The Temple of Poseidon at Sounion

The Temple of Poseidon at Sounion is one of the main attractions of Greece.

I have been twice and still I feel to go there. In my second visit, I enjoyed more than the first one. I strongly feel this is must seen place, and very easily reachable from Athens.

The site is accessible by road from Athens .This is the scenic highway 91, which closely follows the west coast of Attica (the "Attic riviera"), passing through numerous upscale residential districts and resorts, such as Glyfada, Vouliagmeni, Varkiza. There is a regular municipal bus service to Sounion from Omonia Square. (from wikipedia)

As I mentioned in my first post the driveway is just amazing, probably the best I have ever had. Even our manager from Germany, who was in a short visit to Greece, agrees that it’s much better than the coastal drives of US. The beauty of the driveway is wonderful for the combination of different gray colour of rocks and hills and the other way the red and blue combination of setting sun in Mediterranean. The green valleys and modern-old houses was enriching the sceneries.

We left Athens through Glyfada and took the coastal root. We were in the coastal town of Anavassos, famous for its seaside fish taverns, after that couple of nice beaches in blue Mediterranean. Every bent of the hills unfolded fascinating secrets of nature. I cant express the beauty of the place, quoting some lines from Matt Barrett's Greece Travel Guides

As you leave the coastal suburbs of Athens you pass towns and settlements,
mostly in bays, harbors and beaches. Some Athenians have built their summer and
weekend homes out here and villages have sprung up out of nowhere. But the
closer you get to Sounion on the tip of the Attiki peninsula the less houses
there are until finally you come to a few hotels and a nice little beach with
two tavernas. The temple of Sounion sits above the beach on a mountain that juts
out into the sea and was dedicated to Poseidon. In ancient times the temple was
the last sign of civilization the Athenians saw as they sailed away from home..

The Temple of Poseidon at Sounion

And the details of the temple is quoting from this site.

The temple that we see today was built in 444 BCE and stands on the site of an
older temple. An Ionic frieze, made from 13 slabs of Parian marble, is located
on the east side of the temple's main approach path. The frieze is very eroded,
but is known to have depicted the mythological battle of the Lapiths and
Centaurs, the Gigantomachia, and the adventures of the hero Theseus who was said
in some legends to be the son of Poseidon. The east pediment (of which only a
seated female figure is preserved) probably depicted the fight between Poseidon
and Athena for the domination of Attica. Local marble, taken from quarries at
nearby Agriléza, was used for the temple's 34 slender Doric columns. The
remaining 15 columns have been restored. When the temple was built there were
special features incorporated which helped it combat its unique location on the
water's edge. The columns were cut with only 16 flutings instead of the usual
20, thus reducing the surface area exposed to the elements and subsequently
reducing the corrosion caused by the constant sea spray.

The temple of Poseidon is truly amazing; the robust architecture just in the end of mainland reminded me Kannyakumarika of India (the south most point). The sunset from this point is just awesome, but we were unlucky because the sky was clouded. But the view of small islands in the sea, the boats in serene Mediterranean, and the temple in land side made it one of the favorites of mine.

A view of the sea from Poseidon Temple

Copenhagen - Top 5 Places

Amalienborg Palace

My brother is going to visit Copenhagen in this weekend and asked me which sights/places he can cover in 2/3 days. I have been there for much longer period and visited 7 out of the Top 10 places mentioned in the official website. I have not seen Tivoli (an amusement park), because I don’t like tough and exiting rides and never managed to see some museums in Copenhagen.

I really dont agree with the rating of these sites, like Little Mermaid (picture1) (picture2) which is the much hyped statue in miniature, with very little historical significance but heavily publicized tourist attraction. The official site describe it as “Hans Christian Andersen wrote a fairy tale about her, Disney produced the movie, and Copenhagen maintains a statue in her honour.” The interesting fact about this one is the head of the statue is replaced every year with a new one.
I have seen the The Viking Ship Museum (Genuine viking ships on display at the museum in Roskilde.), which was very ordinary one.

