Would Hadrian Build Bike Lanes?

Almost three years ago, the first phase--all 3.2 kilometers (2 miles)-- of the Second Avenue subway opened, nearly a century after it was first proposed. The second phase, roughly two-thirds of the distance, is expected to open some time during 2027-2029. After that, yet another extension is planned. 

Whenever it's finished, it's still running ahead of the schedule on which the Temple of Olympian Zeus was built.  To be fair, no one planned on taking more than seven centuries to finish it.  Begun in the 6th Century BCE by Peristratos, it was abandoned for lack of funds.  It finally got finished in 131 CE under the Roman Emperor Hadrian, who had a large statue of Zeus built in it, along with an equally large statue of itself.

If the Acropolis is the #1 "can't-and-shouldn't-miss-it" sight of Athens, the Temple, only a five-minute bike ride (if that) away is easily #2.  For one thing, it's easily the largest and one of the most magnificent temples you'll ever encounter.   

Just outside the Temple's grounds is another impressive structure:  Hadrian's Arch, completed a year later both to commemorate the consecration of the Temple and demarcate the boundary between the ancient and Roman cities.  The northwest frieze reads "This is Athens, the Ancient city of Theseus," while the southeast frieze says, "This is the city of Hadrian, and not of Theseus."

This Hadrian character had an ego.  But he sure knew how to build a city.  While he destroyed some other cities in Greece, he loved Athens and wanted it to be the artistic and intellectual center of the Roman Empire, as it was for its Greek counterpart. Evidence of his magnanimity and megalomania are found in another stop on my bike tour of Athens:  Hadrian's Library.  There's not much left of the actual library, which was set next to a courtyard bordered by 100 columns with a pool at its center!  The library, in addition to the estimated 75,000 volumes it held (by far the largest collection of its time), also contained music and lecture rooms.  

In between Hadrian's gate and library, I made another stop at the Roman Agora, right around the corner from the library.  While the most impressive remains are near the entrance, the real "show-stopper" on this site is the so-called Tower of the Winds, which has served as an astrological observatory and Orthodox chapel.  If you step inside on a hot day, as I did, you will understand why even with such summer heat, air conditioning was so rare until recently, here and in most of Europe:  It seems like all of the winds are blowing through it!

Plus, I'll admit, I wouldn't mind having a skylight like that in my apartment!

Now, if I were an Athenian or in any way sensible, I probably would have stopped at least for something to drink, if not a full-on Greek lunch, somewhere between one of those destinations.  But since I'm not Greek (and I will let you decide whether or not I'm sensible), I wanted to ride and see more.  You might say I was getting addicted to cycling my way through history.

Oh, and I wanted to pack as much into my day before I had to return my rental to Athens by Bike.  I would have kept it another day if I hadn't had other plans.

So another ten-minute bike ride through a narrow, cafe-lined lane, an only-slightly-wider path rimmed by flea-market stalls and a cobblestone walkway that led to the path I rode to the sea, I came to Kerameikos, which you might say is an early "potter's field" because it takes its name from the clay-workers who settled there, along the banks of clay-rich banks of the Eridanos, a stream that was covered over in ancient times and re-discovered during construction of the Athens Metro.  

Kerameikos is practically a diorama of Athenian history.  In it, you can see the Sacred Way, which pilgrims entered through the Sacred Gate for the annual  Elusinian Procession, which commemorated the abduction of Persephone from her mother Demeter by Hades, the king of the underworld, and her rescue.  A little further along is the Diplyon Gate, at that time the city's gate and the starting point for the parade.  It's also where prostitutes gathered to offer themselves to travelers.  Oh, and right by that gate, Pericles gave a speech extolling the virtues of Athenians and honoring those who died in the Peloponnesian Wars.

Oh, and right by that is a cemetery used by the Romans until the time of Justinian (6th Century BCE) and uncovered during street construction in the 1860's.  And there's the path to Plato's Academy.

