CLASSICAL TOUR OF GREECE
In mid-March, 33 CLS boys arrived at Athens International Airport ready to discover the wonders of the ancient world. Our first full day in Athens started off with a revealing sightseeing tour of the city with our tour guide, Christine. Later that morning we walked to the Akropolis, one of the main attractions in Greece, where we saw the Parthenon and other sanctuaries on top of the hill. The temples were huge and it was hard not to be amazed. The view from the Akropolis was also very striking and it seemed hard to believe that only four million people lived in Athens. From here, we could see our next stop, Lykabettos Hill, which we soon discovered also had spectacular views and a tiny chapel dedicated to St. George. That evening we went to the Plakka, the old district in Athens which was full of atmosphere with busy cafés and lots of people who really made the place buzz.
The next day was the much-anticipated cruise to three islands: Aegina, Hydra and Poros. Out of the three islands, I thought Hydra was the most beautiful. Here, we wandered around the village which had a lovely relaxed seafront with picturesque houses to the north and mountains to the south. However, Hydra wasn’t as beautiful as the place we were going to visit the next day…
We travelled to Delphi via Cape Sounion. The temple of Poseidon at Sounion was ‘possibly the most beautiful place in the world’ as one member of our party said, and I couldn’t agree more. Poseidon’s temple was bold and striking, the columns particularly impressive. After our enjoyable exploration of it, we made our way to Delphi via an old Greek Orthodox monastery. Rummaging around the monastery, a handful of second formers made the grim discovery of a dead saint’s remains -
not the most pleasant sight to behold! That evening, we continued our drive to Delphi and reached this mountainous region in a few hours time, staying there for the night.
The archaeological museum of Delphi was our first port of call on the following day. Here were some of the few remains from the temple of Apollo – a temple we then visited for real, after trekking up the mountainside. At first, all we could see were the ruins, but with our tour guide’s help, we gradually began to imagine the prestige of the temple and how much the priests had done to preserve it. That evening, we travelled to Olympia - not Mount Olympus, the home of ‘the gods’, but Olympia, the home of the Olympics!
We spent a morning looking around the site where the original Olympic Games took place, observing where the athletes stayed and where the sacrifices took place and the actual race track itself. Not many people can say that they have taken part in a competitive race at an Olympic race track, but some of the CLS contingent decided to have a quick sprint, with the winner receiving a wreath of flowers from Miss Rose. Andrew Rose eventually won the race after many competitors pulled out for various reasons and he wore his wreath with a certain Grecian pride. Next stop: Tolon.
From Tolon, we visited the best preserved amphitheatre in Greece: Epivdoras. The acoustics there were amazing: even a dropped penny on the stage could be heard 70 rows above! We were also treated to a play, read in Greek to us by Miss Rose. After Epivdoras we went to Old Corinth and saw the forum and the Corinth canal. The canal was an amazing feat of engineering, cut into the rock hundreds of feet below our viewing point.
Eventually though, and with much reluctance, we had to travel back to Athens International Airport for the return flight home, (a flight which was rounded off by the Captain celebrating Mr. Jones’ birthday). At the end of the flight, 32 tired boys arrived safely back in Britain, while Hamish, the 33rd member of our group, was stuck at Passport Control…without his passport!
On behalf of the party I would like to thank Mr. Jones, Miss Connolly and Miss Rose for organising a thoroughly enjoyable and educational trip.
John Murray 2B