June 8 Arrive Athens
If you’re coming to Greece from the US, you will have left the day before. The time difference between the two countries is 7 to 10 hours; if it’s 8 am in California (and 11 am in Toronto), it’s 6 pm the same day in Greece. The new airport of Athens is attractive and efficient, and easy to navigate. It’s a good idea to change some money in the banks at the airport; unlike some countries, banks at the airport and everywhere in Greece have approximately the same rate of exchange, which is always better than the rate outside Greece. After coming out the front door of the airport, you’ll see a line of taxis, and a corresponding line of people waiting for taxis. Take a taxi from the taxi stand to the HOTEL AUSTRIA, 7 MOUSON STREET, AKROPOLIS - FILOPAPPOU (telephone 923-5151). When you arrive at the hotel, tell the driver to wait while you go inside. Tell the desk clerk at the hotel you’re with Dick, and he’ll make sure you pay the right amount for the taxi (it should be around 25-35 euros) .
You or I can be contacted anytime at this Athens telephone number: 011-30-210-923-5151 (Hotel Austria). The FAX number is 011-30-210-924-7350. Dial all 15 digits from North America, only the last ten in Athens. If anyone might want to contact you, tell them to use these numbers and we will be notified immediately, wherever we are. Be sure that you, or whoever is calling, mention the name “Dick,” so as to be identified properly. I do not include numbers of all our hotels, since at most of them the desk clerks do not speak English (anyone calling probably would not be able to leave a message).
We'll meet in the hotel lobby around 7:30 PM to go out to dinner at a local restaurant.
View from the Austria Hotel, Athens
JUNE
9 Santorini
The morning is free.
You could visit the Akropolis, or, if you've already seen it or will
see it later, the Benaki or Cycladic Arts Museum. In the
afternoon we'll take a high-speed catamaran from Athens to Santorini
(about 4.5 hours).
Santorini is one of the few
places in the world that you absolutely must see. In fact, you've
probably already seen it a few thousand times in movies, ads, and
cruise brochures. It's unique and spectacular, but also
hopelessly over-commercialized, so once you've seen it you need never
come back.
We'll spend the rest of the
day in the exquisite town of Oia (pronounced “ee-a”) at the northern
tip of the
island. Perched high on cliffs overlooking the sea on two sides, Oia is
well-known for its artists' studios and shops, and has probably the
most
spectacular view in all Greece.
This evening we'll see the
famous sunset from the cliffs of Oia.
The chief attraction of Santorini is ancient Akrotiri, a Bronze Age city preserved by the great volcanic eruption (c. 1620 BC) that also destroyed it. Santorini was not always crescent-shaped; before around 1600 BC it was a circular island around a large volcano which, after several smaller eruptions, blew its entire top (around 1450, it was once thought, or, according to a recent conference, more than 150 years earlier). This cataclysm, four times greater than the eruption of Krakatoa in 1883, made the island center into a bay, perhaps destroyed the contemporary civilization of Minoan Crete, and covered the Cycladic city on the south coast with a layer some 50 feet deep of volcanic tufa. The ancient city, now called Akrotiri, was discovered in 1869, but serious excavation began in 1967 under the Greek archaeologist Marinatos. After two decades of constant digging much of the city still is uncovered: the work involved in moving thousands of tons of tufa is enormous and expensive. Like Pompeii and Herculaneum in Italy, Akrotiri was preserved by the disaster which destroyed it: buildings up to three stories high are still intact, and spectacular frescoes were found (which are now in the new Museum). Since no human remains were found here, the inhabitants probably received sufficient warning from earlier eruptions or rumblings that a catastrophe was imminent, and fled, only to perish in the devastating seismic wave which followed the collapse of the volcano’s caldera. The walk through the roofed site takes about 40 minutes (you must follow a roped-off path); the small flower-decorated mound you see inside a house used to be the grave of Marinatos, who died while digging when a wall collapsed on him in 1974.
From Akrotiri our bus will take us to Fira, the island’s main town. The views are great from the top of the cliff, but the town is a bit disappointing; years of visits by cruise ships have made Fira one large gold and jewelry store, with the most persistent and persuasive salesmen in the Aegean.
JUNE 11 Crete
Today we'll look around the villages (and beaches, if anyone's interested) of Santorini for a while, then take another catamaran to Iraklion, largest city in Crete.
