Lamanai

Nothing like waiting a few weeks to finish writing up our cruise.

Our second stop was Belize City, where we took a bus and then a speedboat to the Mayan ruins at Lamanai. The speedboat was pretty intense... er, fun! They drifted around many of the bends in the river. It's kind of annoying that the word 'drifting' is used for two very different boating experiences. I don't mean the version where the power is off, and you're just drifting with the currents. I mean the one where they make sharp turns while going quite fast, so that the nose of the boat cuts the tight corner and the back of the boat swings around wide. Check out this video Paul shot - you can kind of see it there. You can at least see how fast we were going:

They also took the time to slow down and point out some interesting wildlife, including this crazy plant growing on a tree (I can't remember what it's called):

Lamanai itself is pretty neat. There are three main pyramidal structures. Here's one:

Paul climbed to the top of two of them while I opted to wait below:

We also got to see monkeys in the wild! Way up in the trees:

I honestly don't remember a lot of what the tour guide told us about the site, but a few tidbits stuck with me. First of all, they aren't sure how much more remains unearthed, but they speculate there is quite a lot more to it, which is fun to think about. Our guide also told us about a sports game where the winner was sacrificed in what sounded like a pretty unpleasant ritual. Quite a few of us wondered if folks might try to lose on purpose - seems like that could be the game that never ended. However, of course, it was an honor to be sacrificed, so the competitors were motivated to succeed. I think they also believed in reincarnation so death wouldn't have been the end for them. I really should have paid better attention. Or written this blog post a few weeks ago....

The Pont du Gard

On our first day in Arles, we took a day trip to the Pont du Gard, which required catching a train to Avignon and then a bus out to this incredible aqueduct bridge, the second tallest remaining Roman structure (the Colosseum is the tallest).  At 48.8 meters tall, and spanning 272 meters, this is an impressive bridge in a beautiful location:

The arch that goes over the water is the widest one.  At 25 meters, it is one of the widest arches constructed by the Romans using a mortar-free technique.  We climbed up to several viewpoints for some other angles:

And checked out the aqueduct channel at the top of this bridge where water would have passed through:

The site of the Pont du Gard also includes a museum where we learned a number of interesting tidbits.  The Pont du Gard is just one part of a 50 km aqueduct from Uzès to the city of Nimes.  The route chosen for the aqueduct is by no means the shortest but was the most efficient in terms of elevation.  Construction began in about 19 BC, and the aqueduct supplied water to Nimes for about 300 years.  Then, from about 300-600 AD, the water was diverted for agricultural purposes before it reached the city.  After that, it was no longer in use.  The Pont du Gard withstood an incredible flood in 2002 that brought the water level up to the triangles you can see on the lowest level of arches in the first photo in this post (on either side of the widest arch).  Sure says something for Roman construction!

And finally, Kate and Paul at the Pont du Gard:

Market Day in Arles

We spent three full days in Arles, France, with side trips to Avignon and the Pont du Gard (separate posts coming!).  Arles has some ancient Roman ruins including an amphitheatre that is used for bull fights, mostly of the nicer variety where the men in the ring are merely trying to pull a ribbon from between the bull's horns.

In this shot, you can see the metal bleachers that have been added inside.  I love when these ancient structures are still in use:

Arles also has a regular theatre (of the non-amphi variety):

However, my favorite part was the market (held on Wednesdays and Saturdays) where you can buy fruits and vegetables, looseleaf tea and spices:

Mattresses!  I guess you never know when you are going to get the urge to buy one of those?

A hacksaw and cleaver set... for the butcher-in-training?

And let's not forget Nutella crepes:

Paul and I also purchased some tomatoes, bread, cheese, olive tapanade, and other such goodies for a picnic.  That scary looking bottle of Coke in the picture below is actually iced tea made from some looseleaf tea we picked up:

On another picnic, we enjoyed a fabulous three chocolate cake.  I may not speak much French, but I can interpret a sign that says "trois chocolat" when I see one (never mind the gorgeous cake sitting next to it that is a dead giveaway):

One might say that we are eating quite well on this trip.

Wow, Rome.

