BACK IN ATHENS

This is what is left of Hadrian's Library in Athens.  I don't think I posted it, choosing to show you Turkish newly weds, but back in Antalya, Turkey, there was a Hadrian's Gate.    I also vaguely remember there is/was a Hadrian's wall in Britain built to protect Roman Engalnd and Wales from the Picts of Scotland.  In any event, apparently Hadrain was popular as  Martin Luther King and had lots of things with his  name.

I am back in Athens six months later.  The economy seems a bit better.  I went back to my favorite gyro place and wolfed down another one.  It was as good as I remember.  The cook said the potatoes (frech fries) cooked in the Corinth style make the difference.  I would have liked to have another for lunch tomorrow but I will be on my way.

I decided to by pass the Peloponese Peninsulas or the more touristy islands.  I did not want to see anymore piles of rock, at Mycene, Delphi, or the site of the first Olympics.  I want to see rocks that are still in some sort of shape to actually make  a building or parts there of.  Travelling 5,000 miles to  just imagine the building from its foundations doesn't cut it.  The islands would have been nice , but take more time to do them justice and things are starting to close down on the islands , although the weather is still very good.

I am going to do some hiking and see stuff that is still standing.  Tomorrow I take the train from Athens to Kalambuka in northen Greece to see spectacular monestaries,  and one nunnery.  I am not sure if the nunnery is originally a nunnery or a monestary now being used by nuns.  These places of meditation and worship were  built on high rocks for protection as the  Ottoman invasion of Greece unfolded.  They were instrumental in preserving Greek culture.

Below are some things I saw today:  a pretty church steeple near central Athens, the Nike (Victory gate), and the Acropolis.  It was nice to be back in Athens.

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