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Date: April 21, 2004
City: Athens
We were not the youngest people on the tour this time. There were a
dozen students and their professor, an archaeologist, from Elmira
College in southern NY. The archaeologist works on Crete each summer
with the INSTAP Institute for East Crete.
There were 33 people on the tour including couples from Florida,
Oregon, Texas, Arkansas and California, as well as single women from
Florida, Illinois and New Mexico.
 We
hit the Acropolis this morning. The local guide was knowledgeable, but
spent too long telling us what was there, to the detriment of having
time to see any of it. We both slipped away half an hour before she
got done with the lecture.
 The entire top of the Acropolis was a restoration work
in progress, and had been since 2000. There were large and small
cranes, scaffolding, neatly piled pieces of temples, and lots of
archaeologists working on the restoration.
The museum on the acropolis is full of interesting sculpture, which
is Allan's preferred artistic form. All of the items are displayed so
that you can approach them closely and look at their colors and
carving detail. There isn't the distance between the viewer and the
art which US museums usually impose.
Jane felt hot while she was photographing outside and took off her
hat during the tour, which led her to have heat-exhaustion and a
headache later. She napped and drank a lot of water to get her body
back in sorts. We both carried water everywhere we went and drank
frequently to prevent dehydration. Vacationing can be hard work.
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