London, England - Part 2

London will never be a cheap thrill, but fortunately, in addition to the top-dollar draws, there are now scads of free museums, galleries and historic buildings. Depending upon the amount of time you have to spend in London, here's an itinerary for 1-2 days that you can undertake either at a leisurely or fast pace when you are ready to venture out and take in a big heaping dose of London attractions.

Take the Tube to Charing Cross or Embankment and cross into Trafalgar Square, London's unofficial hub. Here, the commercial West End meets the Mall, the regal avenue that leads to Buckingham Palace and governmental Whitehall. Nelson's Column, in the middle of the square, is the triumphal memorial to England's victory over Napoleon in 1805.

The National Gallery with the National Portrait Gallery faces the Nelson' Column to the north. The National Gallery is Britain's national art collecton comprising of more than 2,300 paitings dating from 1260 to 1510 by such artists as Giotto, Botticelli, Leonardo da Vinci, and Raphael. The National Portrait Gallery on St. Martin's Place contains a gallery of 10,000 paintings and 250,000 photographs charting the history of the national through its famous faces and celebrities. The curators have consigned Helmut Newton's portrait of Margaret Thatcher to the historical section to make way for David Beckham and J.K. Rowling. The permanent collection is displayed chronologically with Henry VII, Henry VIII and Sir Thomas Eliot by Sir Jacob Epstein. There are amateur artists on display as well including one of Jane Austen by her sister and the three Bronte sisters painted by their brother Branwell.

The Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields is east at about 2 o'clock. This church is one of the best-loved in London. Designed by James Gibbs, the intricate plasterwork ceiling enhances the simple nave. The parish boundary passes throught the middle of Buckingham Palace and the names of many royal children appear on the baptismal registry. St. Martin's is famous for its music. Handel had played the organ here. There are free concerts and evening recitals leaning heavily toward the baroque.

Turn down Whitehall and visit Banqueting House to see the nine magnificent allegoric ceiling paintings by Rubens. This is all that remains of the great Palace of Whitehall after the fire of 1698. A masterpiece of English Renaissance, the main hall was used for posh banqueting as it is still today with the Ruben ceiling paintings depicting the Divine Right of Kings. There is also a crypt where the king could get drunk with his mates. A bust of Charles I above the entrance reminds visitors that he was beheaded in front of the building. Depending upon the time, you can watch the Changing of the Guard across the road at Horse Guards (at 11am Mon-Sat, 10am on Sun).

Walking on down Whitehall, you'll come to the Cenotaph, the moving memorial to all those who fell in the two world wars. No. 10 Downing Street, the Prime Minister's official residence, is right opposite. It was too small for the Blair family when Tony Blair was prime minister so they moved into no. 11 instead. Whitehall ends in Parliament Square which is flanked by Big Ben, the spectacular Houses of Parliament, and Westminster Abbey.


A brief detour to this itinerary or depending upon how much time you want to spend, then plan for an entirely different day, would be from Parliament Square to go across the beautiful St. James Park to arrive at Buckingham Palace. Confirm, but if you arrive early enough, you can watch the roughly 11:30A Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace. This is Her Majesty's official London residence. You know she is there when the royal standard is flying. The Queen and her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, occupy only 12 of the palace's 600 rooms. The rest are used by the royal housefhold as offices and for royal functions, banquets, and investitures. Until recently Buckingham Palace was not available for public tours, and the only guests allowed in the palace were there by royal invitation. The Buckingham Palace of today, however, welcomes travelers in for a Buckingham Palace Tour 8 weeks out of the year. A tour in Buckingham Palace will now take guests through the State Room, the Grand Staircase, the Throne Room, and the Picture Gallery that features many world-renowned works of art. A Buckingham Palace Tour may only be booked during August and September each year when the family is on holiday, and tickets may be purchased in advance, or at the palace ticket office on Buckingham Palace Road. Ticket lines for a tour in Buckingham Palace tend to be quite long, so if you are know which day you plan to visit in advance, it is a good idea to purchase your tickets online or over the phone.


