Obviously the big draw for our trip to Athens was the Parthenon and the affiliated sites. The nice thing about the city is that if you stay in a central location it is very ‘walkable’. We only took one taxi ride over the 3 days. Scattered throughout the city are small monuments and buildings such as the Monument of Lysikrates, on the street of Tripods, a tribute to Dionysus. The monument was later incorporated into a monastery of Capuchin monks.
And everywhere you went were churches, something that struck me about Greece as a whole. The Christian religion was everywhere, in the form of churches (scattered on streets, in villages, in the country side) and holy icons (e.g. Large crucifixes on buildings).
In the Ancient Agora (which is the area at the base of the Parthenon) we came across this 11th century Church of the Apostles, which had been changed many times over the centuries, but the roof paintings remained and were still beautiful.
Across from the church is the Stoa of Attalos (a stoa is a covered walk way):
The stoa was in frequent use until it was destroyed by the Heruli in 267. The ruins became part of a fortification wall, which made it easily seen in modern times. In the 1950s, the Stoa of Attalos was fully reconstructed and made into the Ancient Agora Museum, with funding donated by the Rockefeller family. The building is particularly important in the study of ancient monuments because the reconstruction of 1952 – 1956 faithfully replicates the original building.
It was filled with remnants of days gone by, most notable being the statues:
I would imagine that it was always Antoninus’ hope that he would live on through his statue …. and 2,000 years later he does.
We spent a little time climbing up some ‘hill of the war god’ (or something) … I could not figure out what it was, the sign was all ‘greek’ to me (smile).
And of course, the Athenian Acropolis (the hill that the Parthenon sits on) was breath taking.
The steps to the Parthenon.
The old Temple of Athena.
At the gates we met Stavros, our guide who must have been approaching 70 and was quite entertaining.
One of his first points was around the marble of the Parthenon and how many parts of the temples have made their way to other museums (sounded a lot like Egypt):
Today, the Parthenon Marbles which were removed by the Earl of Elgin are in the British Museum. Other sculptures from the Parthenon are now in the Louvre in Paris, in Copenhagen, and elsewhere, but most of the remainder are in Athens in the Acropolis Museum, which still stands below ground level a few metres to the south-east of the Parthenon, but will be soon transferred to a new building.[42] A few can still be seen on the building itself. The Greek government has been campaigning since 1983 for the British Museum sculptures to be returned to Greece.[43] The British Museum has steadfastly refused to return the sculptures,[44] and successive British governments have been unwilling to force the Museum to do so (which would require legislation). Nevertheless, talks between senior representatives from Greek and British cultural ministries, and their legal advisors took place in London on 4 May 2007. These were the first serious negotiations for several years, and there are hopes that the two sides may move a step closer to a resolution
Stavros also talked about the sad destruction of the Parthenon:
In 1687, the Parthenon suffered its greatest blow when the Venetians under Francesco Morosini attacked Athens, and the Ottomans fortified the Acropolis and used the building as a gunpowder magazine. On 26 September a Venetian mortar, fired from the Hill of Philopappus, blew the magazine up and the building was partly destroyed.[39] Morosini then proceeded to attempt to loot sculptures from the ruin. The internal structures were demolished, whatever was left of the roof collapsed, and some of the pillars, particularly on the southern side, were decapitated. The sculptures suffered heavily. Many fell to the ground, and souvenirs were later made from their pieces. Consequently some sections of the sculptural decoration are known only from the drawings made by Flemish artist Jacques Carrey in 1674.[40] After this, much of the building fell into disuse and a smaller mosque was erected.
Another point worth noting is the reconstruction. It would seem that in the 1930s many of the marble parts were reinforced with iron that was improperly treated, leading to splitting:
Originally, various blocks were held together by elongated iron H pins that were completely coated in lead, which protected the iron from corrosion. Stabilizing pins added in the 19th century were not so coated and corroded. Since the corrosion product (rust) is expansive, the expansion caused further damage by cracking the marble.[48] All new metalwork uses titanium, a strong, light, and corrosion resistant material.
He took us over to a marble slab with a piece of 1930s metal that was rusted and flaked apart, and then over to the below piece, which did not have a speck of rust and was as hard as … well .. iron … even though it was 2000 years old. New meaning to the phrase ‘they don’t make ‘em like they use to’.
As we walked past this door, he mentioned that its’ replica adorns the entrance to the White House.
And as a point of pride, that it is Canadian titanium that is now being used to fix the roof.
Another great city explored.
The last vestige of barber surgeons’ links with the medical side of their profession is probably the traditional red and white 
Michael Weening: a few pictures 