Acropolis in crisis

Mom, in front of the Parthenon.

The Kreeften on the Acropolis...finally!

We visited THE ACROPOLIS 3 times this week and 3 times it was closed. It should be open till 20.00, but when we came at 17.00 it was already closed. No visitors?? or too hot????? No one knows why?


The next day we came earlier, but it had been closed at 15.00 already without any reason. Just a handwritten note to say " closed". To go early in the morning or during the day was not possible since it was 40 degrees and too hot to walk  up the mountain. Strange that Athens closes such an important museum/attraction so early in the day during tourist season. I thought it was important for them to earn as much money as possible, since their problem of the crisis was on TV the whole day and everyone talked about it.

Sunset on the Acropolis 

Anyway we finally went in and it was real. So strange to see and walk somewhere where 2500 years ago people walked, built & prayed. The Parthenon is the main building. It has 46 columns, 15 columns on each length and 8 columns on the width. It was built to honor the goddess Athens and the treasure of the city was kept there. We saw the sunset from here, but we also were nearly blown off, because of the strong wind. After dark we arrived down and had our dinner with beautiful view on the Acropolis which was lit by night and looked stunning.

We also went to the birthplace of Democracy in the Ancient Agora!

Me in front of the Stoa what used to be the
'shopping mall' in the Ancient Agora

It felt special for me, because last year democracy was a very important subject in my school. To be seeing now where it all started and how long ago democracy was invented, it was even more unbelievable why South Africa only had real democracy in 1994. In one of the displays they showed broken pieces of pottery with names on them. Once a year the members of the counsel had to write 1 name of the person whom they did not trust. He was then send out of the country for 10 years. Usually it was someone who had been dishonest or stole money from the treasury. When there were elections you would throw a white or a black rock in a basket and whoever had the most stones was elected. There was also a small stone where people could stand on and speak to the people when they wanted to say something interesting. "Speakers Corner". 

Steven & I at the Panathenaic in Athens

Of course we still had to visit the birthplace of the Olympic Games (Ancient Olympia). But first we went to The Panathenaic Stadium
in Athens. In this stadium the 'new'  Olympic Games where held which started in 1896. The stadium is the only stadium in the world made from white marble. I also learned that the word STADIUM actually comes from an ancient measuring unit called 'stade' and is as long 185 meters in today's measure. Also the exhibition room was interesting, because it had all the fire torches used in all the openings of the Olympic Games since 1896. Even the one used in London last month.

The entrance of the Ancient Olympia stadium

Ancient Olympia! We left Athens to finally go to Ancient Olympia. Yes, it is a small village - archaeological site- somewhere 4 hours from Athens. We took the train from Athens to Patras where we stayed 4 days. From there we rented a car and drove to Ancient Olympia. Many many stones and ruins and very very hot. It was a pity that the museum was not made more attractive for kids or visitors since many stories could be told here. Every 4 years the torch lightning ceremony is held here. The place where it started for the 1st time was in 776 BC. It was now just a grass track where only the judges of the games where allowed to sit on marble benches. The public had to sit on the grass. The athletes had to do their sports naked and if they cheated their names were written on a big rock in front of the entrance of the stadium. We saw one of the Olympic Torch -carriers who came back to Olympia to visit the site and take pictures. He ran with the Olympic Torch for the Winter Games in 2006 and he still had his official jacket on. Steven talked to him and said he went to the games in London. The man took off his jacket and Steven could wear it for the picture.

Greek salad with olives, cucumber, tomatos
unions and feta of course!

We went to the beach afterwards to cool down and have some nice sea food and see the sun go down.!!


The last day in Patra we saw friends of my parents Anita and Hans. They came to visit us while driving past Patra. We had a Greek lunch and afterwards we walked up to the mountain to the castle of Patra. We could see the sea and the harbor and the ferry boat from Greece to Italy which we were going to take the nextday. Yeahhhhhhh We went to ITALY with the BOAT!!!! 

Anek Lines had a swimming pool, so we swam as soon as the pool was filled. Dad had booked a cabin for us. Actually it was specially for my mother since he had to make something up from years ago. When they were students my father invited my mother for a visit to London, but on the ferry from Holland to England he did not book a cabin, but said that they had to sleep under the staircase. 

So it was almost like on a cruise ship. The trip took 1,5 day so we had time to prepare for Italy. I remember Greece as hot, with nice Greek salads, lots of homeless cats in the streets and of course a long long history of ancient civilization.


Sorry I could not publish today from Italy. This apartment has no internet (but on the website it said it DID have!!). We have moved now to another apartment so ............I am connected again.
Ciao ciao from Roma

(next week : Roma)
Loes

Stevens Countries finished now mom's turn.......ANCIENT EUROPE

BYE BYE LONDON

"Oooh dear, what a pity"....the end of the Olympic Games 2012 and the end of our visit to London. There were still so many things we wanted to do, before we left the United Kingdom. No time to go to Wales and no time to visit a beautiful castle (in which Jane Eyre must have lived!).

