On 14 June, Mummy and Daddy set off to go up to Hymettus. The idea was to go up and park near Kalopoula and to walk around from there. As always, even the best plans go in the bin as soon as they come face to face with reality. Kalopoula did not keep our attention too much so we went in the car up towards the tower of Anthousa.
The tower of Anthousa is a medieval building with a tiny or non-existent footprint on the internet. This means that Daddy knows very little about it. He thinks it's probably Frankish rather than Byzantine because there is little or no use of brick.
It's definitely pre-gunpowder because all the walls are flat. After gunpowder everything got built with slanty walls to make the canon balls bounce right off. So it was probably one of the funny Frankish dukes of Athens who built the fort, to keep an eye on the Northern approaches to Athens.
The funny Frankish dukes could be Burgundians, Catalans or Fiorentines, but it does not really matter. What matters is that they left this tower here and we can now visit it and play around. One day Daddy will help you climb up together with him onto the second floor and we can wave at mummy from the window on the top floor.
After all this excitement, with all the medieval stuff around us, you got hungry so mummy had to feed you out in nature again. You like eating in nature with all the leaves rustling and the bees buzzing.
Here we are all together, happy, at the picnic area on the mountain.
After you had eaten we stayed a little bit more as the sun got lower and made large shadows, and then we went back to the car.
And we set off for home after our pleasant adventure on the mountain. Mummy and Daddy plan to take you to Hymettus many more times.
When we all got home, Mummy and Daddy gave you your bath and noticed you had very silly hair after drying you. Look how silly your hair is here.
On Saturday morning, Kelly came to visit and held you a little, but she did not come with us to the mountain.
Saturday is exploration day and exploration means we go out into the verdant rolling foothills of Hymettus with you in the sling. We took Ismini with us and drove up to the Monastery of Kaisariani. It's all a little tense as there are some people who want to make more roads and tunnels through the mountain and there are others who want to stop them, so there is no way of knowing whether all the nice woods we walked through will still be in the same condition when you are old enough to tell us the differences between the Black pines and the Halepensis pines which the Friends of the Hymettus woods had so thoughtfully labeled for us.
Here you are in your sling...
You are beginning to smile more and more often, although you are not doing it consciously as a response to a stimulus.
In the end we walked up to the Analipsis Church and then walked down the botanical footpath which led us to the Hill of the Archangels, which we had first visited with Mummy the day before you were born. Ismini took some nice photographs of all of us together in both places - our first ones where all three of us are visible since the maternity hospital!
With Mummy and Daddy at the Church of the Analipsis - can you see the icons in the gloomy inside of the church?
Mummy and Ismini in front of the ruins of St. Mark of the Frankish Monastery. Daddy can't wait to tell you about the Franks and the all the groovy medieval stuff that happened. Daddy grew up amongst the Franks (in the broadest meaning of the word) and thinks he is well placed to "understand" western christianity.
This is a spolion! Daddy goes crazy for this sort of thing. It's a piece of ancient building block that has been reused in later times. The buildings on the hill of the archangels are full of spolia.
Here we are all three of us in front of the church of the Archangels which is still in serviceable state. You can see the old sculpture in low relief showing a bull to Daddy's left...
We stayed up on the Hill of the Archangels for a while and looked out as the sun got low in the sky and reflected off a myriad of solar water heaters making the city look almost beautiful in its concrete architectural cereal box splendour. While we were there we saw some partridges walking around and feeding. Daddy got very excited and took you up close to look at them, but you did not wake up. In fact, you spent the whole trip quite comfortably sleeping. It's ok to get your rest - you have a whole life ahead of you to see partridges.
Here is one of the Partridges we saw - just in case they are all gone by the time you are big enough to tell them apart from other birds...
Well, here you are, in your car seat, sleeping like a baby. When Daddy came back from the office on Sunday, he took you and Mummy and put you both in the car and took you to the picnic site on Hymettus mountain above the Kaisariani Monastery. It's where Mummy celebrated her birthday two years ago with all her friends and where Mummy and Daddy had gone for their big walk the day before you were born. Mummy and Daddy like this area because it is easy to get to and still very far from the noise and the bustle of Athens and you can almost believe that you are in nature.
Daddy took you in the sling and Mummy was carrying the gear in the changing bag that Auntie Yiota had bought for you. She got it specially so that you could take part in Mummy and Daddy's adventures.
This is Daddy at the picnic area with you in the sling, fast asleep. Mummy and Daddy were a little upset that you were sleeping as you would be missing all the beautiful things that nature has to offer. Of course since you can't focus further than your outstretched hand, this would be confined to tree silhouettes and smells.... this place offers plenty of both!
Here is a closer picture of you and Daddy. You are still sleeping. In the end you woke up and started making noise because you wanted to be fed. Mummy hadn't tried to feed you out of doors yet so it was a big adventure for everyone to organise the logistics of feeding you outside. Although we had watched the video from Norway where everyone feeds their babies at every opportunity, things in Greece are a little more traditional and you don't often see mothers in the streets because they do not want to be seen feeding their babies in public.
In the end it all worked out quite well. Can you see your little legs sticking out of the sheet? Mummy is holding her hand just like Isis in the representations of her with Horus. Can you tell why? I don't think she's doing it to mimic the paintings and carvings, so there must be some other reason…
After you ate, you did a whole lot of smelly poo, almost immediately, so we moved onto our next first-time adventure: changing your nappy outside the house. Mummy was very organised thanks to the changing bag and our pretty good planning. We had everything we needed with us in the changing bag.
After you were in the new nappy, after you realised you had been well fed and after waking up pretty well, you realised that you were not at home any more. This is where the fun started. The more you looked around, the more strange everything seemed to you. There was bright blue sky broken by dark tree-branches, rather than the cheap but arguably tasteful IKEA ceiling light fittings you were used to. The horizon, a new concept was _there_ all around you, not walls or windows looking onto the next-door building. All this was an amazing plethora of information to process, but you were loving it.
Then to cap it all, Mummy went and got some chamomile and put it to your nose. Wow! New smells as well! This was an amazing trip for you.
Here you are, with a very happy Mummy. You are on your changing mat and still looking in awe in all directions!
On the way back to the car, you sat with Daddy at the spring by the Monastery at Kaisariani. Daddy wants to take photos there with you all the time to make a sort of chart of your growth. I guess it'll be OK until you get to 11 years old. At that point, you'll tell Daddy to stuff his spring and go get a tattoo and a piercing. The things Daddy has to look forward to!
When you finally got back to the car you sat and stared out of the window almost all the way home when you started crying. Either you wanted to go back up the mountain, or you had overloaded your memory with all the new experiences and were trying to put yourself to sleep so you could process them.
In all a very good day and one from which both Mummy and Daddy took a lot of courage for more excursions of a longer duration.
