Hadrian's Library
Nov. 17th, 2021 10:02 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
memelainaToday began at 8am. Actually, the alarm rang at 7:20, but it took us a bit to get up and showered and dressed and put all our laundry in a big canvas bag. Promptly at 8am (when the doors opened) Kent delivered it to the National Laundry right next door (and not to Zenio's a block up the street) where for a princely sum per kilo they promised to have everything washed, dried, and folded by 4pm. This gave us the day free.
Breakfast at the Hermes has always been pleasant and plentiful. We've been coming here off and on for 30 years. I'll take some photos tomorrow and add them in. The ceramic duck full of boiled eggs is especially nice. The hotel seems to be giving a nod to most western breakfast groups, while concentration on a traditional Greek breakfast. So in addition to a gallon of freshly made yogurt (served in the basin of the yogurt-maker) with bowls of various honeys and jams, there are a couple of plates of cheese and sliced cold cuts for the Germans, a warming dish of scrambled eggs and one of beans for the Brits, little baked croissants for the French, and along with all that OJ, water, toast, tea (with the water nearly hot enough) and a machine with pre-measured 'coffee' combinations where you press a button to get espresso, cappuccino, cafe americano, cafe au lait, etc. The machine is icky. But next to it is a device where you press a button labeled "Large Black Coffee" and hold it down until your cup is full. I peeked in the back, and it's a big urn of regular coffee that someone brews back in the kitchen. Pretty good coffee too. But you have to add your own sugar and milk. The milk offered is evaporated milk (took me a while to sound THAT out in Greek), but one can also cheat and go over to the cereal stand and pour either cold milk or hot milk from pitchers. There are daily Greek specialties. So far we've had spinach pies, sliced Feta, little crustinis with sliced tomato and a dollop of yogurt, and, of course, plates of olives and tomato wedges. We made a good breakfast while discussing what to attempt to do today.
Our original plan was to see the Byzantine Museum. Kent and Rivka went there in 2004, but I have not seen it. However, like several of the top museums, it is near Syntagma Square (Parliment Square) and that's where the students are planning a march today in remembrance of the 17 November 1975 protest against the reign of the Colonels. We were warned that all traffic would be closed off by noon. Since I'm pretty darn dependent on my daily taxis, I didn't want to risk it. First I sat and read for a while in the lobby and let my anti-inflammatories kick in while Kent went searching local jewelry stores for a Christmas present for a friend. Then we walked slowly down through the Plaka (old town) towards Hadrian's Library. Apparently in addition to building a Wall in Britain, he also built a Library in Athens. Quite the man!
On the way we bought one more Christmas gift, and a dozenish post cards. Tired from the walk (well, I was) we had lunch at a cafe on the square. The kolokythia keftedes were quite good - the recipe tasted just like the ones Kent makes but deep fried like fritters instead of baked or pan fried. We asked for lamb souvlaki, and got something mildly tasty which might have been lamb but was not souvlaki (miniature kabobs) but was some spiced minced meat molded onto sticks and grilled. I drank lemonada and Kent drank Pepsi Max which seems to be the sugarless cola of choice in Athens at the moment.
We talked a bit about how thirty, almost forty, years ago when I first started coming to Greece, Coca Cola was pretty much the only international soft drink available. I was a Pepsi drinker in those days and found drinking Coke a challenge. Ah, how young! How innocent! But then Atlanta 'stole' the Olympics from Athens, and the entire country boycotted Coke products for decades. You can now buy a coke in a store, but I've yet to see an actual restaurant serving one.
Hadrian's Library is a sizable site about two stories down from street level. It sits on the side of the Acropolis opposite the Parthenon and you can clearly see the Erectheum and the Proplyum on top of the mesa a few blocks away.
I was pretty pooped out, so my exploration was from bench to bench with a few photos as I sat. Hadrian's place wasn't as big as Alexandria. It had only 16000 or so scrolls (books hadn't come into fashion yet), but that's still pretty sizeable. There are several walls standing where you can see the niches where cabinets of scrolls were stored.
And there were two small auditoriums (as in, places where lectures or readings were given), and one had a bit of metal roof over a little shed where a large cat was curled up soaking in the warm sun. The other cat, equally large, was a dark tabby with white bits strolling around the library grounds and being massively pregnant.
Kittens in November are pretty unusual in the US, but I suppose in Greece with it's milder climate that is different.
I wasn't sure I was going to make the ten blocks back to the hotel. My energy was gone and my back was cramping. But we found benches twice to stop and sit. And in the cathedral square I got to look not only at the murals above the front door, but also at iron work swans on a second story balcony - something I would have missed entirely.
But back in the room I took a muscle relaxant and lay with my knees up for almost an hour until it was time to pick up the laundry. It was all clean and neatly folded into a gigantic, thick plastic carrier bag that Kent and I carried by each taking one handle. Our fabric laundry bags had been washed and folded as well.
