Fira with Donkey Trail

The island of Santorini is a volcano. In 1600 BC, it had one of the largest eruptions in Earth’s history, probably killing off the Minoan civilization. The eruption created a huge peak, which collapsed from its own weight. What’s left is an island with 1000 foot high cliffs, with the water in the harbor another 1000 feet deep. It’s quite dramatic. This is a picture of Fira, the main village, with the donkey trail leading up from the harbor. Fortunately, our tour company took us up the hill on a bus.

Oia

There’s only one harbor on Santorini island, and only one road going up the hill. The ride is quite exciting for the uninitiated. After checking into our hotel, we took the bus up to Oia, the other main village on the island. The entire island is given over to tourism. They have arable land, but there are so many houses and hotels on the island, they have given up their farming in favor of tourism.

Unseen Scene

Winds can be quite intense. We heard the rattling of doors and windows in the lobby this morning. Protective canvas covers at our outdoor restaurant spent the evening flapping loudly in the breeze. I never saw the most photogenic part of Oia because there were too many people. Instead, I offer this picture, which I found in a magazine.

Here’s a couple of pictures of the church on the Oia village square.

Oia Church

Ringing the Bells

100 Year Old Olive Tree

We’ve spent the last two days on the island of Paros. Paros has fertile soil, plenty of water, and was an important source of marble in the classic period. Today, it has a good, balanced economy with just a small amount of tourism. It is what I think of when I think of modern Greece. This picture shows an olive tree with an incredible trunk. It is probably 100 years old and still producing olives. The olive tree is really a bush. The impressive trunk is actually several bushes mingled together. The colors are strange because I shot the picture through a bus window. The window had some kind of sun tinting.

Church

Here’s a picture of the church in the village square, with some stunning flowers in the foreground. Many Greek families have two houses. They came from a village but had little opportunities for a job. They moved to a city and bought a house or apartment. Then they inherited the house of their parents (or grandparents). There’s no real point in trying to sell the parent’s house, so they use it as a summer home.

Village Alleyway

Greek cities are filled with tiny little alleys that wind around. This provided protection against the wind (which can be fierce), more shade in the street, and protection against pirates. So says our guide, and who am I to argue with the guide? The Greeks continue this idea even in new towns. It’s just how things are supposed to be, I suppose.

Paros Village

Here’s an overview of a village on Paros. It was quite scenic and relaxing. But I’m not alone in thinking that 2 1/2 days may have been a longer stay than we needed. The weather here has been at or near 100 degrees the last two days. It is much hotter than normal, and much hotter than was forecast. Everybody on the tour has said they would have packed differently if they had known what the weather would be.

Church in two different lights

This pic is of a famous Church which started at 5 separate chapels and was combined with additional construction into one building. It’s iconic, but I included it because it shows how dramatic the light can be in Greece. The two pictures are of the same building. One is shot with the sun setting behind the building. The other is from the other side with the sunset light shining on the building.

Windmills

This is the other iconic view of old town Mykonos. The windmills were the primary source of income before 1970. There was almost no farming, but steady winds. These mills ground much of the grain for Greece. The picture also gives an idea of the crowds of people in town. We walked through Little Venice and I felt uncomfortable from the crowding. This was with only one cruise ship in port. I can’t begin to imagine what it’s like when there are 5 or 6 ships in port (which is a common thing).

Delos Today

Today we visited Delos, a 20-minute ride in a small ferry. Once Delos was the most important city in the Aegean sea, and one of the most important in the world. Today, it is a total ruin. Only a few guards live on the island. Back in the day, Delos was populated because it had trees, a river, and a lake. The Greeks needed a place to rest and provision their ships.

Lions in Adoration for the birth of Apollo

Before long, it had become a religious sanctuary for all of Greece. When Athens defeated the Persians and formed the Athens league, they stored the league treasure on Delos, and the island became even more important.  As I wrote yesterday, Athens moved the treasury to their own city and used it to build the Acropolis. This triggered the Peloponnesian wars, which Athens lost.

Villa of Dionysos

This was the end of an era, but it also created new opportunities. It removed Athens from control of Delos. Delos quickly became even more important as an international free-trade zone. Every major country had representation on the island, and almost everything was traded. The major profit was in wheat and slaves. The ultra-rich came to the island to show off and make themselves even richer through business and trade. The Villa of Dionysos (named after the subject of the mosaic on the floor of the courtyard) was the biggest and richest house.

