Way back in 1981 Bond… James Bond cornered a KGB operative at the top of a cliff and eventually throws the top secret ATAC decoder off the cliff. The cliff top KGB hideout was the Monastery of the Holy Trinity at Meteora. Roger Moore, probably not the best James Bond. That will no doubt start an argument.
There are a whole batch of monasteries at Meteora including ruins of disused ones, all built in the most isolated locations.
I felt cross today.
Lunch table cats.
From the Galaxidi Maritime Museum website:
Η συλλογή “Αργοναύτες” γραμματοσήμων και σπάνιων ναυτιλιακών εγγράφων του Κωνσταντίνου Ανιτσά, δωρεά από τον συλλέκτη στο Ναυτικό και Ιστορικό Μουσείο Γαλαξειδίου, εγκαινιάστηκε στις 29 Σεπτεμβρίου 2007 και ήδη εκτίθεται σε ειδικά σχεδιασμένες προθήκες στον χώρο του Μουσείου. Πρόκειται για μια από τις σημαντικότερες στο είδος της συλλογές με αποκλειστικό πυρήνα τη θάλασσα και την ιστορία της ναυτιλίας από την αρχαιότητα μέχρι τις μέρες μας.
Translation;
Something happened on the 29th of something 2007. Having cleared that up the museum is small but interesting highlighting Galaxiti’s role as a port since around 3000bc.
Tourists enjoying the museum.
When the captain of a ship dies the figurehead of his ship is painted black.
I did hint that the museum might be a bit “dry”.
From Sailing Ships to Spaceships.
“Everything has a natural explanation. The moon is not a god, but a great rock, and the sun a hot rock.”
—Anaxagoras, Greek Philosopher 5th century BC.
“I suppose we shall soon travel by air-vessels, make air instead of sea voyages, and at length find our way to the Moon, in spite of the want of atmosphere.”
— Lord Byron, 1882
“It is complete nonsense to believe flying machines will ever work.”
— Sir Stanley Mosley, 1905
It took until 1957 for the first artificial satellite to be launched by the USSR and until 1969 for Neil Armstrong to walk on the moon.
I suspect the first tourist trips to space will be by a Hellenic travel company who have foolishly left their prototype “tri-axle” space cruiser parked by the side of the road just one kilometre from our hotel. Jen snapped this picture and another of the control panel inside which clearly showed provision for a microwave and souvlaki grill, the technology and equipment are obviously aimed at tourism rather than research.
On the Gulf of Corinth sits a tidy polis with a lovely little harbour quaint shops and numerous bars. Previously a small but important shipping building town and port it now hosts cruising yachts and tourists as well as relaxed and friendly locals. There are many cats as usual, so many in fact that each restaurant table seems to have a resident cat to assist with food scrap removal. Cats are obviously well liked in Galaxidi as is evidenced by some kind local having constructed a houseboat especially for cats so they can cruise the harbour at their leisure, perhaps admiring the fish as they wile away the hours between restaurant sittings.
Galaxidi Harbour, cat houseboat bottom right.
Cat Houseboat.
Need a Fix?
Island.
Doorstep cat, resting after a feast of mouse-aka.
By the way, we are off to the Galaxidi Maritime Museum (GMM) today so check tomorrow for more exciting updates on cats and all things maritime.
Cats were not as popular in Ancient Greece as in Egypt and Rome, however they were a very familiar part of family life. Aristophanes the comic playwright, liked to include cats in his theatricals and often used the phrase “the cat did it” for comic effect.
These days, in a single day in fact and in one location you can find many Greek cats using ancient Greek monuments to best effect and soaking up modern Greek Sunlight oblivious to the past and not caring about the future past the next meal.
Delphi is famous as the ancient sanctuary in southern Greece where The Oracle was consulted regarding important decisions throughout the ancient classical world.
The Oracle apparently employed “laurel” to generate her prophecies, which may have included such plants as Rhododendron, Oleander and Cannabis (some of which will definitely kill you), the laurel would inspire ravings from The Oracle that would then be “translated” by priests.
