Athens,Greece: further reaches

The overlooked: Persitiri

Spelt  Περιστέρι in Greek. It is fun reading out street names and others spelt out in Greek using the alphabets we use in Math and Physics.

We find this place by accident when we spy a stadium while on a local bus from Syntagma towards the north. Then a church that  looks like that in Monastiraki comes into view.  And that's when we decide to explore Peristeri, for that is what this suburb is called. It's Greek for pigeon-dove. 

The area lives up to its name. It is quiet and peaceful as we walk up to the indoor basketball arena named for Papandreou, a former Greek prime minister.

The street is like a shopping mall in any suburb with bakeries and souvenir  shops – everyday markets and family businesses– selling olive oil, herbs and soaps. The stroll takes us towards  the  cathedral– the metropolitan orthodox cathedral – with its large central dome, symmetrical bell towers, and a cream colored stone and marble facade typical of Athens. The arched windows and decorative brickwork reflect Byzantine influence. 

Had we entered the church at an appropriate hour we would have heard Byzantine chants.

The thrill of discovery.

We are actually in the central square and beside us is a glass dome. What could it house?  The landmark is the sky light of the metro station below. Again we have the urban and the ancient existing in aesthetic harmony.  The skylight allows sunlight to the station levels. We find that it will take us to Piraeus and therefore we do.

Olympic Stadium

On another trip to Athens — this time with the grandchildren — the Olympic Stadium was high on their bucket list. From Syntagma Square we boarded the train, excitement building with every stop, until the great arches of the Olympic Stadium rose before us.

With its sweeping roof suspended from two colossal arches the immense structure seems to float above the arena, yet it is engineered to withstand fierce winds and even powerful earthquakes.

And then came the detail that left us speechless: even the lawn can move.It is not rooted in the earth but grown in 6,000 interlocking plastic capsules spread across the stadium floor. Automated sprinklers rise  water the grass according to a programme. When space for another grand event is needed, the entire lawn can be rolled away outside the stadium, transforming the space as if by magic.

Everything about the stadium speaks of scale and imagination. The roof stretches across 25,000 square metres, weighs nearly 19,000 tons, and glows beneath thousands of translucent panels. Standing beneath those soaring arches, with the grandchildren staring upward in wonder, it felt less like visiting a stadium and more like stepping into a monument to human ambition.

Watched over

A bus ride through the main thoroughfares reveals more modern structures with Greek embellishments housing universities and government offices. Everywhere the Acropolis looms fully into view—not just  a distant landmark, but something that watches over modern Greece in silence.

Piraeus to Acropolis, Athens, Greece

Piraeus to Athens

Our first visit fills us with excitement—we are finally on our way to the Acropolis. We decide we would explore the port of Piraeus later, as soon as we returned. After learning that a bus to Athens city centre departed from just outside the port, heading toward the railway station, we set off on the short walk to catch it.

The port is overwhelmingly crowded. It isn’t just the presence of another cruise liner that day, but the sheer scale of Piraeus itself—Greece’s busiest passenger port, and in fact the largest in Europe, bustling with countless ferry connections.

The wait for the bus feels like an eternity while the crowd continues to swell. When the X-80 Piraeus–Acropolis–Syntagma Express finally arrives, there is some inevitable pushing and shoving. We squeeze in, finding standing room only. Thankfully, the ticket machine works smoothly, and with that small relief, we settle in to simply enjoy the ride. This route, we later learned, had only been introduced a few months before our visit. In about thirty minutes, we arrive at Syntagma Square, ready to begin our exploration.

Columns of columns of magnitude:ravages of nature and time

The Acropolis of Athens rises in quiet majesty above the city, visible from nearly every corner, a constant reminder of ancient grandeur—but our curiosity draws us beyond it, toward other ruins that look monumental with rows and columns of pillars, one solitary and another a pair. As we near these columns it is obvious that many have met their fate. At the entrance to the area we find the information board that tells us we are at the ancient  Temple of Olympian Zeus, once the largest of all Greek temples, a project so ambitious it took nearly a thousand years to approach completion— it was never truly finished. Originally boasting 104 towering Corinthian columns, only about 15 remain upright today. Their placement,  hints at the immense scale the temple once commanded. One column lies where it fell when it succumbed to a storm – proof that not even a colossal monument can withstand nature’s quiet power. This  column  is dramatic in that it lies in distinct, segmental, marble rings!

Inside the temple once stood monumental gold and ivory statues of Zeus and Emperor Hadrian, now entirely lost to time, much like the structure itself. 

Even more interestingly, over the centuries, its stones were stripped away and reused (including as far away as Rome), its purpose shifting from sacred site to quarry. In the early 1800s, a solitary stylite even made a home atop one of its columns, adding a strange, almost surreal chapter to its history. And yet, standing among the remnants today, one can still feel a sense of awe—because even in ruin, the temple endures as a powerful echo of the ambition, devotion, and imagination of the ancient world.

Surrounding the temple are remains of dwellings, Roman baths, the entrance gates and walls.

One or the other: entrance/exit

Just beyond the ruins, we come upon the aristocratic Arch of Hadrian, commanding our attention. Built in 130 AD to mark the arrival of Emperor Hadrian to the city the structure consists of three arched gates in a white marble frame. It once marked a symbolic threshold in the city—a passage not just through space, but through time itself. As we draw closer, its purpose begins to reveal itself: this was more than a decorative gateway: it may have divided two identities of Athens. On one side lay the ancient city of Theseus, rooted in myth and classical heritage, while on the other stood Hadrian’s newer, Roman-influenced Athens. The faint inscriptions seem to echo this division—one side proclaiming, “This is Athens, the old city of Theseus,” and the other asserting, “This is the city of Hadrian and not Theseus.” Standing beneath its three graceful arches, there’s a quiet thrill of discovery, as if we’ve stumbled upon a line once drawn between two worlds, now blurred by centuries.

Missed opportunity

Right down the street stands the Panathenaic Stadium—rebuilt entirely of marble in 1896 for the first modern Olympics, a place where tens of thousands once gathered under the bright Athenian sky. And yet, somehow, I only learned about it after the fact, as if I’d walked past history without realizing it was calling.

The draw

Rising up in a short distance from these ruins is the irresistible Acropolis ( the high city)majestically sitting upon a hill with its aesthetically pleasing columned structures.