Art and Fabulous Food Tour

Monday May 26 was a beautiful warm day with lots of sun and blue skies.  It warmed up to 25C.  Perfect walking weather, with a hat, of course.   We had two major destinations for the day.  The first was a visit to the Museum of the Basil and Elise Goulandris Foundation, which opened in 2019 and houses their world-renowned modern and contemporary art collection.  It is located in our neighbourhood (Pagrati, Pangrati, Pagkrati - many different spellings).  The second was a food tour scheduled from 3:00 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.

We walked by the Pagrati Grove en route to the Museum.

Lovely green Pagrati Grove

Right beside the Museum is the  Greek Orthodox Holy Church of St. Spyridon Stadium.  It is located near the Panathenaic Stadium.  Hence the term Stadium in its name.  The Panathenaic Stadium "Kallimarmaro" is where the first Modern Olympics took place in 1896.  

Greek Orthodox Church, built in 1903, Byzantine style

Inside of the Church

Beautifully decorated

It is right beside the Basil and Elise Goulandris Foundation Museum which was completed in 2019.  The art displayed was amassed by the late shipping magnate Basil Goulandris (1913-1994) and his wife Elise (1917-2000) and it is one of the world's most valuable private art collections.  The Museum had been 30 years in the making. It had been a lifelong mission for Basil and Elise, who spent their time between Switzerland, New York and the Mediterranean.  Basil Goulandris was a member of a famous dynasty of shipowners from the Greek Island of Andros.  Basil and Elise established a Museum of Contemporary Art on Andros in 1979.

Basil and Elise first set out to create a museum in Athens in the 1980s.  Two sites did not work out, one due to archaeological findings. Basil passed away in 1994 but Elise persevered.  A new site was identified in Pangrati, where the Foundation aquired a neoclassical mansion and the buildings next to it.  Elise died in 2000.  The Foundation completed the Museum in 2019.

Ouside of the Museum

The first two floors of the Museum are dedicated to 19th and 20th century Western Art and the next two ar dedicated to Greek art from the past 100 years.   A lower ground floor houses temporary exhibits (one was presently being installed).  It is an exceptional collection with many rare masterpieces.

In the entrance near the ticketing area, was a spectacular painting of Elise Goulandris by Marc Chagall.  It caught our eye immediately.  Chagall was a close friend of the couple.

Marc Chagall (1887-1985), Portrait of E.B.G., 1969

Signage for the Permanent Collection- Four floors of art

There was an excellent audio guide that provided details about both the artists and their works.  There was also a small room which played videos about some of the key art works.   

We started on the top floor with paintings from many acclaimed modern and contemporary Greek artists. 

Edouard Sacaillan (1957- ), Spectators, 2018

Yannis Moralis (1916-2009), Erotic, 1994

Demosthenes Kokkinidis (1929-2020), Demonstration, 1980

Yannis Gaitis (1923-1984), Descent from the Cross, 1984

Yannis Tsarouchis (1910-1989), Sailor Sitting at the Table, 
Pink Background, 1980.

Pavlos Samios (1948-2021), Smoking Girl, 1984

Marina Karella (1940- ), Lonely Chair, 1975

There was a side room with three spectacular paintings by Anselm Kiefer, Julian Schnabel 

and Ed Ruscha.  

Anselm Kiefer (1945- ) The Painter's Studio, 1983

                                             There is straw incorporated into the picture.  An amazing piece.

Julian Schnabel (1951- ), Maria Callas no. 4, 1982

Ed Ruscha (1937-), Homeward Bound, 1986

Spyros Vassilou (1902-1985), An Azure Day, 1977

Demitris Mytaras (1934-2017), Five Roads, 1980

Nikos Hadjikyriakos-Ghike (1906-1994), Balcony with Horizontal Pilasters, 1954

A.R. Penck (1939-2017), The Red Fish, 1982

Friedensreich Hundertwasser (1928-2000), Ninety-nine Heads, 1952

Alberto Giacometti (1901-1966), Portrait of Yanaihara, 1960

The audio had a most interesting description of the Georges Braque painting Patience.  It was painted during WWII, when Braque was isolated in his studio in Paris.  The painting has no windows and the woman is playing cards with a bottle of wine beside her. There is a chess board on the chair.  She has a dual nature and the painting evokes both fear and isolation.  Some are commentators have said that it is a self-portrait of the way he was feeling during the war.

Georges Braque (1882-1963), Patience, 1942

Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944), Both Striped, 1932

Fernand Léger (1881-1955), Mechanical Element, 1919

Paul Cézanne (1839-1906), Countryside in Auvers-sur-Oise, 1881-82

Vincent Van Gogh (1853-1890), Les Alycamps

Van Gogh's Olive Picking (1889) is one of the most valuable pieces in the collection. It was the first of a series of three the artist made during his stay at an asylum in the south of France.  The others in the Women Picking Olives series are at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.  

Vincent Van Gogh (1953-1890), Olive Picking, 1889

Another masterpiece was Edgar Degas' Little Dancer Aged Fourteen.  It was enclosed in a glass case.

Edgar Degas (1834-1917), Little Dancer Aged Fourteen, 1878-1881.

We really enjoyed our visit to the Museum.  The collection was superb.  It is estimated to be worth around $3 billion.  The entire collection has around 800 works (including objets d'art), with around 180 displayed at one time.  There is also a library of 6000 art books, a café and a gift shop.

