The trip took place October 6-13, 2001, to attend the 2001 IEEE International Conference on Image Processing. To see larger versions of any of the pictures on this page, just click on the image.
Brian arrived at the Athens airport around 10:00 AM on Sunday, October 7. At the airport, Brian met Wade, who is one of Brian's graduate students. Wade had picked up a rental car on the previous day. Driving in Athens is crazy and chaotic. If you are visiting Athens, then we do not recommend renting a car. We did not have any accidents, but driving in a major city in Greece takes all of the driver's concentration.
On Saturday, the day before Brian arrived, Wade saw the Athenian Acropolis and its world-famous Parthenon. One can walk around the ruins and even go through a museum housing many of sculptures that used to sit in the Acropolis. Apparently, one can't see many of the sculptures from the Acropolis, because in the 19th century they were acquired by the British who still hold them in their museums. The Greeks make sure to let you know this and that they that would really like them back.
Unfortunately, many of the outdoor structures in the Acropolis were under renovation and covered in scaffolding. They claim that this work will be done in time for the Olympics in 2004, but the work has been going on since 1983, so they had better hurry.
The Parthenon.
This is the Erechtheion. The statues are not original. Some of the originals are help in the Acropolis' museum, while some are held by the previously mentioned British. The hill in the background is Lykavittos Hill from which the sunset picture at the bottom of this picture was taken.
On Sunday, Wade and Brian left the airport and headed out on the Greek national highway toward Thessaloniki, the second-largest city in Greece, where the conference was that we had come to attend. This highway is hardly what American would call a highway, since much of it is only 2-lane, although they have recently converted many parts of it to 4-lane or more, but we were told that the whole length of the road will be a real highway by the Olympics (The Greeks claim many things will be finished by the Olympics.) Again, driving was an adventure, but we made it to Thessaloniki without incident.
Thessaloniki's most famous landmark in the city is the White Tower, the large cylindrical building in the pictures below.
Also, in Thessaloniki we visited the Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki, which has lots of old stone heads and bodies. Sorry, no pictures.
After the conference, we left to do some hiking at Mount Olympus, the home of Zeus, Poseidon, Athena, and all their fellow gods and goddesses. (We didn't happen to bump into any of them while we were up there however. Maybe next time.) The cities of Athens and Thessaloniki were pretty polluted and crowded so we were looking forward to breathing some fresh air for a change.
After stopping to see the tombs and ruins at Vergina, we drove to our starting point at Prionia and began our hike up Olympus. The is the bridge at the beginning of the trail.
Some of the only natural water we saw on our hike. Greece had experienced a very dry summer. Even the refuge had run out of water.
More sights from the hike.
After about two and a half hours we reached refuge "A", also known as Spilios Agapitos, where we had dinner and stayed the night.
Brian (left) and Wade (right) at the refuge with the Olympus peaks in the background.
After waking up early in the morning, we hiked the rest of the way up to the summit.
In this shot, you can see the ridge along which the tallest peaks on Olympus lie.
This is Brian on the Skala summit. The peak in the background on the left is Stefani.
This is the tallest peak in Greece, Mytikas. You can see a few people on the summit. The path to the top is a little steep (You're looking at the trail. There's not an easier way up on the back.), but its not too difficult. On the summit, they have a Greek flag and a book to sign.
A window view on the final climb up Mytikas.
The view from the Mytikas summit. We believe that small building is Refuge "C". You can see the Agean Sea in the background.
Wade on the Mytikas summit.
Then finally, we hiked all the way back to the parking lot at Prionia where we started. This final shot of the valley, the sea, and us was taken on the way down.
This final picture was taken shortly after visiting the Acropolis. Wade made the short hike up Lykavittos Hill to watch the sun set over Athens and the Acropolis. (If you look closely, then you can see the Acropolis on the hill in the left of the picture.) The building at the top of this hill used to be a church, but now this "place of prayer" has pretty much been turned into a "den of robbers". It is now an upscale restaurant where people pay many drachmas (soon to be Eurodollars) to watch the sunset while they eat and drink.
Last updated: 01/16/02