Athens, Greece; Day 2

We had previously scheduled a day trip out to an Ancient Site for today’s Adventure but we canceled it due to ‘piles of old rocks’ overload for the kids. We have been inspired by all of the clay pottery that we’ve seen in the Greek museums on this trip. CreeperKitty suggested that we create some of our own, so Tiffany worked her research magic and she found an Athenian workshop that met our needs perfectly.

Our host for the mid-morning visit was Emilia, who was very kind and accommodating. This is her workshop and she takes commissions from restaurants and other businesses to create the cups and dishes which are stamped with her logo or the name of the establishment. She also has a number of interesting art pieces on display on wooden shelves throughout the space.

Emilia started us off with a simple task. Take a block of clay and make a sphere the size of an orange. Then, insert a thumb into the top and gently rub the outer wall up. Continue this while turning the sphere.

At this point, your orange will begin to look like a small bowl.

Emilia told us to take a knife to slice the top of the bowl and to remove this extra clay. This will leave the height of the bowl at an even level. The remaining clay can be rolled into a snake and then placed onto the top of the bowl. Smoothing the clay is easily achieved by wetting your fingers before rubbing the joint between the snake and the bowl. This is the pinching and coiling methods used in early pottery making.

This clay needed to dry a bit so we put it out into the sun on the sidewalk for about 30 minutes. This might have taken longer, but did I forget to mention that it was 102° in Athens today? This makes clay dry (and Adventurers melt) quickly.

While we waited to carve our designs into our creations, we were given an option to paint or glaze a cup or plate.

This activity gave us all a proper appreciation for the craft and the artisans that work with clay and pottery. One of our members took the time to summarize the output from the visit.

Needless to say, we were hot and sweaty after working in the workshop. Did I mention that the workshop had a fan but no air conditioning? We returned to our rented apartment and took a few hours to let the heat of the sun fade.

The kids seemed oddly delighted to learn that this trip had only 2 mandatory tours left. Maybe the heat is getting to them. The visit to the Acropolis will be tomorrow morning, but today we took the kids to see a unique experience.

At the top of every hour, even in this heat, there is a changing of the Evzone Guard at the Greek Monument of the Unknown Soldier. We waited until the 7 o’clock changing and were impressed by the precision and synchronicity of the soldiers that had been on duty for the previous hour.

The 400 pleats on these elite infantry guards’ uniforms are significant. They represent the 400 years of Ottoman occupation that ended in 1821. These are the same traditional uniforms from that period.

After getting the kids some dinner and another short break in the A/C of the apartment, Mom & Dad went out for a dinner date. Actually, it was their second date of the day. This afternoon they stole away to see the Ancient Agora and visit the Temple of Hephaestus. This temple is what yesterday’s Temple of Poseidon would have looked like had been reconstructed to its former glory. Here is Brian showing the temperature AND the temple in one shot. In his ear is the dulcet tones of our frequent tour guide Rick Steves who gave us info on the sights as we walked around.

The second date was an evening enjoying the lively outdoor dining scene of Central Athens. We happened upon a restaurant which is both unpronounceable and unable to be typed with our available keyboard. It is a fusion restaurant and it uses a fusion of Greek and Arabic letters to spell the name. Perhaps it’s easier to show you on a map.

At any rate, this place served delicious food and drinks. Here are four of the courses we tried and a summary of the menu descriptions. See if you can match them up.