I thought my head was spinning from taking all of that in.  But, in reality, between my biking and all of the sites I'd visited, I'd been out in direct sunlight for close to eight hours.  Even with all of the sunscreen I slathered on myself, I was feeling the burn.  

After returning the bike, I stopped for some yogurt with cherries and an iced coffee.  Then, in walking by down the pedestrian mall that passes the Acropolis Museum and the base of the Acropolis hill, I saw an entrance to the park that includes the Hills and Pynx, which in turn connects to Filopappu Hill, named for a prominent Roman consul and administrator.  It is on these hills that, according to Plutarch, Thesus and the Amazons did battle.  The west side of Filopappu, as it turns out, is right across the street from the apartment where I'm staying.

Like most hilltops in Athens, it offers a nice view of the Acropolis.  But, if you get tired of that (as if that's possible!), you can turn and see this:

 I wanted to visit all of the sites I mentioned because the pass I bought for 30 Euros at the Acropolis included entrance to all of them (except Filopappu, which is free) and lasts for three days. (It's 20 Euros for the Acropolis alone.)  That 30-Euro pass is, as the Athens cultural office explains, for "archaeological" sites, all of which are outdoors.  There's another 15-Euro pass, also for three days, that includes the Acropolis Museum and the Archaelology Museum, as well as others.  As each of those museums has a 10-Euro admission fee, this pass is also well worth the money.

Today, though, I travelled outside of Athens. More about that later.

Doing As The Athenians Do

When in Rome, do as the Romans do.

We've all heard that bit of advice.  Yesterday, I followed it.  Well, sort of.  I scheduled my cycling day as an Athenian might.  Then again, the vast majority of Athenians don't go anywhere near a bike.

Anyway, I spent the first part of my day wandering around the neighborhoods at the base of the Acropolis.  One thing about this city:  Just because some place is at the base of a hill, that doesn't mean it's flat, or anything close to it. Not that I mind.

After wandering, I sauntered into the streetside flea market in Thissio, which is connected by a path just wide enough for three or four people to another, much larger flea market--in a series of arcades, like the one in Saint Ouen--and one of those "can't miss" monuments:  the ancient Agora.  

As you probably know, "agoraphobia" is a fear of being in public or simply exposed.  The agora was a marketplace, but it was also the most public space in ancient Greece or Rome.  Many a planned or impromptu debate took place there.  I can only wonder how the philosophers of that time might talk about some of our current leaders or celebrities.  

Anyway, the Agora wasn't just a place to shop or argue.  On its site were also altars and temples, at least one of which was added by the Romans.  There's even evidence that synagogue occupied part of the site around the third century A.D.

I came to understand very clearly why people who don't want to go outside are called agoraphobics.  On the site, you are exposed physically as those ancient orators were intellectually.  So, after a couple of hours wandering around the site, I could feel the effects of the sun and I ducked into one of the cafes.  It was a tourist trap, but I had only an iced espresso, so my finances didn't take much of a hit.

One nice thing about Greek, Italian and French cafes is that the wait staff are paid decently and thus don't have to rely on tips.  So, even though I ordered only that iced espresso--a double--nobody was rushing me out of that place.

Then I wandered along the pedestrianized street that leads to the Agora, which had a fair amount of shade and cool mist spraying from the canopies over the cafe terraces. After a few minutes, I did an about-face and walked back to the streetside flea market and crossed its path into a leafy little park.  There, I miraculously found a spot on a shaded bench:  It seemed like all Athenians and more than a few other tourists had the same idea!

Around 3:00 pm, I got back on the bike and rode down a few winding streets lined with graffiti into what seemed to be Athens' Inida-town.  I had a destination:  the National Museum of Archaelogy, a bit removed from the other major museums and monuments.  I had time:  the Museum remains open until 8 pm, even on Sunday.  

For most of us, "Ancient Greece" means the time from Socrates to the Roman invasion.  At least, that's what most of us are taught, if we learn anything at all about it.  But, to an archaeologist, "Greece" is almost as old as the human race.  Even if it's older than most other civilizations in Europe--or the West--it's even older than most scholars, let alone the general public, realized until about 50 or so years ago.

