Automotive History

A charming collection of retro sports cars (dating from 1928 to 1975) is open to the public at Peiraios St 83. This MERCEDES-BENZ 190 SL (1961) is only one the beauties I met there.
Alman Sport Historic Cars Collection (in Greek)

House of a tyrant

In the middle of Parnitha National Park (only a few kilometers from Athens) lie the ruins of a villa owned by the dictator Papadopoulos, head of the military junta that governed Greece from 1967 to 1974.

The villa was immediately looted after the junta fell and he went to jail. Anyone can reach the site now (which features also a heliport and a deserted military camp) by foot or by bicycle. It is unknown why the Greek state hasn´t turned it into something useful like a mountain refuge (it is in 1100m alt).
See the place in Wikimapia

Books and marble

Last week, under the Acropolis rock, the Book Fair.

Pantheon and manure

When it comes to decorate your garden, anything goes. The Sphinx, Alexander the Great, an eagle, goddess Athena (again in Athens DP) and other figures are for sale in a local garden shop near the flowers, the flowerpots, the fertilizers and the manure.

Goddess at work

Next year, the new Acropolis Museum (just below the ancient temple of Parthenon) will be ready to receive the first artifacts. This poster is just outside the works area.
The glass gallery on the top will have direct view to Acropolis.
To read more about the museum click here and to watch a virtual tour click here.
Also this Wikimapia link shows the site before the actual building begun to be built. You can clearly see the ancient findings. The artifacts of this particular site will be displayed in the museum too.

Historic Acropolis Rally

This stylish beauty, along with other awesome cars, competed for 6th Historic Acropolis Rally. A race for sport cars of age 22 years and more. The cars started and finished their race under the Acropolis.

Windows

In Greece there are no real TV news. They are merely entertainment programs about what happens in the country.

We call this lay-out "TV windows". The woman in the middle is the host. The guys left and right of her are journalists-commentators who are there every single evening commenting on everything: From the government's budget to the latest crime of passion.

On the second row are two politicians. Politicians have become actual commentators themselves. Since they don't produce any news (except from some scandals) they are there to comment on the news.

(Behind the white-haired man there are pictures of Orthodox Saints. He is the Minister of Interior and this is his office in the ministry. And I thought that the theocrats were in Tehran and Washington DC only, LOL).

What about your country? Are there similar pictures?

Unfitting...

The same hotel (see previous post) from a nearby peak. It was built on the site of an old sanatorium of the ´20s.
Wikimapia Link

Madonna bringing gifts

This poster was part of the H&M launch campaign in Athens about a month ago. No, she did not visit :-)

Meeting the wild

On Parnitha mountain, only 25km from downtown Athens, lives the largest Red Deer (Cervus Elaphus) population in Greece (about 400 deers).
I met a family of three during a walk this week and it was one really amazing and magic moment.

(The photo was taken just a few meters behind the ruined hotel of the previous photo)

Upper Class ruins

This used to be an upper class hotel back in the '60s and the early '70s. State owned, it was built on Parnitha mountain, at 1050m altitude and it was abandoned in the late '70s. Today is deserted, looted and almost in ruins. The inside is spooky. Totally destroyed, burned furniture and carpets, broken floors. As of today, there are no plans for its future.
This interesting structure, where it used to be the covered lounge of the hotel, has the tree's roots built in this cylinder all the way down to the ground.
See the place in Wikimapia

Meeting with a veteran

In the porch of soon-to-be-demolished house, an old piano (no idea how old) waits its own fate.

Easter Eggs

The custom in Greece is to paint eggs red and crush the one on the other in Easter Sunday, the Resurrection Day. The one who will crush everyone else´s egg and keep his/her own intact will have good luck.

Happy Easter to everyone. And to the non-Christians... greetings and good luck.

More Street Art

The only

Street art

Grand Dog Hotel

A few meters from my home...

A King's yard

These stairs lead to the room where the King's office used to be. Many photos in Greek magazines featuring "family" moments of the royals in the 50's and '60s had the family sitting on them.
(See also previous posts)

..ante portas

This gate was the official entrance to the palace proper in Tatoi (see previous posts). On the right (not visible) is what remains from the guard's outpost. From this gate would pass every official visitor and on this spot stood the tanks which blocked the palace during the coup d' etat in 1967. (That is, until the moment when the King accepted their "government").