The Houses of Parliament with its trademark clock tower, Big Ben, is the ultimate symbol of London. Edward the Confessor built the first palace here and the site was home to the monarchy and court until Henry VII's time when in 1834, a fire lit to burn the Exchequer's tally sticks got out of control. Charles Barry designed the current Houses of Parliament (1840).

Westminster Abbey is a Benedictine abbey which housed a community of monks as early as A.D. 750. It is neither a cathedral nor a parish church, but a profoundly moving site of coronations and funerals subject only to the sovereign. Westminster Abbey has played a prominent role in British history including the funeral of Princess Diana and in 2002, of the Queen Mother. All but two coronations since 1066 have taken place here. When not in use, the Coronation Chair built in 1300 sits behind the High Altar. Five kings and four queens including half-sisters Queen Elizabeth I and Mary Tudor and Mary Queen of Scots, are buried in the beautiful, fan-vaulted Chapel of Henry VII. In 1400, Geoffrey Chaucer became the first literaruy celebrity to be buried in Poets' Corner. Others included Browning and Tennyson. Westminster Abbey is one of the most popular tourist attractions in London and tends to be packed in the summer months.

Then walk across the Westminster Bridge and take a flight on the British Airways London Eye. Not technically a Ferris wheel because the cabs are on the outside of the giant hoop, passengers on the Eye can see straight into the Buckingham Palace garden much to the Queen's annoyance. The giant 443-foot high observation wheel on the south bank is the world's tallest. For a pricey $25, the 1/2 hour, very slow-mo flight gives you an unforgettable 25-mile bird's eye view of the London landmarks and the capital.

Athens, Greece - Part 2

If you are spending more than 1 day in Athens and visited the primary historical sites, it is worth spending at least 3 or 4 hours of your second day at the National Archeological Museum. If there is only one museum to visit in Athens, it is the National Archeological Museum.

Renovated and expanded just before the 2004 summer Olympic games, the National Archeological Museum is considered one of the top 10 museums in the world with its abundant collections of ancient Greek antiquities with more than 20,000 exhibits of Greek civilization from the beginnings of Prehistory to Late Antiquity. The museum is housed in an imposing neoclassical building of the end of the nineteenth century, which was designed by L. Lange and remodelled by Ernst Ziller. The vast exhibition space - numerous galleries on each floor accounting for a total of 8,000 square metres - house five large permanent collections:

The Prehistoric Collection, which includes works of the great civilizations that developed in the Aegean from the sixth millennium BC to 1050 BC (Neolithic, Cycladic, Mycenaean), and finds from the prehistoric settlement at Thera. The Neolithic Collection comprises the earliest exhibits in the museum and comes from settlements and cemeteries of mainland Greece and the Aegean islands. The collection dates to the Neolithic period and the Early and Middle Bronze Age, that is the pre-Mycenean periods, and include clay and stone vessels, figurines and tools which date from 6800 BC to 1600 BC. The Cycladic Collection reveals the civilization that flourished in the Cycladic islands during the Bronze Age (third-second millennia BC). The development of seafaring, metallurgy and figural sculpture are portrayed. The Mycenaean Collection includes gold masks, cups, dishes, and jewelry unearthed from th site of Mycenae by Heinrich Schliemann in 1876. The Cycladic figurine collection is among the earliest know Greek sculptures (about 2000 B.C.).

The Sculptures Collection, which shows the development of ancient Greek sculpture from the large-scale seventh to the Late Roman fourth centuries AD with unique masterpieces, is considered to be one of the most important in the world. The exhibits are unique works of art from mainland Greece and the Aegean islands: statues, reliefs (funerary, votive, and legal), architectural groups, sarcophagi, busts, altars, statues of animals, Hermaic stelai and others (sirens, sphinxes etc). Several vases and bronze figurines complete the display that help explain the development of ancient Greek art.

The Vase and Minor Objects Collection, which contains representative works of ancient Greek pottery from the eleventh century BC to the Roman period and includes the Stathatos Collection, a corpus of minor objects of all periods. The quantity and quality of the Geometric, early Black-Figure and fourth-century Red-Figure vases is unparalleled.