10 places can not be covered in a single weekend, so I have to make top 5 for him. I mean the list can vary with the choice of tourist, but if I had been given option to see five places I could have seen these one.

Kronborg Castle

1) Kronborg Castle, Helsingor(Denmark) – Helsingborg(Sweden) – Malmo(Sweden) – Copenhagen(Denmark) round trip. This is a must seen trip, if one is visiting Copenhagen. The Helsingor castle is very famous as “William Shakespeare's play Hamlet takes place at Kronborg Castle in Helsingør.” From Helsingor one can reach Helsingborg in 20 mins by boats. Helsinborg is a very old city with castle and ageold history. Malmo a small industrial town of Sweden, adjacent to Copenhagen seperated by Oresund Bridge. My visit to Malmo and Oresund Bridge was really wonderful.

Canal Tour

2)Canel cruise in small canals of Copenhagen: The fascinating view of different locations like old churches, Vesterport(old port), Opera house, little mermaid, royal ship etc can be seen in a 60 minute guided tour. This canal drive is really enjoying and highly recommended. One can see a large section of the city through this drive.

3)Town Hall - Walking street –Børsen (former Stock Exchange building) - Danish Parliament: Copenhagen's largest shopping area is the Europe's longest pedestrian shopping street, Strøget. There is an Erotica Museum also, unique of its kind. The walking street is quite crowded, and always full of activities, specially near the Town Hall. There is a booklet called “Copenhagen this week”, which contains all details of these activities.

4)Amalienborg Palace : This is the home of the Danish royal family , always patrolled by royal guard, the change of guard is something special for the tourists. A domed Marble Church can be seen behind the Royal Palace.

Frederiksberg Park(Left) and (Right) Shopping street, Strøget

5) I have a tie here with Frederiksberg Park and Frederiksborg Palace :
Frederiksberg Park, was close to my apartment and I have seen many different typical Danish festival here, so you can say I am somehow emotionally attached with it. But the Castle and Natural beauty is really beautiful in this park, the zoo is next to it.
Frederiksborg Palace in Hillerød is located on three small islands in the middle of Palace Lake and is adjoined by a large, baroque formal garden.

There are many more places I have seen like Rosenberg Palace(pic), Frederiksdal, (Pic), Copenhagen Zoo. The National Gallery, an Art museum situated in Copenhagen centre is also worth visiting. But its difficult to cover by in short trip.

Here goes some more picture link.

Sunion from Athens

Today we went to Sunion from Athens. The drive was though the hilly area of Greece was excellent. One way it was Mediterranean Sea and the rocky Hill in the other side. We are amazed and loved it.

It was truly wonderful drive - probably the best one I have ever had; through a road by the costal area of Attica from Athens to Sunion. This is my first drive in hill and wasn’t that easy. However, I must say that the Greek road infrastructures are quite good, compared to India. The roads are jig jag, up down. But it was enchanting for the combination of different gray colour of rocks and hills and the other way the red and blue combination of setting sun in Mediterranean. The green valleys and modern-old houses was enriching the sceneries.

Greek is famous for its islands. It has 207 main islands in Mediterranean Sea, which makes an amazing contrast of Sea and Hill next to next. The shades of different hills in sea create charming landscape. The enchanting natural beauty hypnotizes tourists like us and gives extreme pleasure to be associated with nature.

Some information from Wikipedia: The cape of Sounion or Sounio, in Latin known as Sunium (in ancient Greek Σούνιον) is located 65 kilometres south-east of Athens, in Attica. Cape Sounion is especially famous for the ruins of two temples which overlook the sea, one dedicated to Athena, the other to Poseidon.

Ruins of the temple of Poseidon, constructed in the 5th century BC over the ruins of a temple constructed in the Archaic Period, are perched above the sea at a height of almost 60 metres.