Phallus represents Dionysus (Bacchus)

This was definitely a place where the tour guide added a lot to the visit. With very little to see, a lot of interpretation is required to understand the importance of Delos to the ancient world. The most entertaining ruin was the temple to Dionysus, which the Romans renamed Bacchus. The god of wine, dancing, and emotional excess was represented with two statues of a phallus.

Rock Wall Construction without Mortar

Delos included a theater and other things contained in any important city. I won’t bore you with all the pictures. However, this picture of typical construction is interesting. Walls were built with stone and painted with adobe. Notice there is no mortar used in this construction. Our tour guide said this type of construction is more difficult. But I think the mild weather and the lack of importance in keeping the cold wind out might have been an important factor in their using this building technique.

Salamis

As we left Athens, we passed by Samalis Island. This is the site of what may be the most important battle in all of history. The Golden Age of Greece started when Athens and their allies defeated of the Persians at the Battle of Marathon. But that battle would not have occurred if the Persians hadn’t previously lost the naval battle at Samalis.

Samalis

The Persian fleet got themselves trapped inside the strait between Samalis Island and Athens. Stuck in narrow waters, they were unable to maneuver, making them an easy target for the freshly-built Athens navy. In the picture, the strait is between Samalis on the left and Athens on the right. If you click to blow it up, you can see a small red ship in the middle of the strait.

We started the day with a 4-hour ferry ride to Mykonos. If there’s one thing the Greeks know, it’s ships. That shows in the Greek ferries. Our ferry was big enough to hold people. And cars. and trucks of all sizes. (They off-loaded two tractor-trailers at our first stop. I saw them preparing to unload more at our stop.) The passenger area is very large. Seats are more comfortable than a train. There are several classes of tickets. Some of the young people were laying on the floor in sleeping bags. Others sat in an exclusive club area. I didn’t see all of the passenger areas, but there were at least two decks. The ferry was large enough to be a small cruise ship. It has only one ramp, which aft. Our first stop was Tinos. The ferry sailed into port forwards at a high speed. Then it turned itself around while coasting towards the port while simultaneously lowering its ramp. They came to a prompt but smooth stop a foot or so away from the dock, anchored two lines, then dropped the ramp the last foot or so to the dock. The bottom of the ramp was the only part of the ship that ever touched the dock. People, motorcycles, cars, and trucks immediately started streaming out. Traffic cops were clearing traffic out of the area so all vehicles and people could disembark as quickly as possible. Disembarking took only a few minutes, after which the process was reversed as the ferry took on passengers for Mykonos. The boat couldn’t have been at dock more than 15 minutes. If anybody wasn’t in position in time, they would miss their opportunity to embark or disembark. It was a masterpiece of choreography.

Our view at lunch

Before 1960, Mykonos had one small town which was virtually ignored. Inhabitants were poor because the soil is completely unarable. Shortly after that, it was discovered by the super rich, then became the playground of the jet set. Buildings look new because they were almost all built after 1970. There is so little land that the streets are about as wide as donkey paths. In spite of that, all streets are for 2-way traffic. Tour busses, ATVs, SUVs, and pedestrians all share these alleyways. Often, one driver has to back up to the previous intersection. Mykonos would normally be way to expensive for Road Scholar, but it’s the only way to get to Delos. Normally our lunch would be at the “cheap tables”, inside and away from the window. However, a family had rented the restaurant for a wedding reception. We were “forced” to eat at the waterfront tables.

Hotel view

We have a 5-star hotel. Our room assignments are random. Some have a private salt-water swimming pool. We are higher on the hill with a walk-out balcony and a fabulous view of the island. We have several hours of free time this afternoon. Tonight, we will tour the old city.

Winged Victory

Our tour of Athens was very satisfying. Unfortunately, I’m having troubles turning our tour into an interesting story. We started our tour with the stunningly beautiful Acropolis Museum. There were plenty of Greek statues, pediments, etc. The most famous is this statue of Winged Victory. It is a masterpiece of movement.

Carriers of Wine

This is the other stone carving that caught my eye. These young men are carrying wine. Notice the young man on the right set his jug down to take a rest.

World’s Oldest Theater for 5,000

Our next stop was the Acropolis itself. This is the oldest theater in the world, since the Athenians invented theater and this was the first they built. During the spring celebration, commoners were paid to attend the theater, this being considered a type of adult education. Up to three actors were on the raised platform on the left. The chorus was in the flat semi-circle area. The stadium seated about 5,000.

Myconian Wall

The Acropolis was the center of the area long before Athens was formed. This is the remains of a Mycenaean wall, probably from around 1100 BC.

Temple of Victory

This is the temple of Victory, located on the edge of the Acropolis.

