Results tagged “Athens” from Intelligent Travel Blog

The New Acropolis Museum, a project that the New York Times called "one of the highest-profile cultural projects undertaken in Europe in this decade," is celebrating its opening day on Saturday after years of planning and labor--33 years in all, eight since the design was chosen. The stunning modern building, designed by New York architect Bernard Tschumi, allows visitors to view the Parthenon from balconies and see archaeological remains through glass floors. It boasts 226,000 square feet of glass, 150,000 square feet of display space spanning five floors, and 4,000 artifacts. However, perhaps the most important statement made in this museum's opening is not what it has, but what it is missing: The Elgin Marbles.

For all of the beauty and history encompassed in the existing displays, they are incomplete. According to the AP,   

The Parthenon was built between 447-432 B.C., at the height of ancient Athens' glory, in honor of the city's patron goddess, Athena.

Despite its conversion into a Christian church, and Turkish occupation from the 15th century, it survived virtually intact until a massive explosion caused by a Venetian cannon shot in 1687.

About half the surviving sculptures were removed by Scottish diplomat Lord Elgin in the early 1800s, while Greece was still an unwilling part of the Ottoman Empire.

Most belong to a frieze depicting a religious procession that ran round the top of the temple.

Rainer Jenss and his family are currently on an around-the-world journey, and they're blogging about their experiences for us at Intelligent Travel. Keep up with the Jensses by bookmarking their posts, and follow the boys' Global Bros blog at National Geographic Kids.

Most of the correspondence we've received from friends, family and colleagues in the States during the ten months we've been traveling has referred to the terrible economy, the awful mood back home, and what a different country we'll be returning to. Literally everyone has told us we couldn't have picked a better time to skip town for a year.  

As mentioned in my previous post, we couldn't have chosen a better time to go to Greece, either. The big advantages to visiting in May are the weather, lack of crowds and ease of traveling from place to place. So with two weeks to play with, the challenge was figuring out where to go from the multitude of recommendations we received, many more than I had anticipated.  

Going to the Acropolis in Athens is pretty much mandatory, but can easily be done in a day. There are lots of other interesting things to see around the city (a newly refurbished museum opens in July), but with two kids in tow, we didn't feel compelled to seek them out. Albeit among the most famous historical sites in the world, the Parthenon and surrounding ruins did not inspire us as much as others throughout the country.  Most of the site was covered in scaffolding and if you didn't have a tour guide like us, it's hard to make out exactly what happened here in its peak period some 2,500 years ago. By contrast, we had the archaeological site of ancient Corinth almost all to ourselves, while the well-preserved artifacts in its museum really helped us understand its significance. As a port city, the modern day Corinth also offers some nice seaside restaurants and shopping, which made it perfect for a day trip away from the congestion and big-city challenges of Athens.