So tomorrow we start the second part of our trip with a taxi ride to Piraeus to find the Viking Venus which is likely at Terminal A, unless it is a Terminal B, but it might well be at dock E11. Wish us luck.
And if anyone can give me advice about how to post a photo from my laptop, please do. Otherwise, no photos until I do a bit more research.
Breakfast at the Hermes has always been pleasant and plentiful. We've been coming here off and on for 30 years. I'll take some photos tomorrow and add them in. The ceramic duck full of boiled eggs is especially nice. The hotel seems to be giving a nod to most western breakfast groups, while concentration on a traditional Greek breakfast. So in addition to a gallon of freshly made yogurt (served in the basin of the yogurt-maker) with bowls of various honeys and jams, there are a couple of plates of cheese and sliced cold cuts for the Germans, a warming dish of scrambled eggs and one of beans for the Brits, little baked croissants for the French, and along with all that OJ, water, toast, tea (with the water nearly hot enough) and a machine with pre-measured 'coffee' combinations where you press a button to get espresso, cappuccino, cafe americano, cafe au lait, etc. The machine is icky. But next to it is a device where you press a button labeled "Large Black Coffee" and hold it down until your cup is full. I peeked in the back, and it's a big urn of regular coffee that someone brews back in the kitchen. Pretty good coffee too. But you have to add your own sugar and milk. The milk offered is evaporated milk (took me a while to sound THAT out in Greek), but one can also cheat and go over to the cereal stand and pour either cold milk or hot milk from pitchers. There are daily Greek specialties. So far we've had spinach pies, sliced Feta, little crustinis with sliced tomato and a dollop of yogurt, and, of course, plates of olives and tomato wedges. We made a good breakfast while discussing what to attempt to do today.
Our original plan was to see the Byzantine Museum. Kent and Rivka went there in 2004, but I have not seen it. However, like several of the top museums, it is near Syntagma Square (Parliment Square) and that's where the students are planning a march today in remembrance of the 17 November 1975 protest against the reign of the Colonels. We were warned that all traffic would be closed off by noon. Since I'm pretty darn dependent on my daily taxis, I didn't want to risk it. First I sat and read for a while in the lobby and let my anti-inflammatories kick in while Kent went searching local jewelry stores for a Christmas present for a friend. Then we walked slowly down through the Plaka (old town) towards Hadrian's Library. Apparently in addition to building a Wall in Britain, he also built a Library in Athens. Quite the man!
On the way we bought one more Christmas gift, and a dozenish post cards. Tired from the walk (well, I was) we had lunch at a cafe on the square. The kolokythia keftedes were quite good - the recipe tasted just like the ones Kent makes but deep fried like fritters instead of baked or pan fried. We asked for lamb souvlaki, and got something mildly tasty which might have been lamb but was not souvlaki (miniature kabobs) but was some spiced minced meat molded onto sticks and grilled. I drank lemonada and Kent drank Pepsi Max which seems to be the sugarless cola of choice in Athens at the moment.
We talked a bit about how thirty, almost forty, years ago when I first started coming to Greece, Coca Cola was pretty much the only international soft drink available. I was a Pepsi drinker in those days and found drinking Coke a challenge. Ah, how young! How innocent! But then Atlanta 'stole' the Olympics from Athens, and the entire country boycotted Coke products for decades. You can now buy a coke in a store, but I've yet to see an actual restaurant serving one.
Hadrian's Library is a sizable site about two stories down from street level. It sits on the side of the Acropolis opposite the Parthenon and you can clearly see the Erectheum and the Proplyum on top of the mesa a few blocks away.
I was pretty pooped out, so my exploration was from bench to bench with a few photos as I sat. Hadrian's place wasn't as big as Alexandria. It had only 16000 or so scrolls (books hadn't come into fashion yet), but that's still pretty sizeable. There are several walls standing where you can see the niches where cabinets of scrolls were stored.
And there were two small auditoriums (as in, places where lectures or readings were given), and one had a bit of metal roof over a little shed where a large cat was curled up soaking in the warm sun. The other cat, equally large, was a dark tabby with white bits strolling around the library grounds and being massively pregnant.
Kittens in November are pretty unusual in the US, but I suppose in Greece with it's milder climate that is different.
I wasn't sure I was going to make the ten blocks back to the hotel. My energy was gone and my back was cramping. But we found benches twice to stop and sit. And in the cathedral square I got to look not only at the murals above the front door, but also at iron work swans on a second story balcony - something I would have missed entirely.
But back in the room I took a muscle relaxant and lay with my knees up for almost an hour until it was time to pick up the laundry. It was all clean and neatly folded into a gigantic, thick plastic carrier bag that Kent and I carried by each taking one handle. Our fabric laundry bags had been washed and folded as well.
So tomorrow we start the second part of our trip with a taxi ride to Piraeus to find the Viking Venus which is likely at Terminal A, unless it is a Terminal B, but it might well be at dock E11. Wish us luck.
And if anyone can give me advice about how to post a photo from my laptop, please do. Otherwise, no photos until I do a bit more research.
