Christmas in Athens - Kerameikos & Sounion

Friday 24 December 2004 
Christmas Eve

I wake up early as usual, around 7.30. It's going to be a beautiful day so I decide to walk up Lycabettus to get some exercise. I have it all to myself. There's a church up here, built into a cave, but sadly it's closed today. The view from the top is breathtaking and another church – the church of St George – is stunning, too. Those lovely white plaster domes and arches that make such pleasing lines...

At breakfast later with Richard I get a nasty surprise. Breakfast is NOT included in the price of a room. So all my haggling for an upgrade has been nullified by the fact that we unknowingly paid E 17 each for three mornings. From now on we breakfast at Flocafe down the hill.

young street musician in Athens

After breakfast Richard and I walk from Syntagma Square along Ermou Street towards towards Monastiraki. It's Christmas Eve and the place is packed with Athenians shopping, begging, busking and talking on mobile phones. Athenian women must have the 'uniform': pointy boots, black leather jacket, any top that reveals some midriff, tight jeans or miniskirt and the three essential accessories of mobile phone, sunglasses and cigarettes. I see a boy about Lupus's age playing a scaled-down bouzouki. And what is it with people dressed like Native Americans and playing pan pipes?

tomb in Kerameikos

At Monastiraki – just past the Plaka – we sip another espresso before visiting the Kerameikos, the ancient cemetary of Athens. Mary Renault has a lovely passage to do with this in my favourite book of hers, The Last of the Wine:

Our house stood in the Inner Kerameikos, not far from the Dipylon Gate. The courtyard had a little colonnade of painted columns, a fig-tree and a vine... The roof had a border of acanthus tiles and was not very steep. If one straddled the ridge, one could see right over the City wall, past the gate-towers of the Dipylon to the Sacred Way... In summer-time, I could pick out the funeral stele of my uncle Alexias and his friend, by a white oleander that grew there. Then I would turn south, to where the High City stands like a great stone altar against the sky, and search between the winged roofs of the temples for the point of gold, where tall Athene of the Vanguard lifts her spear to the ships at sea.

Tassos Bougas - Greek heart-throb

I spend some time trying to get my bearings. For some reason I find it strange that the Sacred Way comes into Athens from the north. But once I accept that fact, everything falls into place. After the peaceful Kerameikos we wander in the busy flea market and buy a Tasos Bougas CD for one of my friends who has a poster of him in her loo. *hee*

Sounion, Xmas Eve 2004

Then we go to the Amalia Hotel and catch the 2.30 tour to Cape Sounion. The drive there is beautiful as is the site. I get a photo of the nearly full moon caught between two of the massive Doric columns. The drive back takes about 90 minutes and the sunset lasts the whole time. Unforgettable.

We told Joanna, the nice customer relations person at the St George Hotel, that we wanted to do what the Athenians did on Christmas Eve, so she booked us a table at a restaurant called Evripos in the fasionable Psiri district near the Plaka. Not fashionable enough, apparently. We arrive at 10.00pm and for a long time are the only ones there. But even by 11.30 there are only half a dozen other couples. There is no choice in the menu, the musicians are not as good as the Plaka guys on Tuesday and there is a power cut half way through so we can't see what we're eating. Just to top it all off the restaurant does not accept credit cards, and this is the most expensive meal we've had so far.

Never mind. Back at the hotel there is a view of the Acropolis. Yay.

[The 17+ books in the Roman Mysteries series, including The Fugitive from Corinth, are perfect for children aged 9+, especially those studying Romans and/or Greeks as a topic in Key Stages 2 & 3. There are DVDs of some of the books as well as an interactive game.]

Christmas in Athens - Day Trip to Delphi

Wednesday 22 December 2004

Misty Delphi

Up early for the Delphi coach tour. Booked this through Expedia and it seems to have worked. Only one hitch. We arrive at the Amalia Hotel in Syntagma Square as requested at 7.15am only to be told the bus doesn't go till 8.15. It would have been nice to have that extra hour of sleep, especially as 7.15 Athens time equals 5.15 London time.

Seems to take a very long time to get out of Athens. Marathon somewhere to the north. Thebes over to the right is an unremarkable cluster of buildings on a flat plain. We stop at an ugly cafeteria called Friendly Stop in Levadia. Clouds are gathering and spots of rain dot the window of the coach.

The Charioteer of Delphi

We can't really see Parnassus range of mountains because of low cloud. Three hours after we set out we are finally there, passing through the village just before Delphi. It's called Arachova and I remember it from the book My Brother Michael by Mary Stewart. The heroine is driving a big car and gets stuck in one of the narrow roads when a Greek driver comes the other way. Same thing happens to our coach. What must it be like in high summer when there are dozens of coaches going up and down?

Our guide, Doreen, is great. Articulate and well educated. She gives the tour in English and then French, even though only four of the 18 members of the tour are French. 'It never rains in Delphi,' she says. 'It's Apollo there; the god of light.'

It is raining when we get to Delphi, so we go to the museum. Light, airy, well-labelled. All the museums we will visit will be up to this excellent standard. The masterpiece of this museum is of course the Charioteer of Delphi. I've been to Greece a couple of times before but never to Delphi. I have waited many years to see him and he's worth the wait.

dripping Delphi

God has heard our prayers and Apollo acknowledged our libation. It's stopped raining when we start to tour to the site. It's wonderful. Completely deserted and all the stone and mosaics and walls rinsed clean. Colours are saturated. Water still drips from leaves and the birds of Delphi sing their hearts out.

Doreen provides some useful facts. I've been trying to find out which days the Pythia prophesied. She provides the answer: the seventh day of every month. A one-eyed cat comes up to say hello. You should never pet them. I have a flea bite the next day.

After an hour exploring the site we pile on the coach for lunch at the Amalia Hotel in Delphi. It's unremarkable food but nice to meet some of the other tourists, especially an art teacher from the International School in Istanbul.

This is the book with Delphi in it!

After lunch we pass back through Delphi and stop 20 minutes later in Arachova to 'see how flokati rugs are made'. For those of us who opt NOT to go for the obvious sales pitch, there is nothing to do. No coffee shops open and it's freezing. (This village is 3000 feet above sea level.) I don't think Arachova is all that special. It looks Swiss not Greek.

It takes a good three and a half hours to get back. It's dark and threatening rain in Athens so we go to an Italian restaurant on Loukianou very close to the St George. It's called Codice Blu and it's very cool. The clients are mostly men with grey hair in ponytails wearing black and brandishing mobile phones. The kind of men who aren't afraid to send a bottle of wine back. The music is chill. The food is great. We pay E 17 for a bottle of rose. We would never dream of eating at a place like this in London, but hey! we're on holiday.

[The 17+ books in the Roman Mysteries series, including The Fugitive from Corinth, are perfect for children aged 9+, especially those studying Romans and/or Greeks as a topic in Key Stages 2 & 3. There are DVDs of some of the books as well as an interactive game.]