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There's a large choice of museums to visit in Athens, from the spectacular New Acropolis Museum, and older National Archaeological Museum to much small but just as significant museums.  Each time I go to Athens I try to visit a couple of these interesting collections of Greek history.  This time I decided to stop by the Byzantine and Christian Museum on Vassilis Sofias as I hadn't been there in a number of years.  The museums was completely refurbished in 2004 and displays a number of wonderful artifacts, altogether 3000 of them including coins.



The beautiful buildings housing the museum were once the home of the Dutchesse de Plaisance, an eccentric French-Philhellene, widow of a Napoleonic general who helped fund the War of Independence.





The exhibits start with the early days of Christianity and follow through the Byzantine era with displays of everything to ordinary daily life in those times to religious icons, parts of early churches, mosaics of floors and wall frescoes, and a Coptic section displaying clothing as well as other artifacts.





Check the website for more details at www.byzantinemuseum.gr
The Museum is closed on Mondays and certain holidays. Full admission is 4 Euro, reduced 2 Euro


In contrast, just down the street is the War Museum, a memorial endowed after the 1967-74 junta.  It's open Tues- Sat from 9 am to 2 pm and it's free. But I didn't go inside, just looked at the outdoor displays of planes and artillery pieces. There are some antiquities inside, not all labelled in English, with the history of warfare from the model of a plane that dropped bombs on Turkish positions in the Balkans in 1912 to a display about Cyprus that sends a firm message to Turkey.

More appealing to me was the newly restored Lyceum of Aristotle that 's just around the corner.
I'll post photos and details about this in my next blog.

I have visited Thessaloniki (in Greek Macedonia) several times beginning with 1979, my very first trip to Greece. I stopped there first specifically so I could go to the Archaeological Museum and see the amazing finds that were on display from the tombs at Vergina. I've visited there a few times since then, usually when I was on research trips for SHADOW OF THE LION.  My stops were brief and each time I'd try to take in a bit of the city.



The Ottoman Turks invaded Greece in 1430. They called the city "Selanik".  Thessalonki became one of their major cities. , The population of the city was composed of  Slavs, Albanians, Armenians and the largest Jewish community in Europe. Greek Orthodox Christians were a minority.

In 1917 a fire leveled most of the city destroying the old buildings including the entire Jewish quarter. Later the city was rebuilt in an Art Deco style under the supervision of French architect and archaeologist Ernst Hebrard.



When I  visit Thessaloniki I usually stay at a hotel on the main street, Egnatia, making it an easy walk to see all the sights. Just a few blocks from my hotel is the pleasant plateia of Aristoteles with it's palms and gardens and a statue of the famous philosopher a focal point. There are tavernas and shops on each side of the plateia. As I stopped at one for a refreshing drink, I saw a group of men at a table nearby who looked surprisingly just like I imaged the generals in SHADOW must have looked!



The plateia opens to the sea walk with it's beautiful neo-classical buildings and many restaurants and tavernas populated by groups of young people. Thessalonki is a university city and there seems to be a large portion of the population are young folk, likely students. As a result Thessalonki has a lively music and theatre scene.



The old and new sections of the the city are marked by the Exhibition grounds and the seaside walk dominated by the famous White Tower (Lefkos Pyrgos), part of the Fortress of Kalamaria that once formed the corner of the city's Byzantine and Ottoman defences. The walls were demolished in the late 19th century. Before that it was known as the Bloody Tower, an infamous place of imprisonment and execution. It is said that a Jewish prisoner was offered his freedom if he painted the tower white. Hence the name "White Tower".

The sea walk is one of my favorite parts of Thessaloniki. I love the long stroll and after stopping for a delicious lunch of calamaria in pesto sauce, among the company of a bevy of handsome young folk, I set off for a walk, heading toward the White Tower and another of my favorite sites in the city:  the statue of Alexander the Great astride his famous horse Bucephalus.  The statue faces East, toward his conquests. It is surrounded by a wall with a frieze depicting his battle with the Persians, a row of tall sarissas, the spears used by the phalanx troops, and a stand of shields each with the inscription of the tribe or batallion of the soldiers.  Near the statue is theVassilika Theatre where I noticed a large bill-board advertising a production of "Alexander: the Musical". 

Just around the corner is the Archaeological Museum and although the treasures from the tombs have been removed to their original site at Vergina, there are still many fascinating artifacts on display. At the museum cafe while I was enjoying a frappe, I spotted a young man who looked exactly like I imagine Alexander had looked. I tried to take a photo of him as he passed by but didn't get a good shots. That's only the third time in all my travels in Greece I have seen someone who resembled my historical hero.

I had intended to take a side trip to Pella, the Royal City where Alexander was born. However my time was limited so I decided instead to spend the next day exploring the parts of Thessaloniki that I had not seen before. Fortunately my hotel was not far from many of these historical buildings.
Just around the corner I found an Ottoman bazaar.
 Near the water front is an early 20th century house that once belonged to a Jewish family now a Jewish museum. During WW II all the Jews in Thessaloniki were rounded up and taken to internment camps. About 90,000 of them were killed. There was once a Jewish cemetary in Thessalonki but it was destroyed by the Nazis.


I wandered down Egnatia Street, past the Bey Hamam, Turkish Baths, and up through the park area of the Plateia Dieikastrion to the site of the old Roman Form.




Now I was in Thessalonki's Upper Town, the old Turkish area.  I passed through the gardens that surround a 15th century mosque.


This area is where the  Turkish consulate is located. Right behind the consulate is the home of Kamal Ataturk, the first president of the modern secular state of Turkey, born in 1881.

Last summer when I was visiting Greece, a friend invited me to go on a bus 'exploration' trip with a group of Greek seniors from Athens. The trip would take us across to Evvia (by the bridge to Halkida) and up over the mountains to the eastern side of the island.  Evvia is the big island that is very near the west coast of Attika.  I used to live part time in a tiny shepherd's village up in the mountain near Karystos in the south, but other than one long-ago visit to Halkida  on my very first New Years in Greece, I'd never explored the rest of the island.
It's a pleasant bus ride from Athens and over the new bridge to Halkida, Our first stop was Nea Artaki, a pleasant sea-side town where we stopped for refreshments.  Then we traveled north-east through various small towns and remote villages. 





We ventured farther north and eastward through dramatic mountain scenery, through the towns of Psaxna and Kontodespoti where we stopped to visit an interesting folk museum and a beautiful old Byzantine church.








From there the bus climbed higher into the mountains and the scenery became more dramatic. The narrow road twisted up steep mountainsides with deep gorges where you got amazing vistas of the valleys below. There were lots of scary twists and turns and heart-stopping moments. In one word, "Breathtaking!"





"The reason they call these trips explorations", my friend told me, "is because they go to places most tourists don't go."  Sometimes these are to remote places that are like safaris into the unknown parts of the country." 

We intended to stop at a monastery high up in the hills but it was closed.  So we continued on and wound our way down the serpentine narrow highway to a small beach resort called Limonomos where we had a four hour break to rest.  The beach was sandy and the water warm so we had a refreshing swim and a huge tasty lunch at the taverna.





On the return trip, we stopped at Halkidi to look at the swirling current of the Euripos Channel, a tidal bore where the philosopher/scientist Aristotle once threw himself in to see if he could figure out what caused it.  Since then lots of other scientists have tried to explain this phenomena.





It really was an exciting day 'exploring' Evvia and a chance to see some of the beautiful island countryside. We were the only English speaking guests on the tour other than the tour guide but we enjoyed every minute of it.  All for 25 Euro.  A pretty good deal for a day tour!