Athens - days 3 and 4

Shaun and a bronze statue of Zeus/Poseidon in the National Archaeological Museum
"The little jockey of Artemission" in the National Archaelogical Museum
The huge meat market in central Athens
The "zoo" in the National Gardens, where fat cats and roosters happily co-exist
Shaun in front of the 'Zappio' in the National Gardens, this building has no real function except being good looking

Shaun on our scooter in front of the largest church in Greece (so the man who sold us ferry tickets told us) on Aegina Island
Buying fruit on a boat on Aegina Island
Julia and scooter and hills on the island, to the right was the 'hill of many churches'

The Temple of Aphaia at the top of the hills on Aegina Island
The fishing village on the island

On Wednesday we visited the National Archeological Museum, which has a very impressive collection of artefacts and statues that show the real depth of Athens' history. It is hard to comprehend how old some of the objects are. The skill and craftmanship is amazing, especially in some of the bronze statues, like the statue of Zeus (or Poseidon, depending who you listen to), and a boy riding a horse. Some of the pieces are fragments of statues that would have been absolutely massive in their original form! After having our fill of statues and sculptures, we headed to a very different aspect of Athens life - the fish and meat markets. These markets are right in the centre of Athens, and are huge, and not for the faint-hearted - all the parts of various animals are laid out in all their bloody gory - skinned heads, hearts, intestines, feet, everything. Even skinned rabbits with the fluffy tail and feet still attached.

After this we needed some fresh air so we headed to the National Gardens - a large wooded area rather light on actual gardens, lots of lovely greenery though. We even managed to pick up our own stray dog to take for a walk -she adopted us on the street, and led us into the gardens, looking back to make sure we were following, then proceeded to stay with us as we walked around - just like having our own dog. However she refused to come with us to the zoo inside the gardens, and we soon found out why - 'zoo' was a rather generous description for it. One cage had goats, another had a donkey, a few cats and some chickens - the cats and chickens had reached a truce apparently, and were now good friends. The final cage had some more chickens and a peacock - it was a very exotic zoo.

The next day we hopped on a ferry to the closest island to Athens, called Aegina. Walking around the streets was very relaxing after the constant crowds of Athens. We hired a scooter and after a 5 minute safety lecture and driving lesson (we got a very confused look when we asked what the speed limit was) we were off, amongst the crazy drivers and probably other novice scooter drivers like ourselves. We headed up into the hills, to see the 'hillside of many churches', which had about thirty tiny churches scattered around it, and also to see one very large church, Greece's largest apparently. At the top of the hill was a very well preserved temple, called the Temple of Aphaia. We had it all to ourselves, which was a nice change. We then headed around the coast to have dinner at a fishing village, and get a glimpse of the lifestyle on the island.