Tonight we’ll eat at an ouzeri on the harbor.
JUNE 12 Crete
This morning we’ll go for a walk around Iraklion; particularly interesting is the open market. At the end of our walk we’ll arrive at the Minoan Museum, which houses the most important finds from Knossos and other Minoan sites.
The museum is very easy to navigate. It’s arranged chronologically; you walk up the right-hand set of rooms, then back the left-hand rooms, then upstairs to the frescoes, then downstairs to an annex of post-Minoan Greek and Roman objects. Since the best Minoan art is miniature (some of it can only be seen through a magnifying lens), I would like to compel you to look at everything in detail. Therefore, instead of giving you the location of the most important objects, I will give you an assignment, to find the following: 1) the House Mosaic; 2) the Snake Goddesses; 3) the Phaistos Disc; 4) the double bee pendant (on the entrance ticket); 5) signet seals showing 2 rabbits dueling and a mouse sitting on a stool; 6) any evidence that the Minoans knew the wheel; 7) a boar’s tooth helmet; 8) Linear A and Linear B tablets; 9) Kamares pottery; 10) the Hagia Triada Sarcophagus.
Knossos: the "Queen's Chambers"
Late afternoon (when it’s cooler and less crowded) we’ll go by public bus (about 10 minutes) to the so-called Palace of Minos at Knossos, just south of Iraklion. This was the largest and most important of the Minoan palaces in Crete, and has been partially reconstructed, chiefly by the original excavator, Sir Arthur Evans. The name “Minoan,” derived from the mythical king Minos, was used by Evans to designate the Bronze Age civilization of Crete (3000-1000 BC).
Although Knossos was inhabited far back into Neolithic times, the first palaces were built around 2200 BC. The Minoan civilization was extremely advanced, the first “high culture” in Europe, and rivalled the contemporary cultures of Babylon and Egypt. Sometime around 1750 (or earlier) the first palaces were destroyed, perhaps by earthquake, and new palaces (the “Second Palaces”) were built; these in turn were destroyed during the first half of the 15th century (or more than a century earlier, if the destruction resulted from the volcanic eruptions at Santorini). The best Minoan pottery (especially Kamares Ware, beautifully-shaped polychrome cups and vases with eggshell-thin walls) was made during the First Palace period, while the best jewelry, engravings, and frescoes are from the Second Palace period. The Minoans also had writing systems, both hieroglyphic and linear (“Linear A”), but these have not yet been deciphered. Later Linear A was adapted by the Myceneans to write Greek; this script, called Linear B, is a syllabary (each symbol represents a syllable) and has been found on more than 4000 tablets from mainland Greece and Crete.
There are two important things to keep in mind as you walk through the ruins: (I) at least 75% of what you see has been reconstructed, much of it to conform with Evans’ theories of Minoan history, and these theories have recently come under heavy criticism; (2) the Minoans were not Greek, although they greatly influenced the first Greeks (the Myceneans) in art and architecture; their impact on historical Greece seems to have consisted mostly of certain religious traditions and practices (e.g., the Eleusinian religion).
We enter (after running a gauntlet of tour guides) near two large round holes, perhaps cisterns. The main entrances were at the north and south ends, and led into the central court: on the east and west sides of the court were complexes of rooms and apartments, several stories high, ventilated and lit by light wells. At the northwest corner of the court is a throne room with nice griffin frescoes (restored); on the floor above, around a light well, are replicas of many of the frescoes found at Knossos (the originals are in the Iraklion Museum). All along the west side are storehouses; in the southwest corner, at the end of a processional corridor, are a propylaion and great staircase. On the east side of the court is another staircase, called by Evans the “Grand Staircase,” because he thought it led to the royal living quarters; this staircase leads down through three levels around a light well into a maze of rooms, one of which is called the Throne Room and another the Queen’s Bedroom. Outside these rooms, alongside a narrow stairs, is a storehouse of giant pithoi, 6-foot high storage vases; beneath a metal grill nearby is a good example of the terra cotta plumbing which brought running water to the palace; in the room of the Medallion Vases a small section of floor is cut away around a column base. Northwest of the palace is a paved road, perhaps the oldest in Europe, which widens as it ends at shallow stairs leading to the north entrance.
Knossos: Bull-Leaping Fresco
JUNE 13 Crete
Today we’ll go by bus to
Faistos, an important Minoan palace on the Messara plain in southern
Crete.
