Hello from Greece: June 10-12

So, I'm not going to post an entire account of everything I see and so. Heaven knows you don't want to read about every piece of dirt I look at. So, I'll stick to the highlights and get some photos in.

> June 10-12
I got into Athens alright. It was pretty easy. The new metro runs well. My hotel was small and in a sketchy part of town, but it was clean. I spent Sunday (June 11) wandering around Athens. I saw the Olympeion, where there are the remains of an enormous temple of Zeus, the Panathenaic stadium where the ancient Panathenaic Games and modern Olympic Games (in 1896 and 2004) were held, the theater of Dionysus where Aeschylus, Euripides, and Sophocles had their plays performed, and the Acropolis.
I came to the American School of Classical Studies at Athens today. Everybody is very nice and very helpful. I have a little dormitory room. We had tea in the salon, and everybody introduced themselves. The school is really beautiful in a 19th century English kind of way. It’s going to be a fun few weeks.

So, here's the Parthenon. Some of you have seen this, and I know Ed's been there a hundred times. This building blew me away. It's so impressive up there on the Acropolis. I spent 3 1/2 hours on and around that rock. Aren't you all a little glad you didn't have to wander around with me?

This is the Erechtheion, also on the Acropolis. See the olive tree? According to the story (and the west pediment of the Parthenon if it had survived), Athena and Poseidon had a contest to see which would be the patron god/dess of Athens. Each decided to give a gift and let the Athenians decide which was more useful. Poseidon caused a well to bring forth water inside this temple. Only problem was, the water was salty (god of the ocean - duh). So, Athena gave the olive tree and was chosen to protect Athens. This obviously isn't an ancient olive tree, but it's kind of a cool story nonetheless.

This is a piece of a Sphinx that once stood on one of the Parthenon's corners. A sphinx was a mythological creature with the body of a lion, the head of a woman, and wings of a . . . ? Well, wings. When Oedipus came to Thebes, he killed the Sphinx and freed the city (and married his mother) by solving the Sphinx's riddle. I know it's an old one, but maybe Dane knows the answer:

What has four legs in the morning . . . two legs at noon. . . . and three legs at night?