyrinth of King Minos (Part 1)
9 September 2022. Iraklio, Crete It was quite late when we finally got to bed last night at our Airbnb in Iraklio. Therefore, we felt justified to sleep in today. Even Paul, who is not known for letting the moss grow when sightseeing is afoot, slept in a bit. Our digs for this stage of…
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The Thessalian Witches (Part 2)
8 September 2023. Olympos and the Archaeological Park of Dion We returned to the Airbnb after our trip to Cheiron’s Cave and loaded the rental car. Turning the car around, we waved goodbye to our hostess, and drove to a nearby mini market for road supplies. On our walk to the market, I pointed out…
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Delphi (Part 4)
7 September 2022. The Delphic Sanctuary (Part 2) In my last post, we had made it as far as the Sacred Way just below the Temple of Apollo. The bus crowds were hot on our heels, having made their obligatory run through the archaeological museum before heading to the sanctuary itself. Fortunately, we were still…
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Delphi (Part 3)
7 September 2022. The Delphic Sanctuary (Part 1) After our tour of the Archaeological Museum of Delphi, we made a quick pit stop and loaded up on water. While we focused on relics and sites, Michael P. had decided to concentrate on the Cats of Greece. He found a very pretty white one right outside…
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The Acropolis of Athens
Here’s a bonus blog post on the acropolis of Athens. I thought that I’d share some of the absolutely wonderful videos that have been produced on Greek history. The ones I’ve chosen touch on three temples which stand on the Athenian acropolis – the Temple of Athena Parthenos, the Erectheion, and the Temple of Nike…
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Delphi (Part 2)
7 September 2022. The Delphi Archaeological Museum (Part 2). Continuing on through the museum from where we left off on the last post, we entered Room 4, where the gold and silver artifacts found during the sanctuary excavations are displayed. Frankly, I’m surprised that anything survived at all, given how often the sanctuary was looted,…
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Delphi (Part 1)
7 September 2022. The Delphi Archaeological Museum (Part 1). Last night’s sleep at our Airbnb, Delphic Horizons, was completely restful. I can’t recommend this provider enough for their accommodations and hospitality. A couple of us had a light breakfast from the well-stocked larder. I would like to have tried the olives from our host’s father’s…
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On the Road to Delphi (Part 4)
6 September 2022. Chaeronrea to Delphi. From Thebes we headed west on Route 3. The magnificent massif of Mount Parnassos loomed on the distant horizon as we drove towards the village of Chaeronea (photo above). As I noted in my previous post, Chaeronea was the site of a significant battle between the forces of the…
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On the Road to Delphi (Part 3)
6 September 2022. Ancient Thebes of the Seven Gates. On leaving sacred Eleusis, we drove out of Elefsina on the E962 heading north. Well, north-ish, because once we left the coast of the Saronic Gulf the land became hilly as the road began to wind its way up through the eastern edges of the Kithairon…
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On the Road to Delphi (Part 2)
6 September 2022. The Sanctuary of Eleusis, Elefsina, Attica. “To Meter Antaia [Demeter]. Basileia Antaia [Demeter], of celebrated name, from whom both men and Gods immortal came; who widely wandering once, oppressed with grief, in Eleusis’ valleys foundest relief, discovering Persephone thy daughter pure in dread Aides, dismal and obscure. A sacred youth while through…
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On the Road to Delphi (Part 1)
6 September 2022. Kerameikos. Last night when we returned to the Airbnb from dinner, we busied ourselves packing as much stuff as we could in preparation for our car trip to Delphi today. Upon awakening, we packed the remainder of our gear so that we would be ready to depart immediately for the airport upon…
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Medea & Other Friends I Made in Athens (Part 4)
5 September 2022. Part 2: South Slope of the Acropolis. In my previous post, we had just finished a tour of the Acropolis and were getting ready to head down to the South Slope. I should pause here to discuss the state of the walking surfaces on the top of the Rock. As shown in…
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Medea & Other Friends I Made in Athens (Part 3)
5 September 2022. Part 1: The Acropolis. What a difference a decent night’s sleep makes! Today’s journey is to the Acropolis, the new Acropolis Museum, and the Greek Agora. I woke up after Paul came back from an early morning jaunt to the Acropolis. He was the first tourist there this morning when it opened.…