BBC Travel Show – The best bits: Greece
This week it’s the birthplace of the Olympic Games famous ancient philosophers and democracy home to the Acropolis and whitewashed houses set against stunning blue sea and sky where in Greece Greece a firm favorite with package holiday and culture lovers alike in fact almost a million of them arrived here every week last summer to soak up the sun with Summer fast approaching in Europe we thought it’s time to take a look back at some travel show Greek adventures and
What better place to start than Athens the country’s capital city we went to see the ancient Monument of the Acropolis which is facing up to the challenge of becoming more accessible proving even historical sites need to move with the times that’s a bit of a mission
I’m making my way up to the Acropolis which in Greek means highest city which doesn’t look nor sound very wheelchair friendly so before covid it was a proper mission to get up to the Acropolis if you had any sort of mobility issues basically you had a 15-minute hike up a load of
Steep stairs and loads of steep ramps before you came to any sort of accessible pathway but since then things have changed The Acropolis is Greece’s number one tourist attraction and pre-pandemic over 3.5 million people climbed to the top each year one good thing to come out of the lockdowns was there was finally the time and the space to make the site more accessible to those with mobility issues just seen a sign for
Uh disabled entrance I think yeah you know what it’s still a mission to get up here I can see why the ancient Greeks were so fit you have to be a God to get up this ramp let’s do it which way am I going this way thank you Remember when I said uh it was a 15 minute hike up some stairs to get to the Acropolis those are the stairs I’m talking about wow I’d never make it up there hello but help is at hand all I have to do is Catch My Breath and admire the scenery
As I wait for the brand new lift built to comfortably accommodate two wheelchairs at a time but not everyone sees it as an improvement with some critics calling it a modernist eyesore well I think it beats climbing flights of steps any day of the week it’s all right look at this View
This is just I mean this is an extra part of the trip this is the part that only we get all the other good old-fashioned two leggers have to go up the stairs and this is what I’m talking about after just 40 seconds in the lift and using the acropolis’s new accessible
Paths I get to experience all of this The Acropolis has a long history and over its time it’s been used as a fortress a mosque and it’s even been blown up but its headliner has got to be the Parthenon a Temple dedicated to the ancient Greek goddess Athena who gave the city of Athens its name
Wow I have never been so happy to see concrete that is amazing I’ve actually been here before and the last time I was here this was all rough and Gravelly and really hard to push along but now I get to experience the Acropolis and I get this wonderful view of the Parthenon
This is brilliant I want to take these concrete slabs home but improvements is not a word some would use when describing the work carried out at the site not everyone is happy with the renovations that have gone on here at the Acropolis you know some people have complained about the concrete slabs
Being laid down saying that it’s hiding the original features of the Acropolis and even wounding the the stone here but I’ve been told that these slabs can be raised and you’ll still have the original features and actually look this is some of the original Stone and it’s smooth anyway Rival historians claim the work carried out is a means to get more tourists to visit and is disrespectful to the site’s diverse past I’m heading down to the Acropolis Museum to meet a man who knows a thing or two about ancient history and he believes the ancient Greeks themselves would have
Been okay with this upgrade Ancient Greek civilization culture is an anthropocentric culture that means they created their gods in the image of themselves those Hera Aphrodite and so on and between them they had half Esters a very hard working metalsmith and very powerful God and he was lame and that’s incredible disabled gods or
Gods with disabilities I’m learning so many new things this is amazing and I’m also told that accessibility at the Acropolis is not a new thing even in the Archaic Period that means sixth Century BC there were rumps leading up to to the Temple of Athena not the Parthenon because the Parthenon did it
Existed until the 5th Century but even earlier there is evidence for for this ramp as well and many times it has been interpreted that it was for the animals to be sacrificed but it is not only that it is also for all the people helping disabled people
There are plans in place to make the site even more accessible with the installation of further paths I for one think this attraction is setting a good example to Historic monuments throughout the world and I’m really happy that I get to experience the Acropolis now Amazing work allowing everyone to enjoy the Acropolis and if you’re going the national archaeological Museum in Athens is also fully accessible and contains one of the world’s top collections of Greek Antiquities now the harbors around Greece can be full of super yachts and cruise ships that this life-size replica of the 5th
Century BC warship olympius is the only one of its kind in the world a few years ago I was lucky enough to jump on board and head up to Sea this amazing looking Galley belongs to the Greek navy and every year groups of very lucky people
Get to go aboard and actually Road us like ancient Athenians did this year I’m one of those lucky people so I better get ready I think it’s going to be quite hard work it took 20 years of passionate research to work out a design for this trirem as
No remains of the Wooden Boats could be found She was constructed here in Greece in 1987. the important thing for the rowers of the boat is that they were free a citizen it was very honored to be rower elf Atrium and the important is that in a show small boat we have so many people they are the machine and
Help the boat to move I think it sounds like a fantastic lot of fun and hard work yes so would you maybe show me how to do it yes of course Wow wow look at this oh this is amazing this is the the novel way to go down the ship carries two small sails but just like in ancient times most of the propulsion comes from the 170 oarsmen staggered over three levels under the deck quite tight in here isn’t it
As I told you all right so here you put your feet there so you sit here what’s the technique for the technique must be like that so you lift it up out of the water one I think I’m gonna have very good ABS yes after this and I will give you the orders yes absolutely thank you so much you’re welcome Well my fellow row is starting to arrive now so I’ve picked a plum spot right in the middle of the action Ready for ramming speed thank you reaching speeds of about nine knots or 17 kilometers an hour this boat was considered pretty quick in its time And its maneuverability one Athens some decisive victories at sea the bronze Ram served as the main weapon to puncture the hulls of enemy ships and to sink them we get a break every so often oh yeah here we go again Bill Thank you I’m looking around it’s almost impossible to imagine what this must have been like for the people who originally wrote these kinds of boats to be in battle three layers of different people all sweating and trying to Ram another boat in the open sea I mean it’s unimaginable given how
