The plan for our tour of Greece was to complete a triangle with the three principal cities, Thessaloniki, Patras and Athens at the corners. The first two legs, from Thessaloniki to Patras and from Patras to Athens would be completed by car and the final leg from Athens back to Thessaloniki by rail. The only reason for starting in Thessaloniki was that the airfares were cheaper than to Athens.
We stayed at the Hyatt Regency (*) in Thessaloniki, on the outskirts of town not far from the airport. The hotel has a very nice restaurant with an excellent list of local wines. We also discovered the ideal Greek breakfast here: fruit, yoghurt and honey. The only downside of the hotel was the intrusive piped music, impossible to escape by the pool and in the lobby areas.
Thessaloniki is a very old city, founded in 315 BCE by the Macedonians, and subsequently Roman and then Byzantine. Byzantine rule was interrupted in 1204 CE when the fourth crusade captured Constantinople. The city was subsequently captured by the Turks in 1430, twenty three years before the final fall of Constantinople in 1453. In 1913 in became part of Greece. We did not have much time to look around and, unfortunately, the White Tower was closed for renovation. It was built after the Turkish conquest as part of the fortifications at the eastern end of walls. The waterfront does offer a good view of the Aegean. On fine days, Mount Olympus is visible across the bay, but not the day we visited, which was very hazy. The Museum of Byzantine Culture (*) is an excellent museum.
Later in the week we collected our hire car, an Alfa Romeo, and drove along the coast to Philippi. Philippi was another Macedonian city, founded in 356 BCE. In 42 BCE, the battle of Philippi was fought west of the city between the forces of Mark Antony and Octavian on one side and Brutus and Cassius on the other. The name resonates through the last act of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. About a century later, Philippi was the location of the first Christian community in Europe. The apostle Paul is thought to have visited the city around 49-50 CE and later in 56 and 57. Paul’s letter to the Philippians was probably written from his imprisonment in Rome sometime around 60. The city was destroyed in an earthquake in 619. The visible remains are of the roman city, a fine hemispherical theatre and the remains of the forum, as well as parts of the basilica. As we strolled round, I imagine the generals and the emissary treading the same stones.
We arrived in Thessaloniki on Monday lunchtime and left Friday morning for the drive to Patras. The road follows the sweep of the bay before heading south along the coast past Mount Olympus, visibly clearer now. After a brief detour into Larissa, which looked a very dusty town, we followed the highway to Lamia, before taking the E65 mountain road. There are spectacular views back over the plain as the road twists and climbs. It is the middle of the afternoon and hot when we arrive at Delphi and the place is crowded with tourists. Before visiting the site we look round the Archaeological Museum which is a fine collection and then follow the path up through the site to the stadium, passing the Athenian Treasury and the theatre. The Pythian Games, one of the four pan-Hellenic games, were held in the stadium every four years, alternating with Olympic Games. The start line for the runners is still clearly visible.
Back on the road we follow the E65 to the coast at Itea and then follow the north shore of the Gulf of Corinth westward to the new suspension bridge at Rios. Out hotel, the Achaia Beach Hotel (*) is on the waterfront, down some narrow lanes. Looking east we can see the bridge, prettily lit at night, and looking west out to sea, the island of Cephalonia. Although the simplest of the hotels we stay in on this trip, I think it is my favourite of the three. The restaurant serves very simple food and ordinary wines, but the lawn at the front looks colourful when the loungers and umbrellas are out, and there is a deep seawater pool. The beach here is quite narrow and crowded.
From Rios, we make two excursions into the Peloponnese. The first is to Olympia. The site is extensive. There are a number of ruined temples. There is a model of the temple of Zeus and Phidias’ statue, as well as his workshop. There is nothing left of the stadium except the grassy banks, but the form remains and, as at Delphi, the start line for the runners is still visible.
The second excursion is to Mycenae, the road south taking us through the countryside around Nemea. Mycenae was an acropolis site built high on a hill and sitting on the walls watching people walk up through the Lion Gate you can turn and look across the plain to the Saronic Gulf in the distance. The site was apparently first settled by Indo-European farming peoples some 4,000 years ago. The visible remains are from the latest period of occupation in the 13th century BCE. There seems to have been a general decline in the level of culture across the Mediterranean at this time though there are conflicting theories of the causes. There is another fine museum and a van selling fresh orange juice in the car park. Just below the walls are the impressive conical tholos-style tombs built into the hillside.