If nothing else, you could come away from a visit to the museum thinking--with justification--that nowhere else does pottery-making have more of a history.  Vessels made of clay were used for literally everything imaginable, and were even funerary offerings.  

There was also a great variety of jewelry-making and other kinds of metal- and bead-work.  Given how advanced their techniques, and the level of intricacy of their work, it's almost surprising that nobody built anything resembling a bicycle--unless, perhaps, they used wood or some other material!

Hmm...Maybe they used some of the obsidian rock found on Milos.  Yes, that's the island from which Venus, now found in the Louvre, came.  The particular variety of obsidian found on the island is harder than most any other rock, or metal, and takes on a sharp edge when broken or cut.  So it was used for knives, swords and other instruments.  Even today, it's being used experimentally in surgical instruments.

I wonder if any of those really ancient Greeks took siestas in the middle of scorchingly hot summer days.

If I Can Ride In Athens, I Can...

I can honestly say that I'm not inclined to boasting. (If I were, would I know it?)  Even if I were, I'd have no need for it in Athens, at least when it comes to cycling:  If you ride at all, people--even other cyclists--are impressed, if they don't think you're crazy.

So I didn't have to claim that I ride up the hill of the Acropolis.  I rode a bit before I arrived, mainly to try out the bike I'm renting.  It's actually rather nice:  a hybrid with wide 700C tires. I had never seen the brand--Ideal--before, but it's apparently sold in a few other European countries.  If anything, it--or, at least, this particular bike--seems much like similar offerings from Trek or Specialized or Giant.  It wouldn't surprise me if Ideal bikes were made in the same factories as those other brands.

I rode another bike just like it yesterday morning with Sappho as my guide.  Both bikes came from Athens by bike,  Today, though, I had the advice of Manos, the co-owner of Athens by Bike (good on all counts) and my own instincts (sometimes good) to  guide me.

So I rode a bit around the Plaka, the central area of the city and home to the Acropolis as well as other well-known sites.  I stopped just before noon, as most any Greek might have done, when the temperature rose noticeably.  Instead of ducking into an air-conditioned building or a well-shaded cafe terrace, I took the hike up to the Acropolis and wandered among its ruins.

Contrary to what many people think, "Acropolis" refers to the site, not to any of the structures on it.  And, neither the Parthenon nor any of the other buildings are the "original" monuments built there.  Other things had been built there before, mainly because of its springs, which were said to be created by Poseidon himself.

I am amazed at how quickly (at least relatively speaking) the Parthenon or, for that matter, the Angkor Wat (which I visited last year) were constructed, let alone how accurate and intricate were the work that went into them, especially when one considers that the designers and builders did not have the technology we have today.  The funny thing is that it took less than a decade to build but has been in one stage or another of repair or reconstruction almost since Greece gained its independence from the Ottoman Empire---nearly two centuries ago!

To be fair, it's astounding that any part of the building is still standing, given how it was used and abused, not to mention damaged (and nearly destroyed altogether) by natural and human-caused disasters.  Also, I would imagine that it might be more difficult to figure out how something was conceived, created or constructed when records are sketchy, damaged or nonexistent, than it was to actually build something from scratch.

Still, I told the director of operations--who saw me riding to the site--that I might be able to help speed things up a bit.  Hmm...Maybe that person believed that if I was strong or persistent, or simply crazy, enough to ride on Athens streets, I could be of help.

So, instead of doing a job that involves no heavy lifting in New York for a salary that sounds good until you have to pay New York prices, I am going to do some heavy lifting in Athens.  The rents are much lower here--but so are the salaries.


All right:  I made up that story about getting a job here.  But, really, my time  on the Acropolis--and in its museum afterward--was some of the best I've spent.  And the late-day ride I took afterward was a reward, even if part of it didn't go as planned.  More about that later.