July 4, 2012: trip to Siros Island

July 4, 2012: After another excellent breakfast at the Electra Palace, Ruth and I walked to the Museum of Folk Art where we saw costumes, jewelry, and other artifacts of Grecian culture. I was surprised to see shadow puppets very similar to the ones that were used in Malaysia and Indonesia to depict the story of the Ramayana in their "wayang kulit" ("moving leather") shows.

Grecian shadow puppets

After leaving the museum we wandered through the streets passing some houses that could use some TLC:

a house that could use some TLC

We passed an interesting bell tower:

and from there walked to Hadrian's Arch:

Hadrian's Arch

Behind Hadrian's Arch was the Temple of Olympian Zeus built by Hadrian. There are only 15 columns that remain of this once huge temple. One of these columns toppled in an earthquake and it was interesting to see that the columns consist of several pieces of marble.

Temple of Olympian Zeus

Temple of Olympian Zeus

Temple of Olympian Zeus

Temple of Olympian Zeus

Temple of Olympian Zeus

Next to the Temple of Olympian Zeus were the ruins of an old village. Ruins such as these can be found all over Athens. Some stores even have windows displaying ruins in the middle of their floors among all the things they're trying to sell.

ruins of old vllage

Leaving the Temple of Olympian Zeus, we went through the city gardens in the middle of which is the Zapion Exhibition and Congress Hall:

Zapion Exhibition and Congress Hall

Then we met the choir and traveled by bus to Piraeus, the port where our ferry to Siros was to depart.

ferry to Siros

Piraeus port

ferry to Siros

on the ferry

The views of the shores of Greece were quite spectacular:

 

The trip to Siros took five hours. Siros is the largest island in the Cyclades Islands. The capital of this group of islands is Ermoupoli, located on Siros. After a short trip from Ermoupoli to outside the city, we arrived at our hotel. In our travels on the Cyclades, it was interesting to see how clean and nicely painted all the buildings are. The laws of Greece require all buildings to be painted white white. At one time, all trim to the buildings had to be blue, matching the Greek flag which is blue and white. The purpose of this law was to unite the people who were originally from different countries including Italy, Egypt, and Turkey. Eventually, this law was relaxed so that the buildings are now painted white white but the trim can be whatever color the owner wants.

Faros Hotel

Faros Hotel

Faros Hotel

Although the pictures displayed above were taken in sunlight, we actually arrived at the hotel late at night. We were cordially greeted by the hotel staff and given instructions on the rules of the hotel:

• Do not drink the water since it has not been desalinated.
• Do not put any paper in the toilets; use the waste basket next to the toilets for all used paper.

 We went to our hotel room and fell into bed after our busy day.