The next day we are back on the road to Athens. Intending to stop at the Corinth canal for the view, we missed the turn-off and just caught a glimpse of the deep cutting as we crossed the bridge. The idea was to drive round the city and on to Marathon. There is little to see at the site but we stopped by the burial mound of the fallen soldiers and stroll round the park. The road from Marathon to Athens was used as the course of the Olympic marathon events at the 2004 Games, which I remember watching on television. The blue line which marked the course was still visible and we follow the same route as far as we can back into the city. After dropping the hire car off opposite Hadrian’s Gate, we walk to our hotel, the Ledra (*), which is part of the Marriott group. There is a good view of the acropolis and the Parthenon from the swimming pool on the hotel roof.
The Parthenon was constructed between 447 and 438 BCE. It later became a church and then a mosque. In 1687 it was being used as an ammunitions dump when it was hit by Venetian bombardment, which caused an explosion which badly damaged the structure. It is a beautiful form, but best seen from a distance I think. When we visit, the place is quite crowded. Maybe it was the crowds, maybe the clutter of the site, maybe the inevitable scaffolding and work in progress, but I would say our visit was disappointing. Near the entrance is the Areopagus, which looks like a rocky platform overlooking the city. Milton called his argument in favour of press freedom Areopagatica after the tribunal that once met here. More interesting than the summit was the walk round the base, through some parkland, with a view of the theatre of Dionysius. The remains date from the 4th century.
Much better, maybe because more complete and less visited is the Temple of Hephaestus set in a garden opposite the Stoa of Attalos. Building started in 449 BCE and the building was inaugurated in 415. It became a Christian church in the 7th century CE. The Stoa of Attalos is now restored and looks much as it would have done in the 2nd century BCE. It was built sometime between 159 and 138 BCE. It was reconstructed between 1952 and 1956 with funds from the Rockefellers, among others. The building houses another well set-up museum and nearby is the 11th century Agii Apostoli, another small Byzantine church. On the walk back, we passed through the roman forum and view the tower of the winds.
In Athens we also visited the Benaki Museum (*), a restored private museum, and walked down to the Panathanaikos Stadium, the marble stadium in which the first modern Olympic Games were held in 1896. The form is narrower than modern stadiums, more like a paperclip, the curve a means of joining two straights. You cannot enter, but from the road you can look down the running track. On the way back we walked through the park which surrounds the Temple of Zeus and Hadrian’s Gate. The temple was begun around 520 BCE but not completed until 132 CE for the arrival of the roman emperor Hadrian. Our last visit was the Kerameikos, the pottery centre and cemetery.
We left Athens by train to travel to Thessaloniki. The train is quite slow, but it travels on a single track line through the mountains to Larissa. The doors at the end of the carriages are glazed, so it is possible to look out from the back of the train as it trundles through the mountains. Maybe it is just because it is unusual, but the view forward and back always seems more interesting on a train than the view out te side from the windows. Back in Thessaloniki we have another couple of nights at the Hyatt Regency before heading to the airport.
We were touring in Greece in August 2007. At the beginning of that month BNP Paribas stopped withdrawals from three hedge funds, the first sign of the approaching global financial crisis. The crisis hurt the Greek economy, which is very dependent on tourism and shipping sectors. Much worse, in early 2010, after the election of a new government, it emerged that previous Greek governments had been significantly misreporting its financial position. By April 2010 Greece was unable to borrow on the financial markets, becoming dependent on bail-outs. The current projection is that normal borrowing conditions might be restored by 2015, although the government is currently asking for an extension to 2017.
The bail-out comes with terms attached, and there is an argument that the terms are self-defeating because shrinking the economy tends to increase the outstanding debt burden. My own view is that the Greek government debt is bad debt and should be substantially written off as part of a deal in return for modernisation of the Greek state: effective tax collection, trustworthy statistics and effective anti corruption measures.
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