Three nights in Athens

The allure of a long weekend in Athens with its astonishing ancient wonders has long been on my wish list. I finally got around to it for a relaxing autumn break with my better half, visiting all the top attractions that you would expect – the Acropolis, the Ancient Agora, Roman Agora, Hadrian’s Library, and the cemetery at Kerameikos. All quite marvellous, especially standing atop the Acropolis just after it opened with hardly anyone around.

I’m sure that everything that could be written about these sights has been repeated ad nauseum so I’ll not spend too long adding to the pile of pointless words. Instead, I’ll just concentrate on our overall impressions and a few of our highlights.

The Acropolis (as seen from the Panathenaic stadium)

The peaceful grounds of the Próto Nekrotafeío Athinón (Athens First Cemetery) are fascinating to visit, holding the graves and mausoleums of the public figures who shaped the 19th and 20th centuries, as well as ordinary Athenians. The cemetery opened in the 1830s and was intended to be a pleasant place to wander, echoing the successful model of Père Lachaise Cemetery. It was very much on trend with developments across Europe, coming at the same time as a spree of cemetery plotting in London.

Among the most notable sights in the cemetery is the mausoleum for Heinrich Schliemann, famous for his archaeological endeavours in search of the site of Troy. It’s an incredible statement, built in the style of the temple of Nike at the Acropolis with a frieze that combines ancient history and archaeology. There is a terrific blog about the First Cemetery of Athens that aims to help visitors, exploring the key figures buried in the cemetery and explaining where their tombs can be found.

I was unexpectedly fascinated by the incredible finds in the National Archaeology Museum which holds an astonishing collection of Mycenaean artefacts including the gold ‘mask of Agamemnon’ and some stunning ancient Greek and Roman sculptures. However, what really caught my eye were the many depictions of octopus in gold and on ancient vases from the 15th-16th century BC, which I can’t recall seeing before. It might just have reflected my relatively recent discovery that octopus is extremely tasty though!

The Museum of Ancient Greek Technology was another unexpected find. The museum holds an extensive collection of operating models of ancient Greek inventions and the staff around the museum helpfully provide live demonstrations to show how many of these worked, from ancient burglar alarms to long range communication systems. It was both educational and terrific fun.

As I am fascinated by the development of the railways it was a no-brainer to make a trip out by metro to see the Museum of the Athens-Piraeus Electric Railways which is located in one corner of the station building at Piraeus. There were mixed reports on opening times so we couldn’t be sure if it would be open at the weekend but thankfully it was. Inside we found a super display over three floors (plus a mezzanine and basement sections) jncluding an original wooden carriage from 1904 that has been beautifully restored.

A really wonderful collection of equipment, signage, models and photographs have been assembled at the museum (opened in 2005, extended in 2013) making our visit a real pleasure. One exceptional feature is a detailed pamphlet that has been produced with English texts for every caption. Admission is free. No photographs are allowed. Absolutely brilliant.

Museum of the Athens-Piraeus Electric Railways

Finally, I can’t leave out the wonderful Acropolis museum. Such a superb job has been done here to pull the story of the Acropolis together and to help make sense of it for the casual visitor. It’s quite incredible to be able to wander round the top floor gallery looking at the frieze from the Parthenon and then glance out of the window at the structure it came from on the Acropolis.

A superb film on the top floor (also viewable on their website at ‘The adventures of the Parthenon sculptures in modern times‘) presents the shocking tales of uncontrollable looting and vandalism by the British, French and Venetians. One line which really stuck with me was the instruction from a French diplomat in 1789 to pillage anything that is pilleagable in Athens.

I don’t know how anyone can visit and not come away convinced that the Elgin marbles need to be repatriated (and the other fragments held in museums across Europe).

Aside from these sights, we also made a visit to the Panathenaic stadium which so many reviewers suggested was not worth entering. However, I was pleased not to miss the fascinating tunnel and museum with Olympic torches, plus terrific views from up top. We also did the very touristy thing of watching the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier on the Sunday.

The Acropolis Museum

Our hotel for the three night stay was the Athens Gate Hotel, handily located between the Temple of Olympian Zeus and the Acropolis. It proved to be a super base for sightseeing and very convenient for access to the metro. The breakfast room has superb rooftop views across to the Acropolis, which is such a great way to start the day.

The hotel was also very handy for a restaurant that has long been a family favourite, Smile, which looks from the outside like a modest restaurant but sit down for a meal and you soon discover that this is a quite exceptional family run restaurant serving up high quality dishes. We ate here twice during our stay and loved everything we tried (two dishes that immediately come to mind are octopus in a red wine sauce, served with fava bean paste and a caper marmalade; battered anchovies with raisins and capers). I would have no hesitation in going back if we are in Athens again.

We also tried a tasting menu at Aleria which proved quite entertaining and revelatory. We took the metro to Metaxourgeio and made our way down a dark, shuttered and rough looking street thinking that we must have made a terrible mistake until we suddenly reached the beautifully illuminated and decorated restaurant. It was a real oasis in the dessert moment!

Over the next few hours we had an incredible assortment of beautifully presented dishes with super service of the like I can’t recall anywhere else. I almost skipped the cheese course, which would have been a mistake as the selection was absolutely divine and I can still remember our eyes lighting up at the silky smooth cheesecake like flavour of one in particular. Undoubtedly one of the best meals of my life.

Sticking with a food oriented theme, we absolutely loved the orange cake that is served up all over the place in Athens and the unexpectedly amazing ouzo flavoured loukoumia. I’m half tempted to get back on a plane just to get some more of that loukoumia…

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