But we did see so much of the Olympic Games and cheered till the end for the Dutch hockey ladies and the Dutch Hockey men who both played in the finals. They got a gold medal and a silver medal. On Sunday we saw the closing ceremony of the Games and that was the end of Steven's sports 'wish' (European Soccer Cup - Olympic Games). We walked so much that Stevens new shoes (fake Vans from China) had big holes in them, so we had to find new shoes. He also grew 2 sizes since China so we had to find size 8 (42) for him now (say what?????????). We went to the Westfield - a big shopping centre - and 'swapped' the shoes...see below!

AFTER

BEFORE

For our farewell we went to a real British musical "Wicked" with Mieke, Lex and the 4 of us. It was really scary, but also beautiful with all the different costumes and songs.

 Of course I also wanted to have the last pictures taken from Notting Hill and from the famous travel-book shop there and from the typical English telephone booth. I still had postcards to post and looked for a mailbox, but strange enough the box was filled with rubbish and not with mail. The outside of the mailbox had broken off, so I took the postcards with me to Greece.

Jazu to Greece.

Now it is my mother's turn and she wanted to show us Ancient Europe. There suppose to be a lot of old history around the Mediterranean Sea and so we went first to Greece. This is the birthplace of the Olympic Games and this was a nice connection with our London visit. 

When we came out of the airplane in Athens, the first thing I felt was the warm weather and the hot sun.

I got a very nice hat from Jan Krekel (a friend of my parents) which I put on straight away. On our way 'home' to our apartment there were no other cars on the road and we did not see any people. We thought it was because of the economic crisis, but the driver told us it was the 15th August - a national holiday. All the Atheneans were on the beach. After we unpacked we went for a walk, but still no people around and all the shops and supermarkets were closed. 

The next day we had school and in the afternoon we started our visit to ancient Athens. We went to the Parliament and saw the change of the guards at the Tomb of the Unknown soldier. The way they moved was quite interesting with their special shoes up and down and their legs high up before making a move.  We had lunch in the National Garden, saw the Zappeion, went under the Hadrian's Arch (the old city gate) and I saw my first ancient temple The Olympieion (Temple of Zeus). I always saw the old pillars in movies or pictures, but this was even more beautiful to see From there you could see the Acropolis, but it was too hot to clime up the hill so we went into the New Acropolis museum to see and read about the history of the Acropolis.

Playing Memory of Athens with the Acropolis in the background.

The museum was very interesting, because they had kids quiz's which was a lot of fun. We had to find sculptures, look at dates and played memory of the Goddess Athens. She is the daughter of Zeus and Zeus was the God of all Greek Gods. The goddess Athens was chosen to be the Goddess of the city (Polis in Greec). Therefore the city was named Athens. 

After the busy and hot day we went to sleep straight away!

After seeing the city,It was time to see the Greek beaches where all the Athenians hang out. There were blue seas, white beach, many palm trees.  Steven and I swam in the warm blue sea. Mom read her book. Steven played Volleyball and dad worked. Sorry papa you mist out! After tanning we went to have a Greek dinner. Greek salad, Sword fish, smelts.We put our dishes in the middle and shared, just like the Greeks do it!

Loes
(next week : ACROPOLIS IN CRISIS)

I HAVE A BOY FRIEND!! Met him at ........

Every week when I finish and publish the blog on Monday I am afraid I do not have enough to write about for the coming week. Now I am looking at all my photo's of this past week and I cannot choose what to write about!

                          ..... ......On Monday........ I HAD A BOY FRIEND!!

Well, I had to share him with hundreds of other girls who fell for his six-pack and looks. I met him at the Abercrombie and Fitch shop!! (Daaaaa!!!!hahaha)

We went to the Abercrombie shop with Mieke, mama & Steven. We danced in the dark with the loud music. What a strange and crazy shop!


...On Tuesday...we saw the LAST 2 Olympic games in LONDON!!

 We went to the Beach Volleyball ladies in the evening which was in the hart of London. From the stands we looked at the ??beach?? and saw the Big Ben sticking out above. We also went into the Olympic Stadium and saw the Olympic Fire burning while we watched the Athletics. The atmosphere was very nice and there was a lot to see at the same time. The most favorite athletes were from Jamaica and we also saw a South African runner.

After the Games we went to see London Bridge (is falling down, my fair Lady) and the Tower Bridge and the castle.

.....On Wednesday.......we went out to see the 1st Steam Engine which they displayed in the Science Museum in London. Mom is nearly finished teaching me about the Industrial Revolution and we wanted to see the first machines now. There were also a lot of other interesting things to see and we met with Pascale and Freek (friends from their study in Breda) and their kids Anabel, Justice and Floris. All the children wanted to go to the London Dungeons, so WE WENT TO THE LONDON DUNGEONS!!! It is a scary basement where it is very dark and when you walk around you will be frightened by all kinds of characters famous from the London history.