Rome leaves little time for blogging.  Those of you who know me well know that I wear a pedometer (Fitbits are awesome), and the last 4 days have all been over 20,000 step days.  Yesterday we crested 25,000.  In short, we have been busy seeing everything and walking everywhere.

On Thursday, we visited the Roman Forum.  Paul was super impressed by the enormous Basilica of Maxentius and Constantine, and justifiably so - it is enormous:

Also awe-inspiring were the seventeen-centuries-old (that's right, folks, 17 centuries!) bronze doors of the Temple of Romulus: 

Then, we moved on to exploring the Colosseum with the help of one of Rick Steves' fabulous audio tours.  I'm not going to lie, they can be really hokey, but they definitely increase my enjoyment of these sites.  Sometimes ruins are just ruins (well, not the Colosseum, I suppose), so it's really great to have a (free!) audio tour to walk you through.  The app for the audio tours doesn't work very well, so Paul just downloaded the files to his phone.  We picked up a headphone splitter before we left the States, and we walk around tethered to each other while listening Rick Steves regale us with information about these incredible sites:

A better picture of the innards of the Colosseum:

The Colosseum is an incredible structure with a gory history.  It's hard to think about all the horrible things that took place there - fights to the death between animals, between humans, and between humans and animals.  They also sent Christians into the arena to their deaths (probably anyway, that is somewhat contested but sources say it seems quite likely) as well as other people that they conquered.  Not exactly a sporting event I'd like to see.

However, I was really impressed by a drawing of what it looked like when the canopy over the Colosseum was unfurled - incredible!  They showed humans actually walking on it to put it into place.  I wish I had taken a picture of that.  An extremely quick Internet search isn't yielding quite the right image, either.

After the Colosseum, we headed over to the Palatine Hill to explore even more ruins, passing by the Arch of Constantine on our way:

And finally, I leave you with one last picture of the Colosseum (the clouds cooperated nicely in this one!):

The Kindness of Strangers

Greece likes to ease you in to things.  On our arrival at the Athens airport, we had the fun experience of finding another way to get to our hotel with the metro on strike.  That involved a bus and then a taxi (which overcharged us - pah!), but wasn't horrible.  Today, it was the full whammy - complete abandonment.  More on that after the pictures.

We took a bus to the Sanctuary of Asclepius to see the sites, in particular, the Theater of Epidaurus:

This amphitheater is heralded as one of the best preserved from that era.  It's even back in use today.  Some work has been done on it, but not the extensive work that we've seen on other ancient structures. Paul also liked the sophisticated drainage system.  I decided it was important for me to stick my foot in one of the two drainage tunnels so that you can see how deep it was:

There's also a stadium that a sign says is used by local schools, which I think is awesome:

So, the abandonment.  The Saturday bus schedule is limited, so there's really only one bus for the return trip - at 6:15.  After exploring the ruins for many hours, we made our way to the bus stop by about 6:00.  We waited.  And waited.  And waited.  We met an art historian from San Francisco and chatted about the unreliability of the transportation system in Greece and elsewhere.  6:30 came and went.  Then 7:00.  The already empty parking lot emptied further as we tourists, now seven in total, began to grow anxious about the lack of a bus.  There was one tour bus waiting for its group, so members of our group noticed the bus driver talking on a cell phone and inquired as to whether we could use it to call the transportation folks to see if the city bus was coming.  The nice bus driver called for us (which is probably for the best, since none of us spoke Greek) and informed us that the transportation folks claimed our bus, which was clearly scheduled for 6:15, supposedly came and left at 6:00 (it did not - some of the others were waiting long before that).

At that point it became clear that our only real option was to see if we could get that tour bus to take us back - or at least to somewhere not quite so remote!  After some stumbling through language barriers, waiting for the "boss," (i.e. the person in charge of the tour group), and a smidge of anxiety, we found ourselves on a plush bus full of Austrian academics (both profs and students in archaeology  headed toward Tolo - a city about 10 km from Nafplio.  Two Germans in our group had talked to the bus driver about dropping us off at a crossroads on the way to Tolo where it would be about a 3-4 km walk to Nafplio (totally doable) or just taking us to Tolo where we could catch a bus to Nafplio (there were two more that evening, so it seemed probable).  However, when the turn came for the bus to head toward Tolo, it continued on to Nafplio and dropped us off right in town.  Then, no one, not the tour leader nor the bus driver, would accept any compensation for the inconvenience/additional passengers.  What a wonderful turn of events.  

