Temple of Poseidon

Wow. Talk about an impressive location. The temple is, of course, impressive, but the location is breathtaking. Pictures cannot do it justice, so I am not even going to try.

1962. Mom and Dad are going to get married in Athens. Dad is in Izmir, Mom is in Austin. They both fly into Athens and spend the night at the Congo Palace Hotel. Now this is before the wedding, so they have separate rooms, of course. Our wonderful driver Sotos took us to the Congo Palace and the old American airbase where they were married, now mothballed and fenced off.

Time is a relative thing

Jacques Cousteau excavated an ancient Greek shipwreck and recovered amazing artifacts, now on display at the Museum of Archeology in Athens.

1962, newlywed Dad

The old man in 2013, still fit enough to waterski.

Newlywed Mom, 1962

I believe she weighs the same in 2013

Picasso's inspiration? Ancient Greek bronze smashed by Christian zealots, much like the Taliban and the Buddha statues.

Beautiful Antinous, Hadrian's beloved.

Aphrodite, hiding her shame and beating off animal-nature Pan with her shoe, with assistance from Eros. You don't have to be a Jungian analyst to see the archetypal roots of Protestant American bourgeois sensibilities in Greek statuary.

An observation: The ideal male physique of the ancient Greeks is not terribly different than our modern notion of the ideal. Daniel Craig could pose for a statue of Poseidon or Zeus. Very different though for the female archetype. Aphrodite is downright soft. All around Athens we saw advertisements for a brand of women's clothing, Mango. Check out their twiggy model.

Roaming in Athens

The story goes, Mom and Dad were walking through the national gardens in 1962 and they came upon a bronze statue of a naked man pulling a stump out of the ground. Dad pulled up his camera to take a picture, but Mom was so embarrassed by the nudity of the statue, she didn't want people, complete strangers, to see Dad taking the photograph and think, "How lascivious the Americans are!" or something to that effect. It only took 51 years, but now we have the photograph, though I think Mom was blushing.

Hepatitis rings.

A Greek general telling the Turks to get the hell out in 1962

Turkish-Greco relations are still tense in 2013

Hard to imagine these military outfits being very practical on the battlefield.

Athens to Marathon

Hadrian's Arch

The view of the Aegean from our hotel near Marathon

The government building where Mom and Dad went in 1962 to register their marriage.

Mom and Dad's marriage is recorded in one of the dark green books on the lower shelf.

City Hall where marriage records are now kept.

Scenes from the modern Athenian agora

A church near the Amalia Hotel, 1962

2013

Temple of Olympian Zeus, 1962

2013

Dad, Hadrian's Arch and the Acropolis, 1962

2013

Temple of Olympian Zeus and the Acropolis

Lots of turtles in Greece

Archeology on most any sidewalk in Athens

Winos in Nafplio

The view from our hotel in Nafplio

Vinyards in Nafplio

The Acropolis at night