Kirk has been asking me to do a post for a while. As he was under the weather on Sunday, I am your guest blogger.
After Kirk and Andrew’s city walk and my IEEE Board Retreat on Saturday, we hopped on a bus to the Vorres Museum outside of Athens with fellow IEEE Board members and their guests. The Vorres Museum integrates the traditional folk heritage of Greece with contemporary art. Museum Founder Ion Vorres’ grandson provided a tour of his grandfather’s house and discussed the paintings, skylights and other objects displayed around the house. Other collections included sculptures and a variety of paintings.
After the tour, we enjoyed dinner, Greek wine and performance of several Greek dances.
Sunday morning Kirk woke up feeling ill, so he rested all day. After my Board Retreat meeting and lunch, Andrew and I headed out with a group tour of the Acropolis Museum. After an architectural competition in 2000, a new Acropolis Museum was built and opened in 2009. The architecture of the building was unique and a perfect match for representing the Acropolis.
The museum floats on pillars above an excavation site that was inhabited from the 5th century BC through 12th century AD. Remains of houses and bathhouses as well as the ancient settlement’s network of wells, cisterns, and connecting ceramic sewage pipeline are visible. Some parts of the site are open and in other places, the sidewalk or floor has clear glass so you can see below.
The museum is built to represent the shape of the Parthenon on the Acropolis hill. Floors 1 through 3 have various artifacts including statues, pottery and displays of objects from buildings that existed at the Acropolis.
Floor 4 works to recreate the exterior of the Parthenon and its metopes (stone murals) that decorated the Parthenon walls. This was an immersive experience for visualizing the past.
The 4th floor also offered great views of the current Acropolis structures.
Next, we went to a set of olive oil and honey tastings and made a komboloi (Greek worry beads).
Heading back to the bus, we saw the Odeon of Herodes Atticus stone theater arches that sits below the Acropolis hill.
While we missed having Kirk, it was nice to spend time with Andrew. Fortunately Kirk made a quick recovery and we will visit the Acropolis museum again tomorrow so you’ll learn about his perspectives too.
Kirk’s Travelogue 