As five of us were walking back to our hotels together and chatting, Paul suggested that we all get dinner together.  Everyone else agreed, so we had an entertaining dinner with a couple from Moscow (the wife was actually from Spain) and the art historian.  

All the Ruins in Athens

The Short Version
Since this is a ridiculously long post, here is the short version.  We visited a nice selection of ruins and ancient sites in Athens: the Panathenaic Stadium, the Acropolis, the Greek Agora, and the Temple of Olympian Zeus.  Feel free to just scroll through and look at the pictures in the rest of this post.  If you want more details, there's plenty of description to go along with each.

The Long Version

Panathenaic Stadium - by Kate

Unlike many of the cool things to do in Athens, the Panathenaic Stadium was actually open on Easter Sunday, so we spent quite a bit of time there.  They had a free audio tour (included in the admission price, I guess), which was definitely worth a listen.  Along with a wealth of fascinating information, we learned that they created special throne-like seats for the King and Queen:

You may also have noticed that this stadium appears to be particularly well preserved.  That's because it was rebuilt in the late 1800s in order to host the first modern Olympic games in 1896.  Here's a picture of what it might have looked like when the medals were awarded:

Oh, and bonus, when the lady who sold us our tickets asked what language we wanted our brochure in, she first guessed French - guess we must look classy.  Or, as Paul points out, if she guesses wrong in the other direction, she might have some pretty angry French folks on her hands.

The Acropolis: The Parthenon - by Paul

The Parthenon is worthy of its fame. It's truly an amazing site, both for its structure and history as well as its impressive location perched atop a huge hill in the heart of urban Athens.

A small part of Athens as seen from the Acropolis

The guide material focuses a lot on its age, early history, and restoration, but while we were there I kept wondering how and when it went from "building" to "ruin" in the middle of such a busy and populous area. Looking at the Parthenon alone, you might imagine it off in a desert, abandoned for a thousand years (ignore the fact that it's currently swimming in tourists, scaffolding,  and cranes).  In the context of the city, this doesn't make sense.

Wikipedia came to the rescue. I suspect it's not discussed much because the reality is sad and detracts from the image of an ancient building long in ruins. In fact it was in active use until 1687, when it was used as a gunpowder magazine in a fight between the Venetians and the Ottoman Turks.  It is speculated that the Turks hoped the Venetians wouldn't attack such an important building.  No dice.  Not exactly the romantic demise I had envisioned for the famous building. 

Of course by this point it had been fought over, looted, and re-purposed many times.

The Acropolis: Other Stuff - by Kate

Also worth mentioning is the famous Caryatid porch of the Erechtheion:

None of the Caryatids you see in the picture are the originals (five of them are housed in the Acropolis museum, which we did not  visit).  I found this to be rather frustrating about the ruins.  Sometimes it was completely obvious where they had patched the original work (the marble looked completely new, for example), and sometimes it was impossible to tell unless you read one of the many lengthy descriptions.

Temple of the Olympian Zeus - by Paul

Photo taken from the Acropolis

Only a cluster of columns remains for this temple, once the largest of its kind in all of Greece. Like the Parthenon, this building also has an interesting history. It was begun around 520 BC, and it took nearly 700 years to complete (most of that time not under active construction). Think about the number of human generations that is. Think about finishing a building today that was started 700 years ago. Even the Sagrada Familia pales in comparison. It was only in use for a "brief" time before it started being dismantled and reused for other construction projects.

Ancient Agora of Athens - by Kate

There were two really cool things about the Greek Agora.  One, it contains one of the best-preserved Greek temples: The Temple of Hephaestus:

It was still in use until 1834 as a Greek Orthodox church!

The second cool thing about the Agora was the museum.  It is housed in the gleaming Stoa of Attalos, which has been completely rebuilt as close to the original as possible, giving you some sense of what this fabulous city center must have looked like in ancient times: