Last Day in Greece

In all of our wanderings in all the other cities, towns and villages, nearly every museum we visited had a reference to some artifact "currently housed in the National Archeological Museum".  Given the number of times we had seen this statement, we knew that it would take the whole day to thoroughly explore this museum, or at least until 3:00pm, when they closed.

When we arrived around 11:00am, there were at least 3 cruise ship tour groups, so we naturally started where they weren't, and as it turned out, the museum is organized counter-clockwise chronologically.  We, therefore, were traveling back in time over about 2000 years worth of sculpture and bronze work.  I'm not sure I can completely describe the difference between early and late steele relief carving (even after having seen several rooms of this), but then I also have a hard time in the MET after staying too long in the Romantic wing.  It all starts to blur.  Still, we learned a lot, and we won't bore you with it here.

However, we will note that, if you are going to see a lot of ruins in other parts of Greece, it is best to see the ruins first, and then this museum last as it really was the coalescent of our trip and our understanding of these ruins.

As the perfect end to a perfect trip, we had dinner in the only Michelin rated restaurant in the city, Varoulkis--a small place in a not obvious part of town for such a restaurant, particularly one boasting a view of the Acropolis. The attire is casual, which is great since I didn't bring anything fancy.  The hostess directed us to the elevator, and said to go to the third floor.  Had I been thinking a bit more, I would have remembered immediately that the first floor in all European buildings is "0", and realized that this was the roof! 

There was no menu.  It is only what the chef prepares based on daily fish.  We had sea bass carpaccio marinated in lemon and olive oil, smoked eel in a tomato/egg foam (which we could have eaten a dozen more!), breen with toast points on an eggplant puree, crayfish and risotto, and finally grouper with celery and pumpkin purees.  And for dessert they had chocolate mouse with olive oil.  I have never tasted anything that creamy.  The whole meal was delightful and decadent, and during the course of it, we started laying plans for our return.  The places we missed because of time, the areas we deliberately did not explore, and the cities where we must return.

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