The bulk of the day was spent at the National Archeological Museum. The museum has tons of statues, pottery and other artifacts dating back three or more thousand years ago. Some of the earlier artifacts make one wonder about progress. Some of the earliest statues could pass as avante guard abstract in a modern art gallery.

I’m spending too much time studying 1^st century BC Rome. I walked into one room of the museum and took one look at a full sized statue and thought, that is Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus (aka Caesar Augustus). Sure enough, reading the explanation that is who it was. But it’s not all 1^st Century Rome. I spotted a head and that that was Hadrian. Right again.

Greek statues (and for that matter temples and the like) were not the pristine white marble we think of when we think ‘Greek.’ They were painted in vivid and life like colors.  In a few instances there are still faded traces of that paint on a few of the statues in this museum. In one case there is a slab on which you can see something very faintly painted; next to it the museum has placed a reproduction with the colors fully restored.

There was a special exhibit of the artifacts recovered from a 1^st century BC ship wreck. Marine archeology is a big thing these days. There was a bit of the ship on display, but a huge number of clay amphorae and other containers recovered. There was a large number of statues of marble and bronze also recovered – some quite well done although damaged from centuries in sea water.

But one of the most remarkable discoveries was a box containing a large number of bronze gears. After careful analysis and attempts to reconstruct what this was it has been determined that this was a celestial calculator to determine that position of the sun, moon and planets. It was a remarkable achievement of both engineering and astronomical knowledge.

I had lunch at a outdoor restaurant on the museum grounds. So the omelet with tomatoes, green pepper and mushrooms wasn’t very photogenic, but it was good. When I got back to the hotel I realized that in my change I had an odd coin. It was about the same size as a 2 euro coin (they don’t issue paper bills for less than 5 euros). But it has a “1” on it, the colors were reversed (the 2 euro coin has a copper center and is silver colored around the edge) and the obverse and reverse designs were very different. Ah, there is an inscription to go with the ‘1’ – ‘Turk Lirasi.’ Now I have to guess whether I can pass this coin off as a 2 euro coin or am stuck with a coin that is worth 50¢ US or 38 euro cents.

Some good cardiac exercise today. I’m guessing a mile walk to supper and another mile back. I bought a Italy/Greece map for my GPS and used it to find my way to the hotel in the dark. It took me a shorter route, part of which was a nearly 45° climb. I think I had take a picture of that street earlier as part of my ‘why you don’t want to drive in Athens’ series. Of course I would have had to climb anyway, just not so steep. I realize that the Acropolis Hill Hotel is located on a hill. The front entrance and lobby is the third floor.  The swimming pool and breakfast room are on the first floor looking out over the valley. (And remember, the first floor is actually the second floor.)

I took 235 pictures today and haven’t even begun to sort through them to select no more than 38 for uploading to my website – much less resizing them for the web. It’s bedtime. So I’ll put up this blog and go to bed. Pictures to come later.  I ran down the battery for the camera. Fortunately I had a charged spare and am charging number one battery tonight.

Canicus Modius