Pleasant and lovely this is today Back to Athens to meet some four-legged friends we’re heading to Greece’s first and still it’s only 100 renewable energy Island and Addie is in some hot water in a secret spring goddess Athena created these springs for her favorite hero Hercules I think it’s quite fitting for someone like me Now these wondering stray felines are a common sight in the streets of Greece from the tavernas to ancient monuments they’re part of the fabric of Life which you’ll undoubtedly encounter during your travels here although through the pandemic one local charity made it their mission to ensure these Street cats were cared for Addie
Joined them in Athens to help out for the day she’s so cute I’m meeting sambika a volunteer at athens-based cat charity nine lives we are at 10 nine lives and we feed every day here in Acropolis and in many other places around the center of Athens
That I mean that’s a big job there are many many cats in Athens yes we feed around over 500 Cuts around the center the team at Nine Lives definitely have their work cut out so I’ve decided to help sambika with the dinner time shift and get some grub out to these furry
Athenians they are always together yes best friends how did the pandemic affect the work that you were doing and and also the welfare of the cats well uh suddenly because the town was a empty you could see so many many cards revealed a lot of cuts we we didn’t knew that they were
Around and we had to feed more because probably some of them were eating around tavernas who were not anymore opened recently hello baby baby come here this isn’t just about keeping these cats bellies full feeding them breeds trust and allows Nine Lives volunteers to carry out important health checks it’s
Not so so much food for them it a town is not the physical environment for the animals they don’t have enough food and they wouldn’t be so healthy they would be a little bit skinny sick and if we didn’t sterilize them they would be thousands so they would die they wouldn’t survive Notorious meant no taverners and if it wasn’t for volunteers these guys would have gone hungry but as Athens opens up again should we all be sharing our meals with the local cats okay they can give them a treat as a as far as not problem for the owner
I do those when I eat in a Tavern animals mustn’t eat actually our food and sometimes it can be dangerous for them because usually they give the bones of the fish I always carry now with me cat food so I don’t have to take from my
Plate and give to the animals if I am outside I have something always right next time I’m in Athens I’ll be packing cap biscuits for sure Oh so cute now we’re off to the island of tilos a whopping 17-hour ferry ride from Athens unsurprisingly it’s more laid back and sees fewer tourists because it’s so remote after years of blackouts and Reliance on neighboring islands for its energy Supply a few years ago it became entirely powered by
Renewable Alternatives we sent guy Fenton to find out more about Greece’s first hybrid Island probably one of the most relaxing and Scenic ways to see tilos is by its bike you might see some Wildlife along the way but right now I’m on my way to check
Out something that up until now has been a vital link between tealos and the outside world and this is it these cables here they have been connecting tilos to another island called cos around 100 kilometers away and traditionally that’s how tilos has been getting its power from cos
From here the cable travels under water to cause and up until now it’s been a Lifeline for tilos The underwater cable sounds like a good idea but the oil generated power is expensive and the line is vulnerable to breakdown when that happens the island and its turrets are left without electricity but thanks to a locally devised initiative kilos has now set about generating its own electricity in a
Sustainable and eco-friendly way in combination with a wind turbine and the battery storage area we are hoping that we can satisfy the demands of the island and of course in some particular hours of the day we can also provide power to the cause of our complex the
Solar Park isn’t enough though on its own the wind turbine is also a vital part of the energy system wind turbine though has the ability to operate and produce energy throughout the day 24 7. so this means that comprising both energy sources and also storing medium or short-term storing
Energy in the battery will provide us a full operational power stations there are power Cuts getting the current mayor of tilos Maria Kama grew up on the island for Maria protecting the environment through renewable energy has been a number one priority in Philadelphia the mentality of the island is that we
Love and protect the environment and it’s been something we’ve been fighting for many years how can we be independent from all polluting sources that harm the environment so an opportunity was presented through the program and we decided to participate and offer our Island for this experimental project
Nobody here is suggesting that this game can be replicated across all of the Greek Islands the tourism industry here on tilos is pretty sustainable and low-key anyway but we are setting a really good example so let’s hope that at least some of the other Islands do follow their lead thank you
Well that’s almost it for this week but before we go we’ve just got time for when Addie found another form of Natural Energy here in Greece and a perfect way to relax after a long day sightseeing I’ll let him tell you more about it and we’ll see you next time The town of adepsis in Greece and I was a little bit worried about this because I thought travel Shard set me up because that water looks fruits and cold what I’ve been told that these are hot springs which have been here for thousands of years they’ve been visited by Roman emperors Hollywood Superstars
And now an East London Giza Savage Oh Oh bad this is just gorgeous now there’s a lot of history to these pools because Legend has it that goddess Athena created these springs for her favorite hero Hercules take a come here and kick back and hem himself after his Herculean tasks I
Think it’s quite fitting for someone like me oh now they say that the minerals in these barbs have got healing properties but the best thing is they’re free we’ll see what this one’s like this looks super hot doesn’t feel that bad that’s so hot I could put a tea bag in
There and make a proper cover I’m not getting in there I think I bought me I’m chestnuts not happening oh this is more my temperature Thank you