Parthenon

The Parthenon was the showpiece of the Acropolis. It was also where the Athenians stored their wealth. The statue in the Parthenon was a 30-foot-tall ivory and gold statue of Athena.

Erechtheion

The religious center of Athens was a much smaller temple called the Erechtheion. This had a man-sized statue of Athena, protector of Athens on the upper level and a statue of Poseidon on the lower level. Note the three Caryatids supporting the portico.

Roof Mockup

This is a mock-up of the Parthenon’s roof. It used cypress wood and marble tiles. It was quite heavy.

Tower of the Wind

This building is called Tower of the Wind. Its 8 sides were supposed to represent the 8 directions of the wind. The holes in the sides near the top contained beams projecting out. They were used as sun dials to tell the time.

Temple of Hephaistos

The Acropolis was the show-point and religious center of town. The money spent to build it came from tribute paid to Athens after they defeated the Persians. Other city-states felt the money should have been used on defensive projects such as a stronger navy. Resentment from this mis-spending was the root cause of the Peloponnesian wars. However, the true heart of Athens was the Agora, just down the hill from the Acropolis. This is where the markets were. It is where people voted, held their congress, etc. The Agora is mostly a total ruin, but it contains the Temple of Hephaistos, which is the best-preserved temple in Athens. It is a typical temple. Its preservation is thanks to having been converted to the Church of St. George.

Jury Selection

This machine was used for jury selection. Jurors were selected randomly the morning of a trial, to minimize the possibility that the accused would be able to bribe the jury.

Great Meteora Monastery

We spent the morning rushing through breakfast so we could beat most of the busses visiting the monasteries. (Actually, the Greek members of our party had to do a lot more rushing than Danita and I. Our tour guide is not a person for rising early.) We managed to beat many, but not all, of the busses to the Great Meteora Monastery. We were able to move ourselves past two more busses by walking steadily up the steps while others stood to the side, panting.

Church Building

Non-flash photography was permitted except in the Church itself. Unfortunately, the building is quite dark. The only pictures I could take were outside. This shows the outside of the Church portion of the building. All of the monasteries were rebuilt in the 15^th century. We were able to visit the Church because it is no longer used for services. The monks moved their services to a less impressive area when the monasteries gained their UNESCO protected status. It was an appropriate thing to do, in part because the number of monks has dropped dramatically since WW II. Today, there are probably a dozen monks left. For at least some time, St. Nicholas (the smaller monastery we visited) was down to one monk. We saw a lot of 15^th century frescos and icons. We heard explanations for all of it, but it didn’t all stick. Nonetheless, it was an amazing and impressive site.

Tower

Our other visit was to the St. Nicholas Monastery. It had far fewer visitors, and it was a much smaller Church area. These allowed us a much more intimate experience of viewing the paintings and icons. The monasteries fly the old Byzantine “Double Eagle” flag. This flag is  quite popular in Greece, as a symbol of their connection to the past.

Double Eagle Flag

Our Guesthouse (the yellow building), viewed from St. Nicholas

My first picture in Greece

We arrived at our hotel in Athens about 9:00 Tuesday evening. Our flights were uneventful, but we were not prepared for the difference between British Air’s international and domestic flights. Service on the international flights is fantastic. We had a choice of two dinners and all the drinks we wanted. Even the wine is free. The domestic flight from London to Athens was the opposite. Drinks and snacks were for sale. One couldn’t even get a complimentary cup of water. Even though we arrived late at the hotel, we both wanted a light dinner. The easiest thing we could do is to visit the hotel restaurant. It turned out to be an excellent choice. The food was fresh and flavorful. The price was reasonable. The service was first-rate. And the view was of the Acropolis. This was certainly a fitting topic for my first picture in Greece.

Athens Treasury

Wednesday our tour guide Nota picked us up. We were going to visit Delphi, site of the most famous oracle of ancient Greece. Delphi was a neutral ground for the Greek citi-states. Cities vied for prestige with the beauty of their “Treasuries”. These were small buildings with some art objects inside. The Athens Treasury was by far in the best shape. It was the only one that was in good enough shape that one could readily identify what it might have originally looked like.

Athens Treasury Pediment and Frieze

The pediment and frieze for the Athens Treasury has also survived and is mostly intact. These shows the exploits of Hercules and Theseus. Inside the Treasury were spoils from their victory at Marathon, where they defeated the Persian army.

