Une journée de pluie et un grève générale! Plusieurs secteurs touchés dont les hôpitaux, les transports et les écoles. Nous partons demain et les transport sont supposés de reprendre pour nous permettre de se rendre à l'aéroport.

Update...

Friday May 12

We got up fairly early and after breakfast took the subway to the Acropolis station and bought our tickets to visit the historic sights. Breathtaking both literally and figuratively! It is quite a walk up the hill to the Parthenon and the other ruins, There are two open air theaters and the numerous sites littered the remains of buildings that have been lost.

After we went to the National Museum of Contemporary Art so that Suzanne could get information on the Documenta, the important contemporary art show that is taking place all over the city... and one of the main reasons we are here.

Saturday May 13

Despite having a bit of a cold that left me with less energy than normal we set off for the National Museum of Contemporary Art which is one of the central sites for the Documenta where we spent several hours.
After we returned to the area near the acropolis, which is not far away, to see more of the ruins and a couple of small Documenta exhibitions.
Those Greeks liked to build on hills, so it was a climb to get where we were going.

We didn't walk all the way to the top...

A section of an ancient defensive wall.

On the way home we stopped at the Syntagma Square, a kind of pilgrimage for me, that was the site of a massacre engineered by Churchill after the 2^nd World War which aimed to provoke a civil war and prevent a left-wing government coming to power.

The right wing forces that had worked with the occupying German forces, but who were now supported by the British, fired from the roof of the Parlement, seen here. British forces fired from Hotel roof tops on the sides of the square.
A very interesting article from the Guardian:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/nov/30/athens-1944-britains-dirty-secret

What irony that liberals and intellectuals to this day love to quote Churchill on democracy. (something like: democracy is a terrible system but it is better than all the others...).
While we were in the square we came upon these Turks who were passing our pamphlets on the struggle against the Islamic State that they were involved in. We were able to talk to the man in the middle of the picture who currently lives in Paris so speaks French.

We returned home to find the electricity out again, but this time in the whole building. So we returned to Syntagma Square to supper on a terrace. When we got home a crew was digging up the sidewalk in front of building and the lights came back on at about 9:30pm just after we went to bed.

Sunday May 14

We went out to buy supplies and bought a good sized bag of tomatoes and a similar bag of cucumbers for a total of 2 euros, then six rolls of toilet paper for 1 euro! We will be eating these (the tomatoes and cucumbers, not the toilet paper...) till we leave. Suzanne wants to make Greek salads also.

Today we started with visits to some Documenta sites near the Evangelismos subway where I had an interesting discussion on post-war Greek history with a young woman who is a guide for the Documenta site.
After we returned to the area around the Acropolis where we visited several ancient sites:
the Agora,

the later Roman Agora

... and Hadrians Library.

We returned home for supper than took the subway back to the Acropolis for a walk around after dark.

Monday May 15

We took full advantage of our public transit cards today. They are the best buy of the trip so far, unlimited travel on the subway, tramway and buses for 5 days for 9 euros! First the subway, much of it is above ground to to the port of Piraeus which allowed us to see some other Athens neighbourhoods.

Then we took the tramway that leaves Piraeus to wind along the beach toward the south-east.

A kind woman helped us catch the right tram and we talked about Greece and travelling. We stopped to walk along the beachfront sidewalk

... then a took another tram back to central Athens. After a nap at home we went to the area near the National Museum of Contemporary Art for a sea-food supper.

Tuesday May 16

Today we started with Zeuses Temple and Hadrian's Gate

... then the stadium of the 1896 Olympics.

While in the subway we saw announcements for strikes that are shutting down rail travel to the airport today and tomorrow and tomorrow the subway will only function during the day about 9 to 16h. Hopefully it will be working again for us to get to the airport Thursday. We also visited another venue for the Documenta... a short day for us before heading home. Tomorrow we will check out the railway station that is a block away to see if there are strikers that we can talk to.