Faistos: the Megaron
On the way to Faistos we’ll stop at the archaeological site of Gortyna, where the famous archaic Law Code of Gortyna was found. Then we’ll continue to Faistos, a palace almost as large as that at Knossos. Built at the same time as Knossos, but more carefully and with better material, Faistos is our example of an unrestored Minoan palace.
From Faistos we'll drive north for a late lunch at Drosia, in a verdant mountain valley, where all the residents have the same last name and the food is unique.
Tonight we'll return to Athens on the overnight ferry. We'll have First-Class cabins on the Minoan Line.
JUNE 14-17 Skopelos
This morning we'll go up the coast about 2 hours to Agios Konstantinos, where we'll catch the hydrofoil or jet ferry to Skopelos (about 2.5 hours).
View of the Prince
Stafilos in Skopelos
Like the other Sporades Islands, Skopelos is mountainous and pine-covered, with dozens of marvelous beaches and picturesque coves and villages. It’s visited during the summer by many knowledgeable tourists from around the world, but fortunately it has no airport and hasn’t yet been ruined by mass tourism. It’s a big island, about 40 miles long and from 3 to 12 miles wide. A single paved road runs from Glossa, an elevated village on the west coast, to the main town of Skopelos. Situated in a circular harbor surrounded by mountains, the town rises steeply above the water like a huge layer cake. The bottom layer is the waterfront, a half-mile of restaurants, shops, and cafes almost hidden by the green of mulberry and plane trees, while above it layers of whitewashed houses with red tile roofs and brightly painted shutters seem to be piled on top of one another.
What is there to do in Skopelos? One could easily spend two days just exploring the town; the people are friendly and the view around every corner of the narrow lanes is wonderful; when you get tired of walking, have a seat at one of the waterfront cafes and watch the boats or chat with the people at the next table. If you want to see other parts of the island, rent a car or motor scooter (it's easy and inexpensive) or take the bus or a taxi; both taxis and buses leave from the waterfront, and the bus schedule is on an attached sign. About two and a half miles from town (a pleasant and not difficult walk) is Staphylos. the best-known beach; it’s named for a mythical prince of Crete who supposedly colonized Skopelos during the Bronze Age. Another two and a half miles along the truly breathtaking scenery of the southern coast brings you to Agnondas, a quaint village with a few houses and three seafood restaurants. Or, if you want to see the whole island, take the bus all the way to Glossa and back. It's also easy and inexpensive to rent cars and mopeds.
Skopelos is the home of Kostas and Voula Kalafatis, my Greek friends (they help me with my arrangements while I am in America). If you want information, help, or just friendly conversation and a cup of coffee (or something stronger), go to their shop on the waterfront.
One day during our stay in Skopelos we'll take a day trip to the nearby island Alonnisos, only a half-hour away by hydrofoil. Alonnisos is green and beautiful, smaller and quieter than Skopelos, and is the center of the
Patiri, harbor of Alonnisos
JUNE 18 Athens
Today we'll go by ferry to Agios Konstantinos on the mainland, where our bus will meet us for the drive back to Athens. On the way we'll stop briefly at Thermopylae, scene of one of the most famous battles in antiquity; here King Leonidas and 300 Spartans, along with 700 Thespians, all perished trying to delay the advance of Xerxes and the Persians in 480 BC.
We'll also stop at Delfi to see the Museum and ancient site. Delfi was the most famous oracle of the ancient world (remember that an oracle was a place or a message, not a person), already held in highest esteem at the time of Homer (8th century). Here questions were asked of the god Apollo (mostly by rulers and governments in the earlier phase, by individuals in the later phase) and his answer was transmitted by a priestess, the Pythia, who babbled something incoherent which was translated into hexameter verse by the college of priest-poets. The petitioner would first purify himself in the sacred Kastalian spring, then write his question on a lead tablet, and wait for his turn to submit it. The order of submission was determined by lottery, unless one was granted the right of promanteia (the privilege of cutting in line), presumably in return for a handsome gift to the sanctuary; an extant inscription just below the Temple of Apollo reads “Delfi grants to the people of Chios the right of promanteia (cutting the line).” The oracles were characteristically vague or ambiguous, thus increasing immeasurably their odds of success.