Basing major decisions on the ravings of a pot smoking “Oracle” who’s ramblings are subsequently translated by priests into elegant poetic hexameters hardly seems the way to build an empire but there you go. Interestingly enough Hip Hop and Rap artists often use similar hexameter rhythm, just not as elegant.
Delphi isn’t just about The Oracle, it’s structures which included, The Tholos of Delphi, The Temple of Apollo, Treasury buildings, Theatre, Gymnasium, Stadium, Hippodrome and so on, make it almost a complete blueprint for any modern city. It’s early culture has played a major part in several civilisations including this one…… I give it nine and a half out of ten. We can only hope Donald Trump doesn’t start taking advise from rappers……. what if he already is!
An Oracle not “The Oracle”
Statues from Delphi, missing various bits and pieces.
The Dancers.
The Tholos close up.
Delphi.
The Tholos.
The Theatre.
Greece the “cradle of western civilisation” due to it’s ancient progressive attitude to democracy, arts and science, philosophy and so forth is these days more well known for it’s lovely climate (coming from England), beautiful scenery and islands, ancient ruins and friendly people. It’s also known for it’s economic woes, crumbling infrastructure and struggling social climate.
Top of any tourist list in the city named for Athena is “The Acropolis”. Athena was the goddess of wisdom, courage, inspiration, civilisation, law and justice, strategic warfare, mathematics, strength, strategy, the arts, crafts, and skill and probably squirrels.
An acropolis is just a hill, and there are many acropoleis in Greece “The Acropolis” in Athens is just the most well known, it’s more ancient name is Ceccropia named for the legendary serpent man, Cecrops, the first Athenian king. It was Pericles in the fifth century BC who organised the construction of the site’s most important remains including the Parthenon (no, not a Greek owned milk bar) and the Temple to Athena Nike (no, nothing to do with sports wear).
The Parthenon and the other buildings on “The Acropolis” were damaged seriously during the 1687 siege by the Venetians when gunpowder being stored in the Parthenon was hit by a cannonball and exploded. In modern times the site has been restored on and off, sometimes causing more damage than good. Current restoration appears to me to be monumentally slow (probably because it’s a monument).
“The Acropolis” can never be what it was….. nothing ever can, which may be a good thing….. (just a bit of Greek philosophy thrown in for good measure).
Flea Market
“The Acropolis” from our temporary house.
Athena’s place.
Ancient ruin rebuilt as cultural venue. Athena would be pleased.
The cat on the other hand, couldn’t give a rat’s.
Hadrian’s Gate.
Hadrian’s Library. Now a Spare parts department for ancient ruins.
Zombie Greek kids at the Flea (flee) Market, quite common apparently.
Nana now 83 still selling, Anthony, sadly gone, but also still selling.
Athens from The Acropolis.
From the Portobello Road website.
“Welcome to Portobello Road, the world’s largest antiques market with over 1,000 dealers selling every kind of antique and collectible.”
We must have arrived on a quiet day, the food was good though and I nearly managed a haircut except the budget wouldn’t extend to the $78 au asking price, so it was back to the other side of town to the Maritime Museum, Greenwich Observatory and The Cutty Sark Clipper Ship display to finish our last day in the UK.
It’s been fun and the last two days rain free with considerable amounts of sunlight allowed us to see London without the dimmer switch seemingly in the “dull light” mode.
So to save me time as I have to pack my bag and prepare to risk life and limb on yet another airplane here are a few self explanatory digital miracles from Jen’s pixel box.
Portobello Road with antique flamingos.
Portobello Road.
The old and the new London.
Figurehead.
In the Navy it’s best to put one foot in front of the other, twist sightly and never ever put your hands by your side. This way you will create the best image you can in front of the underlings, even if you don’t have a clue what your doing.
Cutty Sark, worlds fastest clipper ship
Dry docked permanently, but still earning money,
The Belfast and Tower Bridge.
By the way, next stop Greece starting in Athens.
It occurred to me that I may have seen an apparition as I wondered through the creeper covered maze of the deceased and maybe not so deceased at Highgate yesterday, so I did some research.