Temple to Apollo

The main building was the temple to Apollo. Kings of the city-states went to Delphi (or sent their representatives) to get knowledge of the future. The king talked to a priest. The priest talked to the Oracle. The Oracle was an illiterate young woman who had to eat a poisonous leaf and small an ethanol gas that rose from an underground chamber. These made her foam at the mouth and utter nonsense sounds (and also significantly shortened her life). The priest “translated” the Oracle’s utterances into a prediction. The woman was only a distraction. The priest gave answers that sounded favorable to the king but could be broadly interpreted. The most famous example is when a king was told that if he went to war, he would destroy the army. The king went to war and saw his own army destroyed. Technically, this outcome met the Oracle’s prediction. The other thing that made predictions successful was that all kings went to the Oracle. This gave the priest more information than anybody else in Greece.

Stadium with room for 10,000

Such an important neutral zone couldn’t be used only for predictions. The area had a stadium for the Marathon games (similar to the Olympic games, but not played in Olympia). They had musical and theatrical competitions at their stadium. The stadium could seat 10,000 people, an average size stadium.

Bronze Cauldron – note repairs

There were several different Oracles with different divination techniques. These competed for prestige. Delphi was the best known. They demonstrated their importance by displaying their wealth. This brass cauldron is an example. These cauldrons were used to prepare food for large crowds. But Delphi displayed far more cauldrons that were needed for food preparation, just to show how much brass they owned. This cauldron is especially interesting because the rivets clearly show where it had been repaired.

Ivory and Gold Statue

Statues and other works of art were also used as bragging rights. This is an extremely rare example of a technique using ivory and gold. The most famous temple was the Parthenon, which had a very large ivory and gold statue of Athena. The statue did not survive. The statue in this picture shows the technique, which can help us imagine what more famous ivory and gold statues looked like. This ivory looks black because it survived a fire. But the statue is in remarkably good shape.

Bronze Statue

Most of the ancient Greek statuary was bronze. Ironically, very little bronze statues survived because of the value of brass in making weapons. The Delphi museum has one of the finest examples of brass statuary. The piece is of a charioteer with his chariot and horses. The piece suffered significant damage, but the charioteer survived perfectly. Even the eye lashes are still intact. It is also one of the finest pieces of bronze art produced, displaying the Greek idea perfect beauty, down to the famous “Greek foot”, where the second toe is longer than the great toe.

Meteora Rocks

The afternoon was spent driving to Meteora, where we would be visiting some famous Monasteries. The area as mysterious rocks. Not part of any mountain range, these rocks appear to pop out of the earth for no reason. The look smooth at a distance, but when one gets close they are clearly aggregate (like cement). The rocks have many mysterious and wonderful holes, or small caves.

Nicholas Monastery

The monasteries started out as hermits living in the caves in isolation. Over time, Monks moved into these holes, built monasteries, and developed the monastic lifestyle. This is a picture of the St. Nicholas Monastery, the smaller of the two we would visit the next day.

Our guest house was wonderful, with a walk-out porch. This picture was taken from our porch. We spent the evening admiring the view and watching the stars come out.

Click on the link below to see a cave tour!

A Brief Virtual Tour of Jewel Cave

Brinton Museum

We visited Little Bighorn Battlefield this weekend. It’s too far for a one day trip, so we stopped in Sheridan, WY. While there, we visited the Brinton Museum. This museum is set in the middle of ranch land. Most streets are gravel. Buildings are obviously working farm buildings. When one finally arrives at the Brinton, one finds an ultra-modern building totally out of place with its surroundings. The backbone of the building is a rammed-earth wall which supposedly is built like the wall of China and will supposedly last 2000 years. One end of the wall symbolically encoumpases the Bighorn Mountains. The other symbolically encoumpasses an ancient medecine wheel. Actually, nobody knows the significance of the medicine wheel. It’s just a name. If you’re into this kind of stuff, there’s information at this link: http://thebrintonmuseum.org/feature/feature-2/. What I noticed is that the building was built with funds from one donor. Their revenue almost covers the payroll.

Indian Blanket

Whatever the long term prospects of the Brinton, their exhibits are stunning. This buffalo hide blanket is typical. (The white circles are an artifact of the lighting and glass cover.) The placard described the symbology of the colors and design. I found this design striking — almost modern, yet made in 1900. I came away with an altered view of Native American spirituality. Can one improve a war horse with a saddle ornament that gives the horse the agility of an antelope? Or is the real purpose to remind the rider what he has to do to help his horse perform better? Who knows? (Actually, Indian spirituality briefly left its roots and became nothing but magic. In 1880 a new spirituality called the Ghost Dance promised to protect Indians from bullets. It died out by 1890 for obvious reasons.)

