One Athens museum

This morning we walked to the National Archeological Museum of Athens. It wasn’t a short walk, around 40 minutes, but eminently do-able, and the worst of the few hills were right at the start as we ascended to the Acropolis and around.

Our walk took us through what seemed to be the business district, which was an interesting change from the more touristy areas of town. We have a new favourite coffee place, which we discovered yesterday morning - called Coffee Island - and their coffee is even better than Gregory’s. So it’s off with the old, on with the new, and we were looking for another Coffee Island this morning, and ignoring all the poor old Gregory’s along the way. Oh well, needs must, as they say.

The National Archeological Museum is the largest archeological museum in Greece, and one of the most important museums in the world devoted to Ancient Greek art. It was founded in 1829 to house and protect antiquities from all over Greece, displaying their historical, cultural and artistic value. And it really is a mighty museum when it comes to history.

We spent about 4 hours navigating the various permanent collections, starting firstly with the Sculpture Works collection, dating from the 7th century BC to the 5th century AD.

Faithful canine friends, even around 460 BC

The Bronze Collection held a particular interest for me, having only just learned yesterday about the famous Antikythera Mechanism, it was amazing to see the remnants of this, as well as other items retrieved from the shipwreck. Parts of the mechanism even have tiny script on the back, which have been determined to be “instructions for use”!!

The movement captured in this bronze sculpture of horse and rider is amazing, when you think of how long ago it was crafted.

Ancient lock and key............

.......... and ancient “not-quite-safety” pins, from around 1500 BC 

Having been to the British Museum some years ago, I’d already seen a lot of Egyptian antiquities, so this particular collection of Egyptian and Eastern antiquities, with works dating from 5000 BC to the times of the Roman conquest, wasn’t all that captivating for me, but still had some good pieces, including this fragmentary alabaster statue of a Pharoah, the alabaster jars, and the (apparently) rare hippopotamus (rare because of its size). The hieroglyphics were also interesting.

A very smug-looking Pharaoh if ever I saw one! 

This wooden statue of a woman kneading bread dates to 2400 BC, and is amazingly well preserved.

I really liked all the sparkly stuff, so the Vase and Miniature Collection, dating from the 11th century BC up to the Roman era, was particularly attractive to me. Lots of bling!

The collection of Prehistoric Antiquities, dating amazingly from around 6500 to 1050 BC, was the most interesting of the lot. I think the fact that our trip has taken us to some of the places where these antiquities were found - Mycenae, the island of Crete, Corinth, Syros, Paros, Naxos, and Athens, of course - made them all the more interesting.

This cute little guy (below), described as a “unique zoomorphic clay vase”, we met (in a picture only) at the Archeological Museum on Syros. He was from the Chalandriani archeological site - an early-Cycladic cemetery in the north-east of Syros - so it was exciting to see him “in the flesh” in the museum today. They think he’s a hedgehog, and I just think he’s really sweet!

And this figure is everywhere on Syros. In fact, “she” is so famous, she now graces boutiques and jewellery shops as a “store dummy”!! This one looks to be pregnant, doesn’t she?

It was a bit gob-smacking really, how old some of these things were.

Finally we whizzed through the temporary collection, The Countless Aspects of Beauty - a kind of “best of” from all the other collections, gathered together in a celebration of the different versions of aesthetics within various social and cultural contexts, from Neolithic to late Antiquity.

As part of this temporary collection, the museum has even recreated the kinds of perfumes that were used by women in Mycenaean times, using olive oil as the base, and scenting with herbs such as cypress, sage, coriander and rose. They smelled pretty good!

Phew! What a morning! We were saturated with history. Saturated!! And I had “museum feet” again, that dull aching that develops from walking slowly, slowly past one exhibit after another. It’s not natural really. Time to head out into the fresh air and do some proper walking!!!

From there we trekked back towards the busier areas of town, stopping for a bite to eat, and then stopping again at the Apivita and the L’atelier du Parfum stores for a bit of casual looking interested browsing serious shopping. It’s always nice to have time for these things.

We wandered along to the Hellenic Parliament building to take a snap or two of the Evzones, the members of the Presidential Guard who stand to attention either side of the Greek Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. They are very young, but they stand still and straight -that is until a small boy strays too close, and then there’s a sharp stamp of the foot to warn him away!

Syntagma Square is a seething mass of people, so I can’t imagine what it would be like in the peak of the tourist season. We were glad to move on, down Ermou Street, and away from the crowds, although once again we enjoyed some talented buskers along the way. 

Eventually we found our way back to Monastiraki Square for a late lunch, and then slowly wandered back along now-familiar turf, around the perimeter of the Acropolis, and back to our apartment to put our feet up and have a cuppa. The original goal of fitting in two museums today just had to be amended. The other one can wait until tomorrow.

After dinner we walked up to the top of our street to get a night-time perspective on the Acropolis. The lights in the Parthenon came on around 8.30 and it was a pretty sight.