We couldn’t come to Athens without seeing the massive National Museum of Archeology containing finds from archeological digs all over Greece.

The first room is full of gold from various locations. The first item is the so called famous Mask of Agamemnon. Modern archaeological research indicates the mask was made around 1550 BC, which pre-dates the mythical Trojan War by 300 to 400 years

We saw many more pots including the black painted pottery that we also had seen by the founding residents of Venice.

There were many marble statues mostly of notable romans – and a bronze horse and rider found in a shipwreck.

There was a large amount of intaglios – carved precious stones. There was a necklace of replicas from the 1800s.

There was a very good temporary exhibition on the archeological dig at the Palace of Nestor. It is the best-preserved Mycenaean Greek palace in the Peloponnese, dating back to 1300 BC.

The exhibition included a good video explaining what happened on the dig with notes and photographs and many finds from the ruined city and the mound tombs. One of the first forms of writing – Linear B – on inscribed tablets were found.

They were Palace Inventories- strictly administrative records, tracking taxes, livestock, agricultural goods, and military deployments. They reveal a highly structured society ruled by a king, known in the texts as a Wanax. The texts provide the earliest written mentions of classical gods like Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, and Dionysus.

It’s a very impressive archeological site to visit if you are in the area of Mycenae.

In the middle of looking at everything we ran into Paulette whose birthday we are celebrating soon , and partner Mike. They had flown in late last night.

After many hours we had finally had enough and had a quick shared chicken gyros lunch from the spit on the way home.

We then caught up with the others for drinks in a rooftop bar in the very cute Anafiotika area – lots of small houses with bougainvillea everywhere on the slopes of the Acropolis.

Then we had a lovely dinner at the Old Psaras Tavern very close by. It was also on a rooftop so the views were great. The food was also excellent. Glenn and I shared a huge mixed grill.

The food is very good – but very meat based. Salads are treated as an appetizer so it’s difficult to avoid the main meat dish. We are looking forward to having fish on the isle of Kea when we get there.

We then went back to our hotel as we had an early start next morning.