Last Stand Hill

The next day it was on to Little Bighorn. I had read a book of the Plains Indian War. lt was quite interesting to tie the movements and tactics of the battle at the Little Bighorn River to the land. We took a tour led by a Crow Indian. He gave an excellent account of the battle sometimes called Custer’s Last Stand, and he did it in just one hour.

Our Guide

Before he started, he protected himself with sage incense and ash. You can see the ash on his forehead. One of the guides was attacked by a critter, receiving several scratches. Guides have not been attacked again since using this spiritual protection. The guide appeared to use a sign language while he was talking. I don’t understand his purpose. It was not the sign language used by the deaf in the US.

Humming Bird at the Brinton Museum

Here’s a bonus pic from a small garden at the Brinton. This is our last week at Jewel Cave. We will work Thursday – Sunday. Monday we will pack, clean, and check out. Then it’s off across country to Columbia. We plan to arrive home Sept 9, then leave for Greece on the 11th.

Agate Fossil Beds (mountains in the distance)

Today was the solar eclipse. This is the first time we have been close enough to just drive somewhere and see it. This was important to us. Towns were posting signs stating how much they were charging for parking today. Cheap hotels were charging anywhere from $500 to $1000 for a room. Those who needed last minute eclipse glasses could get them — for astonishing prices. We decided to drive to Agate Fossil Bed National Monument. That’s about 150 miles and 2 hours, 30 minutes away. Being a national monument, we knew they wouldn’t be charging any fees for parking or visiting.

Tripod busted? Fix it with duct tape!

Originally, we didn’t plan to see the eclipse. We figured other people would want the day off and Jewel Cave would ask us to work that day. But Monday is our normal day off and nobody asked us to come in. Our original plan was to leave about 5:30. But visitors, co-workers, and the staff at Agate Fossil Bed all thought that parking would be filled by 7. Everybody said that pulling over on the side of the road would be impossible for various reasons. (We saw several people who did the impossible.) We decided to revise our plans and leave at 3:30 (AM). When somebody we know suggested that might not be early enough, we decided that 3:30 is plenty early enough. Whatever happens happens. It’s an adventure, and we’ll have an interesting story to tell even if we don’t see the eclipse.

Astronomy Club

So off we go, casually equipped with some water, some food for breakfast, eclipse glasses, and a pocket camera. The drive down was very easy. We encountered very little traffic, arrived just after 6, and got into the line of early-arrivers trying to get be the first in the parking lot.

Solar Viewer

We met one couple who arrived about midnight, with plans to sleep in the car. They encountered a park service police vehicle with flashing lights, and thought they would not be admitted. But it turned out that the park had set aside an area for early arrivals to park and sleep.

We had 4 1/2 hours until the eclipse. We brought breakfast with us, but in spite of the park having two food vendors on site, we couldn’t find a cup of coffee. We wanted to walk their 2-mile interpretive trail, but it was closed today. So we settled for watching their movie, taking a few walks around the grounds, and reading our books.

The park had spaces for 1500 cars, and it looked to me like they pretty much filled up, but not until just before the eclipse started. It’s a lot of fun going to a mass event like this. Everybody comes for the same purpose. Everybody is in a good mood. A comfortable and energetic vibe permeates the event as strangers meet and have casual conversations. It was fun walking around and taking snapshots of what I saw.

All kinds of people were there. Some came with nothing more than a frisbee to toss around. Others had elaborate telescopes and cameras, complete with special filters and automatic tracking mounts. There were astronomy buffs and families looking for one last activity before school starts. Everybody got the message that they shouldn’t look directly at the sun. The park had free eclipse glasses for those who were totally unprepared. They had a projection viewer for those who wanted a better view. They had a Native American offer his interpretation of the event.

The eclipse itself started out as a fun but somewhat routine affair. Excitement built as we approached totality. Near totality, we saw two planes overhead, chasing the eclipse. I was surprised by how excited Danita and I got when totality was achieved (as well as everybody else there). There is no other experience like it. A partial eclipse does not prepare one for a total eclipse. The birds did not go nuts. It did not look like night-time. There was much more light than I thought there would be, and the color and quality of the light was something I have never experienced before. The corona I saw was much larger than what I have seen in pictures. But mostly, it was just great fun. There were spontaneous shouts of awe when the eclipse went total. And more spontaneous shouts when the sun started coming back 2 minutes later. All-in-all, it was a most worthwhile, fun, exciting, and satisfying experience. But it is not worth a $1000 room.

PS – the only thing I didn’t see was a pinhole projector. There are many ways to do one. The most unusual idea I heard was to use a Ritz cracker for the pinhole — one gets 4 images of the sun on the screen. Too bad nobody tried it. It would be a news-worthy achievement to make one that works.