...On Thursday........we were surprised by Mieke who had won a lottery for Olympic Tickets for Semi Final Hockey men:  Holland-Great Britain. It was a big party when Holland won by 9-2!!!!!!

We also met with Kim, Demy, Amber, Kees & Fiona. They had found a place to sit in the sun next to a group of dancers. Kim, Demy , Amber, Steven & I were dancing with them and tried to do the moves.  WE HAD AN AMAZING TIME!


....On Friday..... we went to the Dutch Embassy to see the Ladies Hockey Final: Woman- Holland VS Argentina. WHO WON.................. Arge.................HOLLAND!!!!!! With 2 - 0.  Holland had Gold. Argentina Silver. Great Britain Bronze.

Doing the Mexican Wave in the stadium

(next week  blog : " Last week in London! ")

Steven and I with the Olympic flame

Loes

After walking home from another busy day. We were all hungry and wanted to take away Sushi. When we put one foot inside Steven, Mieke & I changed our minds and sat down to eat instead. It was not just a restaurant with waiters, but it was a moving buffet with all the dishes going around.... take a look at the movie. Everyone was sitting around a bar and in the middle was a belt with all kinds of sushi on plates passing by. You could choose out of loads of different things. Some of them where gold plates which meant that it was the most expensive dish; white plates was the cheapest and red was in between. You could just take your food from the belt and eat it. It was soooooo cool (and delicious)!!

Lex and I were invited to go to another hockey game with friends of my aunt (Mieke) and uncle (Lex).
Belgium  VS  China =  0-0  / with umbrella
UK          VS  Korea = 5-3 /  with sunglasses on

I thought the Belgium vs China was very boring, UK vs Korea was fun. My favorite hockey match remained the one from last week; China vs Korea! GO CHINA!!!!!.

Ping Pong

As you all have read Steven and I had professional table tennis (ping-pong) lessons from Ms Chen in Beijing. We wanted to see how the professionals played ping-pong, so we went to the Olympic quarter finals table Tennis. We did not see the Chinese play but saw Germany vs Denmark. Dimitri vs Michael. IT WAS SO EXCITING!! They were on the same level and had to play 5 games to get a winner. So much excitement on such a small table. We were all for Denmark- Michael!!!! except for Lex. He was for neither of them since we could just hear him snore. He was already up at 5 that morning to work so he could come to the match. As a surprise we also had a SMS (Short Message Service) from a friends of us from Monaco, the Piket-jes. What a coincidence that they also had tickets for the same Table Tennis games that evening. We saw them sitting at the other side of the stands in the Arena. Afterwards we went to the Belgium House were we had crispy Belgian fries and could chat and relax.

                                                    Island

This week we also went to Essex, on the coast of England near London. We went with the train to Witham to see the Harreman-netjes. Robert, Annemarie and Floor and Kiki were on holiday on an island there - Osea Island. We could only go to the island at 5.00pm when it was low tide. We swam, played ping-pong, boxed, made fish nets, read, drawed and had a braai. After the dinner we walked to the edge of the island and saw the high tide coming up which flooded the road to the mainland. No where to go !!. The next morning we woke up early to catch the low tide again and went to have a traditional English breakfast. Toast with tea, please!!. We were in a rush to go to the train station. We quickly said good bye and caught the 10 o'clock train just in time....we made it "phew".

The present from the houses of  Lords and Commons
to Queen Elizabeth for her 60th jubelee

We are staying in Notting Hill near the Portobello Market and Steven and dad went shopping and met a nice woman -Elizabeth- who was born and lived in Zimbabwe and who was now living here in London and worked as an event organizer at the Westminster Palace - Houses of Parliament. In school we were learning about democracy, monarchy and government. Elizabeth offered to show us around in Westminster Palace and parliament. We met her and her daughter Cloe and she knew so much about all the rooms. Amazing stories about Westminster Hall where only special people are allowed to speak. We saw the name of Nelson Mandela, where the Queen dresses and uses the toilet when she opens Parliament every year in May, about the 6 wives of Henry the VIII (divorced-beheaded-died-divorced-beheaded-survived), about the Black Rod and why the Queen cannot go into the House of Commons and of course the House of Lords and the House of Commons. We had seen the Prime Minister - David Cameron walking the first day in London and now we saw where he sits and we touched the beautiful box from where he speaks in Parliament (a gift from New Zealand). Elizabeth gave us an amazing tour. We also saw the Big Ben which is part of the Westminster Palace and the Westminster Abby, the cathedral where Kate and William got married last year. Afterwards we went to see Jan Krekel at the Dutch Embassy where we had drinks and bitterballen.

THE BIG BEN!!!! With Elizabeth and her daughter Cloe

Loes