The Metallurgy Collection comprises figurines and minor objects, as well as large original bronze statues, such as the Artemision Zeus or Poseidon, the Artemision Jockey, the Antikythera Youth and the Marathon boy.with many fundamental statues, figurines and minor objects.

The Egyptian and Near Eastern Antiquities Collection is one of the most impressive collection of its kind in the world with works of Egyption civilization dating from the pre-dynastic period (5000 BC) to the Roman conquest (30 BC- AD 354). The collection shows the development of Egyptian civilization, primarily during the Pre-dynastic and Pharaonic periods, and stresses the funerary customs of the Late period (twenty-fifth - thirtienth Dynasties), a period characterized by the wealth and elaboration of burial practices. The exhibits cover all aspects of artistic expression of daily life in ancient Egypt through their statues, figurines, reliefs, votive and funerary stelai, mummy covers, mummies, ceramic, stone vessels, Canopic jars, jewelry, Fayoum portraits, and numerous minor objects, and other artifacts of public and private use.




The museum also possesses a rich photographic archive and a 118 year old library with many rare publications, the latter of which is constantly enriched to meet the needs of the research staff. The library holds some 20,000 volumes, including rare editions dating to the 17th century. There are also modern conservation laboratories for metal, pottery, stone and organic materials, a cast workshop, a photographic laboratory and a chemistry laboratory. The museum has temporary exhibition spaces, a lecture hall for archaeological lectures and one of the largest shops of the Archaeological Receipts Fund.

The museum is easily accessible with the Athens metro with a five minute walk from the Viktoria station and a ten minute walk from Omonoia station. Access is free for children up to 6 year old and students. The museum houses a large recently renovated gift shop with artifact replicas and a popular cafe for tourists in the sculpture garden. The museum is fully wheelchair accessible. There are also facilities and guides for hearing impaired visitors.

With more than 50 different museums in Athens, you can easily learn Greece's ancient and contemporary history with visits to these other noteworthy museums:

Byzantine and Christian Museum - This museum on Vassilissis Sophias Avenue is devoted entirely to the art and history of Byzantium through decorative sculptures, altars, mosaics, bishops' garments, bibles, and small-scale reconstruction of an early Christain basilica.

Benaki Museum - On Koumbari Street and founded by art collector Antoni Benaki in 1933, this museum houses the private collection of folk art, costumes, jewelry, pottery, and relics from the Neolithic era to the Greek War of Independence in 1821.

National Gallery - Across the street from the Hilton Athens Hotel, the city's primary fine arts gallery houses icons and Greek paintings and works by El Greco, Tiepolo, Rembrandt, Brueghel, Picasso, and Braque.

National Historical Museum - Located in the former Parliament buildings between Omonia Square and Syntagma Square, this museum represents Greek history with objects from the Byzantine ear, the Turkish occupation, the Balkan War, and the War of Independence.

Greek Folk Art Museum - In Plaka, this museum housed in a former Turkish mosque, contains Greek costumes, jewelry, paintings, and stamps on display.

New Acropolis Museum - Opened in June 2009 and located at the base of the Acropolis on the southeast side and below the ancient Theatre of Dionysus, this new museum contains more than 50,000 portable antiquities, sacred sculptures from the temple of Athena Polias on the Acropolis, architectural sculptures of Archaic buildings, parts of the pediments, metopes and frieze of the Parthenon, sculptures from the temple of Athena Nike, lamps, vases, coins, and domestic artifacts, as well as the Caryatids from the Erechtheion.

The "old" Acropolis Museum opened in 1876 on the Acropolis is now closed but is expected to be reopened as a gallery space and possibly a cafe.

Museum of Popular Greek Muscial Instruments - Located steps from an excellent Platanos taverna, tambourines, cretan lyres, lutes, pottery drums and clarinets are on display. (Free admission)

Athens City Museum - On Paparigopoulou in Klathmonos Square, this museum in a restored 19th century Athenian townhouse, exhibits a collection of watercolors, sketches, an Athens scale model of 1842, furniture and costumes.

Kanellopoulos Museum - The former private home high on the slopes of the Acropolis contains the private collection of red and black figure vases, stunning Byzantine and post-Byzantine icons and fine painted ceilings within the house.