It appears Highgate cemetery has, for a long time, been suspected as being haunted and having at least one resident vampire. David Farrant (a magician), who runs the British Psychic and Occult Society, said he was one of the first to see the so-called vampire in 1969 and if anyone can spot a vampire it’s going to be this guy. Following his report to the newspapers a flood of other sightings were reported, including one by another magician. On Friday the 13th of March 1970, a mob of excited vampire killers flooded the graveyard after a “vampire hunt” was declared. In the following months, corpses were found in the cemetery in various states of disarray, one without a head, another burnt to a crisp. While no “vampires” were found in the cemetery, one of the magicians involved did get arrested.
In 2016 the “highly” respected Star newspaper reported the possible return of “The Vampire” so maybe I did see something…. It was luminescent green and hovering over a very overgrown and ancient looking grave and “guide cat” totally avoided the area (cats know about these things you know)….. Then again one of the groundsmen, who I suspect doesn’t like cats, was wearing a flouro green safety vest and the sun was shining for a change which may have affected my vision.
Highgate cemetery is home to quite a few famous people, the most notable but by no means the most interesting, being Karl Marx. Also planted in this quiet (very quiet) corner of London is Sir Sydney Nolan, who’s famous study of Ned Kelly probably accounts for the difficulty I had finding him. My favourite planting however, would have to be Douglas Adams, not a revolutionary or a high priced painter but a man with a great sense of humour and is credited with the answer to life, the universe and everything….42.
To visit East Highgate Cemetery you are required to pay four pounds each. To visit West Highgate, we would have had to book on line and shell out twelve pounds each. Isn’t it great when this information becomes available when it’s to late. On the plus side we were guided part way through the east cemetery by a rather cordial black and white cat with sufficient local knowledge to point out most of the grey squirrels living in the area.
The Tour Begins.
A brief “Paws”
Douglas, pens for…
Following the cemetery and with our freshly honed London Transport skills used to best effect, it was back to Fleet Street, Australia House (the house that saved me from …. well who knows what and delivered me to ….. well where I am now…….Douglas Adams’ 42 again) and then onto The British Museum. If you think we are cramming a lot into a day, well you would be absolutely correct. I think what is required now is for my long term and short term memories to reach some sort of agreement on where we have been and what we have done, then log this information somewhere really clever and in a form that I find vaguely recognisable, then in about six months time all will become clear…..maybe.
The Carving says it all
Thanks.
Fleet Street, Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese Pub and St. Paul’s
There is really no point posting pictures of the British Museum, there would be too many. Oh heck, 3 won’t hurt.
By the way, I struggle to sift through the hundreds of photos we have accumulated on this holiday, if you want more or are having difficulty sleeping, we will be home in a couple of weeks and will be well equipped to restore sleep to those suffering the most severe cases of insomnia.
A Orange, White and Grey Eastern Globe Bird…. or something.
When it’s raining it’s best to stay inside, fortunately they are lots of inside activities in London, museums being one of them. Garry, being on record as saying museums are a good way to waste half a day, the beer museum at Carlsberg being a notable exception, will no doubt opt for a more personally rewarding activity, brewery tour perhaps or maybe a cup of coffee and an Eccles Cake?
The Victoria and Albert Museum claims to be the world’s leading museum of art and design ….. who am I to argue. What I can say is, it’s the best I have seen. Everything from a home made toaster to fine jewellery and everything in between, all housed in an outstanding building which is itself a work of art. Accessed via the underground you don’t even get your feet wet. The only problem is that we are not here for a month, which is my estimated time requirement to fully comprehend the contents of this outstanding treasury of artefacts. “Inspiration and Knowledge”.
The silver.
The courtyard.
The jewelery.
The art library.
Valentino 2014.
From the Jewellery department..
Following the museum we managed a PM tour of some other essential London sites before catching the underground back to Earls Court. All up about fourteen kilometres of walking three of which were in the V. A. Museum.
The new view from Tower Bridge.
Camera shy horse.
Trafalgar.
Whitehall Gardens.
Big Ben..Almost!
Tower Bridge.
Boudica, tickets sold her!
Unveiled by Liz 2005.
Tomorrow Highgate Cemetery to commune with the not so alive.
leschalmers 