Snowman's Pink Ice Cream Shop and Athens

It's time for another double post, Pink and Sightseeing Saturday. But before I begin, I would like to finally take up Beverly on the challenge of visiting someone new. I hope you will visit Kerri also at http://princessmommychronicles.blogspot.com/. She is new and I think she will be an asset to Blogland. Just look at her contribution to Pink Saturday last week. Isn't this really adorable?

What a busy time of the year! I hope you all had a nice thanksgiving celebration with your families. Now it's time to prepare for Christmas. I had my Christmas decor taken down from the attic and I pulled my Snowman pink ice cream shop to show you for Pink Saturday. Go over at Beverly's at http://howsweetthesound.typepad.com/my_weblog/ to see more amazing pinks.

I saw this at TJ Maxx last year after the holidays on a clearance table. You wouldn't believe that I paid $3.00 for it and it is made by Lenox. It is big and heavy. Just look at all the details.

It is now sitting on my buffet in the formal dining room. Not sure yet if it will stay there permanently for the holidays.

Beverly asked that we share childhood memories of a special holiday with you. What I miss the most about Christmas in the Philippines are little children caroling at night outside houses, especially in the provinces. I remember that all they had for accompaniment is a gadget that is home made out of crushed soda bottle caps with a hole punched in the center and then strung together with a wire. They would shake this like a tambourine to make noise to accompany them while they were singing. After they sing, we would give them just a few coins, like 50 centavos and they were happy.

I also miss what we call "Simbang gabi", which is a series of masses at dawn for 9 consecutive days which end on Christmas eve. The mass usually starts at 4 AM. The church bells start ringing at 3 AM to wake people up so they can go to church. I used to always look forward to the vendors waiting outside the church with their delicacies after mass, especially "bibingka", which is a mixture mostly of rice flour, eggs and sugar, wrapped in banana leaves and then cooked in between coal and then topped with shredded coconut. Yum!

Ok, now it's time for Sightseeing Saturday.
Today, I thought we should explore Athens, Greece and focus on Acropolis. Isn't this just a majestic site?

I went there with my youngest daughter Tina, my oldest granddaughter, AJ and my son in law, Scott.

And here's AJ just enjoying the spectacular view.

And who wouldn't enjoy this breathtaking view? It's the bird's eye view of the city of Athens from the Acropolis.

The Parthenon is the most important surviving building of Classical Greece, an enduring symbol of ancient Greece. Its construction began in 447 BC and completed in 432 BC. It is a temple of the Greek goddess Athena, who is considered their protector. It was damaged in 1687 by Venetian bombardment. The surviving sculptures, known as Elgin Marbles or Parthenon Marbles were sold to the British Museum in London in 1816. The Greek government has been trying to return them to Greece with no success.The Theater of Dionysus was used to host the City Dionysia Festival. Renowned dramatists of the classical era competed there. The open theater fell into disuse and was later renovated by emperor Nero.

It was announced by Greek authorities that they will partially restore the ruined marble theater, a 9 million project set to be completed by 2015.

According to crestock.com, the Erecthion sits on the most sacred site of the Acropolis where Poseidon and Athena had their contest over who would be the Patron of the city. Poseidon thrust his trident into the rock and a spring burst forth, while Athena touched the ground with a spear and an olive tree grew. Athena was declared the victor and the great city of Athens was named for her while Poseidon was given a small village in Syros after it was discovered he had merely ruptured a water main. (not really).The building itself contains the porch of the maidens or Caryatids which are now copies, four of which have been placed in the Acropolis museum, hopefully to be reunited with a fifth taken from the Acropolis by Lord Elgin and put in the British Museum more than a century ago.

Caryatids are figures used as supporting columns.

Since the end of the 70', the five original Caryatids are displayed at the Acropolis Museum and are replaced in situ by exact replicas. One was sold to the British museum.

This is the original Olympics stadium where games were celebrated from 776 BC to 393 AD. It was uncovered by a German archeologist from 1875-1881. It was here where the first modern Olympics was also held. The Panathinaiko Stadium, also called Kallimarmaron, is located near the heart of Athens, has very impressive marble seats.

Below is the Temple of Olympian Zeus, also known as Olympieion, is located (whatever is left of it) very close to the ancient Olympics stadium. It was dedicated to Zeus, the king of Oylympian gods. It was known to be the largest temple in Greece during the Roman periods. Its glory was shortlived, however, was disused after the barbarian invasion in the 3rd century.

It kinda reminds me of the Windsor Ruins in Mississippi. I hope you enjoyed a little bit of Greek history. Thanks for coming. I am still amazed how they brought all that gigantic and heavy marble to the top of the mountain in the olden days, to build the Acropolis, when there were no machineries invented yet.

Thanks Beverly for hosting another pink Saturday!