Today the estate is completely accessible to the public (except from any building) and is recommended trip for everyone visiting Athens.

Swimming pool for Kings

I wonder how many royals had dived in this swimming pool in the former royal palace in Tatoi. Now it's full of leaves and some graffiti.

Tatoi former Royal palace

This is where the ousted Greek royal family lived from 1871 to 1968. The palace is part of a large property, now confiscated by the state. The building is empty. Most objects, artifacts and precious items were taken by the former King over the years and many of them were auctioned in London some weeks ago.

The place is more than 15km out of Athens and is now part of Parnitha National Park and the whole area is open to the public. I, actually, met many tourists walking the area and many families trekking. The palace and all the other buildings are closed though.

More pictures to follow.

Read more in Wikipedia
See the area in Wikimapia

The automobile fields

This is Attiki Odos, the newest and fastest freeway in Athens. Today, it was just a an endless queue of cars due to Vladimir Putin´s visit. This road leads to the airport so the authorities saw it proper to close it entirely for 30 minutes till the motorcade of the departing Russian president reaches Athens Intl.
Well, it was an opportunity for the drivers to have a little socializing under the sun.

"300" World Premiere

Two days before the official release in Greece, the movie about the battle of Thermopylae was screened in a grand premiere in Athens. A whole multiplex (14 cinemas, about 2700 seats) was dedicated to Leonidas and his 300 men who fought the Persians in 480 B.C.

Of course, the movie is based on the "300" comic book which is loosely based on the actual battle. Some in Greece will yell against the "distorted history" but, well, it's just a movie.

P.S.
In the movie, King Xerxes of Persia is pronounced with a "Z". Please, it's X like X-box, not Z like in Xena. :-)

P.S. 2
Look how King Xerxes looked like and how he is depicted in the movie. Good thing this will never be released in Iran. :-)

A ride on the mountain

This is the teleferique of the Parnitha mountain. It lifts people to the Regency Casino (former Mont Parnes Hotel, alt. 1055m). It is brand new. The previous lift that was there for over 40 years was dismantled. Parnitha is the tallest mountain in Athens and is a protected forest and wild life area.
See the area in Wikimapia

Say goodbye to winter

First day of spring today. For scenes like this, we 'll have to wait till next winter (at least in this part of the world).

Winter colors

A little escape

Two hours drive out of Athens lies this beautiful artificial lake in Feneos, Korinth. The church was constructed there to commemorate the former position of a monastery which was forced to move upper in the mountain when the waters raised.
See the place in Wikimapia (you can zoom out to see where exactly in Greece it is)

Rime and mist

I guess the friends from the north are very familiar with scenes like this. But in Greece it's not something you see every day. This is what happens when the early morning mist freezes on the little branches when the temperatures gets below zero. Of course, this is a on a mountain.

Build it Up

For the past seven years, Athens is being rebuilt. No, they don't demolish the monstrous buildings in order to make new modern ones. They tear down beautiful old houses and villas in areas that were countryside but now they' re totally urban in order to build blocks of flats. The land now costs more that the old buildings themselves so the development companies take action. Of course, people who move into these new flats are borrowing the money from the banks. Millions of homes are already built in the greater Athens area and almost all of them are on heavy mortgage deals for 30 years or more.

At local market

Once a week, in almost every neighborhood in Athens a local market is being set up in 5 o'clock in the morning. They sell mostly vegetables and fruits but also fish, various small home objects and some clothing.
The basic idea behind these nomadic markets is that the farmers themselves can sell directly to the consumer, without anyone reselling in the middle. Therefore, the prices here are lower that those in super markets or the grocery's.
The market occupies an entire street. Motorcars can cross through the market and scenes like this are common.

At 13:00 in the afternoon, everyone packs everything and they go. Tomorrow they will sell somewhere else.

Athens DP is back

After what ended up as a small adventure with DSL access and my ISP, everything is up and running now and Athens DP is fully back online. Thanks everyone for the nice comments during that short break. Let's blog!