Kevin's Watch

Backing up a little, these pics are from Uss, not me.

We (he went to Naples and toured Pompeii. I will let him describe Pompeii. I wish I had gone but needed a day off. Apparently he climbed Mt. Vesuvius and these are pics of the caldera and Naples below.









The thing about this trip was the heat. It was unbelievably, relentlessly hot all the time. Uss bargained us a driver for the day in Athens. Very nice man and really good decision. Our first stop was a climb to the top of some ruins . It was a long walk but not that bad because there were so many tourists that the pace was slow. When we got to the top there were spectacular ruins, great views and no shade.







I can't place the name of this but notice the fallen column and how it sectioned.




Some stadium they wanted 5 Euros to enter and sit on an ancient seat, I guess. Nothing much to see from the inside that you couldn't see from the outside.


Palace guards




Our driver, a very nice man.



Then my camera died so these are Uss's pics. He will need to describe them.







I can't seem to find any pics of Kudasi so I am stopping here to try and locate some. I have a feeling I was so busy buying jewelry I forgot to take pics.

End of Part 3

lorin wrote:I can't place the name of this but notice the fallen column and how it sectioned.

That is very cool. And it makes you look more closely at the detail on the picture a couple below it. It seems amazing that they're still standing, and yet, nothing built in this era has a chance of lasting that long.

Pompeii was huge (and in June, hot). It's an excavated city, so it's quite possible to get lost there.
I usually like to go to a place and take it in before I read about it, with Pompeii, because it is so
extensive, this was a mistake. I had no idea what the House of the Faun was, or the Street of Tombs
and was left bewildered by the size of the place. I would definitely recommend doing a bit of
study about the place before visiting there.

Vesuvius was a bit of a disappointment. There's not much to see (a big hole in a mountain). The trek up
is quite short, so it's not really much of a hike. It costs €10 to get access to the trail, which feels like a
bit of a ripoff. And, if you go on a bus trip up there you'll likely only get about an hour, which means
even the little bit there is to see feels like it's rushed. Go if you have the chance, but don't be too
worried about skipping it.

The big ruins on the hill over Athen are the Acropolis, and if the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona is the
most impressive modern building I have ever seen, the Acropolis is the most impressive ancient
building/complex I've seen so far.

The fallen column is part of the Temple of Zeus in Athens, and the stadium is where the
the first of the modern Olympic games was held in 1896. Athens was surprising in that, apart
from the Acropolis, there doesn't seem to be many more ancient sites to see. It is different from
Rome that way.

The pictures I took were of a library and some university buildings. As an SRD fan I was attracted to the the
balustrade that reminded me of griffins. /nerd

u.

I missed the griffins the first time around. Those are pretty cool.