Overland to London - Karachi via Athens to Cairo

 

The Acropolis, Athens, Greece

Day 34    Sat 28 June 1980      KARACHI - ATHENS

Departure time from Hotel:  4.15am   Flight no.  RJ191  Flight deps. 6.45am

            We are supposed to clock in at the airport at 4.30am and our tickets should arrive on a flight from Athens! ALIA (Royal Jordanian Airlines) flight RJ191 is scheduled to leave for Dubai and Amman at 6.45am. In Amman we change planes for the connecting flight to Athens. According to the timetable, we are due in Athens at 1.30pm and will be met there and taken to our hotel by a driver under contract to Sundowners. We will be staying at the Hotel Florida, or another nearby hotel until our flight to Cairo on Monday. This evening and tomorrow will be free time in Athens. The hotel is central – near Omonia Square, the smaller of the two main squares in the city. The other is Constitution (or Syntagma) Square where the former Palace, American Express, Tourist Office, Airline offices are found. The Plaka area of Athens is also within easy distance. This is the old area of Athens where much of the night life is found, as are the cheaper eating places. The Acropolis (also a ‘sound and light’, every night) with the Parthenon, the Erechtheum, and other buildings can be reached on foot, as can the Temple of Olympian Zeus and the Athens Archaeological Museum with its fine collection of Greek sculpture. You will have no problem filling in the next couple of days until our flight to Egypt.

The Acropolis from the Agora, Athens

 

Day 35    Sun 29 June                ATHENS

         A free morning to look around the Greek capital, visit the Acropolis and the Parthenon (free on Sundays) and the nearby Agora and Pnyx with their ancient crop of ruins. The Agora was the ancient market area of Athens.

        Athens  is among the world's continuously occupied cities with a recorded history going back over 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state, often in conflict with neighbouring Sparta, Thebes and with the invading Persians and it is widely referred to as the 'cradle of Western civilisation and the birthplace of democracy'. According the an ancient Athenian myth, Athena, Greek goddess of wisdom competed with Poseidon, god of the seas for the patronage of the as yet unnamed city. Cecrops, king of the area, was to be judge and it was agreed whoever gave the better gift would have the city named after the winner. Poseidon struck the ground with his trident and a salt-water spring appeared (another version says he gave the inhabitants the first horse), but Athena offered the first olive tree which was accepted and Athena became the patron of the city.

Ruins of Mycenae, of which Athens was an important centre by 1400 BC

    By 1400 BC, Athens had become an important centre of the Mycenaean civilisation and a fortress had been established on the Acropolis.  By the 6th century BC, widespread social unrest had led to reforms which paved the way for the introduction of democracy by Cleisthenes in 508 BC.  By this time Athens was a significant naval power and had supported the rebellion of the Greek Ionian cities in Asia Minor against Persian rule. This in turn led to the Greco-Persian Wars where a coalition of Greek states, led by Athens and Sparta eventually repelled the Persians, defeating them decisively at Marathon in 490 BC and in the naval battle of Salamis in 480 BC. This, however, had not stopped the Persians from capturing and sacking Athens twice during the wars.  The following decades became known as the 'Golden Age of Athenian Democracy, and guided by Pericles, embarked on an ambitious building programme which saw the construction of the Parthenon and other buildings on the Acropolis 

Columns of the Parthenon with Erechtheum at back.
Taken in 1970 when access to the Parthenon was still possible

      In 338 BC an alliance of Athens and Thebes was defeated by Philip II of Macedon (Alexander the Great's father) at the Battle of Chaeronea. In 146 BC Greece and Athens were occupied by Rome and Athens was given the status of a free city because of its 'widely admired' schools.

Detail of the Elgin Marbles, British Museum
formerly on the Parthenon

There was another period of building under the Emperor Hadrian in the 2nd century AD  which saw the completion of the Temple of Olympian Zeus. After the fall of Rome, Athens was sacked by the Visigoths and Slavs, although at this time Christian churches were established, including one in the Parthenon. In the Middle Byzantine period the city expanded and was relatively prosperous during the Crisades, but the city, and Greece, were conquered by the Ottoman Turks in 1458 and a period of decline set in. Following the Greek War of Independence (1821-29), a Greek Kingdom was established and in 1834 Athens became the capital of newly independent Greece. 

Temple of Olympian Zeus, Athens

The Temple of Olympian Zeus, Lord of the Thunderbolt and King of the Gods, is worth a visit. Nearby is the ancient Hadrian’s Arch, built for the Roman emperor whose name crops up from one end of the Roman Empire to the other (e.g. Hadrian’s Wall in the north of England). This arch separated the old city of Athens from the city of Theseus.  One of the main attractions to see in Athens are the antics of the Evzones, or Presidential Guards. These guards can be seen at the Tomb of Unknown Soldier outside the Greek parliament building in Syntagma Square and also outside the Presidential palace. Every 15 minutes these motionless guards will change position and a changing of the guards takes place every hour. This is always a great photo opportunity.  

The Evzones or Presidential Palace guards, Athens

          This afternoon George, our Greek driver, has kindly consented to run us down the coast, 50 odd kilometres, to the beach at Cape Sounion.

Temple of Poseidon
Cape Sounion

    High on the Cape are the remains of a large 5th century BC Temple of Poseidon, the God of the sea and of earthquakes. A better spot for a temple to the sea god would be hard to find. The sunsets from Cape Sounion are stunning. There is plenty of time for a swim in the clear, blue Aegean and a kalamari (squid) BBQ meal in the beach restaurant with a shot or two ouzo, a bottle of retsina or  Domestica wine or a few glasses of the local Fix beer before returning to Athens.

COMMENTS:  See Simon for an excellent guide service through Athens – cheap rates

                                                 – restaurants a speciality!

Day 36    Mon 30 June         ATHENS – CAIRO

          A free morning in Athens while I pick up our tickets to Egypt for this afternoon’s flight to Cairo. We will leave the hotel at 1pm for the airport. Flight is scheduled to leave at 4.30pm, but it could be late (not uncommon for TWA - 'Try Walking Anyway').

The Theatre of Dionysus from the Acropolis

      In Cairo we will be met by a local representative who will act as courier for the duration of our stay in Egypt. He will inform us of the actual itinerary of the Egyptian sector. It will be after dark by the time we settle into the Hotel Fontana, Ramses III Square, Cairo.

The River Nile in Cairo, Egypt

text & photographs ©Neil Rawlins 

Instagram accounts  @dustonmyfeet     and    @antipodeanneil

My paperbacks and ebooks on my Overland travels in Asia, Europe & Africa in the early 1970s and the experiences of a tour guide on the Asian Overland routes & leading Camel Safaris in Rajasthan in the 1980s are available from Amazon.