In myth Delfi (like almost all oracles) was at first the possession of Gaia (Earth), who was the first to utter prophecies. Later Apollo killed the great serpent which guarded the site and took it over (Pytho, the early name of Delfi, and Pythia, the priestess, may be words derived not from python [serpent] but from pythao [a verb “to rot”], since Apollo left the body of the serpent to rot in the sun).
We’ll begin with the museum (the display labels are mostly in Greek and French, so if you don’t know one of these languages attach yourself to someone who does).
We go up the entrance stairs to the first exhibit, a large omphalos (navel stone). Zeus saw where two eagles, flying from the ends of the earth, met; this place was Delfi, the navel of the earth. The following rooms contain in order the Sphinx of the Naxians; a huge archaic sculpture which stood atop a 30-foot column, and the pediment and frieze from the Treasury of the Siphnians; large, very early bronze shields; two kouros statues of Kleobis and Biton, two youths proclaimed by Solon to be the most fortunate persons in the world, since they pulled their mother’s chariot to the Argive Heraion, fell asleep in the temple, and never awoke; a treasure of gold, silver, and ivory objects found in 1939 under a path below the Temple of Apollo; sculpture from the Treasury of the Athenians; statuary from the archaic Temple of Apollo (this temple, called the Alkmaionid temple because it was paid for by the aristocratic Athenian clan of the Alkmaionidai, was the second on the site and was destroyed by an earthquake in 373 BC). The Alkmaionid temple was quickly rebuilt, and the new temple’s repair by Domitian at the end of the 1st century a.d. is commemorated by an inscription; a rare and important inscription of a hymn with musical notation. objects from the Tholos, a round temple in the lower shrine; 4th century sculptures, including three enormous dancing girls on a column which was the base for a tripod, and the votive offering of Daochos, a family group tracing his genealogy; the highlight of the museum (and perhaps of all museums) is the bronze statue of the Charioteer in; this spectacular piece, from around 475 BC, stands poised at the end of the Archaic age, on the verge of motion and the Classical style.
Turning left from the Museum entrance, we take the paved path to the site entrance (separate ticket). As we begin up the slope after the entrance we come first to the Offerings of the Arcadians and the Spartan Monument of the Admirals, two rows of statue bases, then two semi-circular Argive monuments, followed by a large number of treasuries, including those of the Sikyonians, the Siphnians, the Thebans, and the Athenians (reconstructed). Next is a small Council Chamber near the site of the column which held the Sphinx of the Naxians, the place at which the gold and silver treasures in the museum were found, and the Treasury of the Corinthians. Below the Temple of Apollo is the Stoa of the Athenians, a colonnade honoring the victory over the Persians in 480, and before the Temple is the Altar of Apollo, dedicated by the people of Chios (with the aforementioned inscription granting Chios the nght of promanteia). A reconstructed pillar held an equestrian statue of Prusias, king of Bithynia in the 2nd century BC. The great Temple of Apollo was the actual site of the oracle, perhaps in an underground chamber. Above the temple is a small but well-preserved theater, built in the 4th century and restored by the Romans. A steep but worthwhile walk leads from the theater to the Stadium, the best-preserved in Greece; it held 7,000 spectators and is still used for theatrical and musical events. After returning downhill to the entrance we turn left and follow the path to the Kastalian Spring; a little below the spring is a refreshment terrace (much needed by those who’ve gone all the way to the stadium) with a good view of the lower site. The large, recently-excavated gymnasium area is now open to visitors; below it is the Sanctuary of Athena Pronaia, which contains an old and a new temple of Athena, two treasuries, and a beautiful, partially-reconstructed 4th century Tholos.
From Delfi we'll drive to Athens.
This morning we'll go to the hydrofoil port in Peiraeus and take the 90-minute hydrofoil to Hydra in the Saronic Gulf. Home of many artists and sophisticated expatriates. Hydra is a national architectural monument. Unlike many of the Greek islands, development on Hydra is strictly regulated. All motorized vehicles (except for the garbage truck) are prohibited. and hotels must retain the appearance of the structures (e.g., a sponge factory) from which they were built. Aside from the two hours each day when the cruise ships dock, Hydra is one of the most beautiful and peaceful places in the world.
Harbor, Hydra
On the evening of the 20th we'll return to Athens.
JUNE 21 Departure
For those continuing on to part or all of G10, this is a free day to see some of the sights and museums in Athens we won't visit as a group. In the evening we'll meet for dinner.