After our visit, we proceeded to meet our food tour.  We stopped briefly at the nearby Panathenaic Stadium.  When we were last in Athens in 2017, Allan went for a few morning runs in the stadium.  One can still run laps or stairs from 7:30 a.m. to 9 a.m. every morning.  After that one needs a ticket to enter the Stadium. The seats are all marble with enough room for around 60,000 spectators.  The stadium was originally built in the 4th century BC as an athletics venue and was restored for the first modern Olympic Games in 1896.  It was also used as an event site in the 2004 Olympics.

The Panathenaic Stadium- photo taken behind a barrier

View of the Acropolis from in front of the Stadium

We continued our walk through the National Garden.  Beautiful purple jacaranda trees lined one of the streets.

Beautiful jacaranda trees

It was then time for our food tour which started at 3:00 p.m. and ran until 6:30 p.m.  Our meeting spot was near but luckily not on Monastiraki Square, a very busy spot.  The tour was with Food Around Athens, recommended by a friend.  The specific tour was "Traditional Greek Food Tour in Hidden Athens."  Our guide was Michalis (Mike) who was one of the two owners of the tour company.  He is from Athens and comes from a family of cooks.  He was terrific-- passionate about food and the city.   We went to a number of hidden gems and had two sit-down meals in traditional, family-run restaurants.  

There were 14 people on the tour.  A young woman from Columbia, another woman from Boston who is living in Florida and does media work for a College in Fort Lauderdale.  She is no Trump fan and also apologized to us for his behaviour.  She is fearful of what he will do to higher education institutions.  The rest of the group were from Vancouver (or nearby).  They were one family- grandparents and three adult children, two had spouses and there were also three young children.  A lovely family get together in Greece.

First stop-- some spanakopita-- (pita means pie in Greek).

Most folks had pieces of spinach and cheese; Mike brought me a mushroom pie.  
The phyllo pastry was very flaky.  A nice starting snack.

Mike talking about food 

Our next stop was a visit to the Varvakios Agora, Athen's Central Food Market.  It is a very large market.  Stalls inside the wrought-iron market hall date from the late 19th century.  Vendors sell fish and freshly butchered meats in one part of the market.  There are also a number of tavernas within the market.  Across the street, are the fruit and vegetable vendors.  There are also vendors of olives, cheeses, honeys and spices on the surrounding streets.

The hall on the right has the meat and fish vendors.

Mike showed us both meat and fish stalls.  Lots of goat, beef and chicken.  The fish were spectacular and very well-priced.  He said that he lives outside of Athens but still comes in to do his meat, fish and fruit and vegetable shopping at the Market.

Beautiful fresh fish-- clear eyes and black in the centre of the eyes

Gorgeous tuna--- very reasonably priced

Very fresh squid and shrimp

It was then time for our first sit-down meal at a small restaurant.  A table was set out for us.  We had white wine, delicious zucchini fritters (with tzatziki); chicken souvlaki; and pita bread. 

Looking back at the inside of the restaurant

Cheers

White wine from jugs-- they sell it in stores like this.

Zuchini fritters with tzatziki 

Chicken souvlaki

Our next stop was Mokka, the only stop on the food tour that we had visited back in 2017.  Mokka is a specially coffee house at one corner of the Central Market.  We all gathered at a corner of the counter and were shown how to make Greek coffee.  Mike also told us that it used to be called "Turkish coffee" until 1974 when the Turks invaded Cyprus.  It was decided to rename it "Greek" coffee.

Making tradtional Greek coffee in hot sand with small copper pots.

We stopped at a small spice and candy store for some Greek loukoumi (aka Greek delight-- soft and chewy like Turkish delight) and some halva.

Very nice products - just outside of the Central Market

Wonderful fresh spices

We then walked briefly through the fruit and vegetable part of the market.

Grape leaves for sale

We sampled about eight different types of olives.  All were very flavourful.

Olive tasting

Next stop was Melira Honey, Olive Oil and More.  Melira is a Greek family company with a tradition in bee-keeping since 1935.  They have fantastic honeys and as well do amazing skin-care cosmetics.  As well, they have a few wonderful olive oils.  We tasted one olive oil and then a number of fantastic honeys.  Finally, we sampled some amazing skin products, one with yogurt and honey.

Honey jars with different flavours in the front 

Olive oil we tasted

They had both traditonal and more modern bee hives in the store and just outside.

Old and new bee hives.  

Our final stop was a small restaurant with mezze (small plates).  We had a sit down meal with a lot of different tastes as plates just kept coming out of the kitchen.

Outside of part of the restaurant.  We had our own small dining space with an open area.

Orzo salad

Sausages- very tasty

Fava beans in tomato sauce

Ouzo toast

There was also stuffed peppers, calamari, and meatballs with a side of cheese.  For dessert we had delicious sheep/goat yogurt with honey and fresh strawberries.  Delicious flavours.

Our tour ended at 6:30 p.m. and Mike walked us back to where we had started the tour.  We decided to explore the nearby Plaka district which has a number of Roman ruins. 

Hadrian's Library-- built by Roman Emperor Hadrian in AD 132

Looking back at the Library

Gate of Athena Archegetis- on the west side of the Roman Agora.  It was consturcted in 11 BC.

Roman Agora - built between 27-17 BC.

View of the back of the Acropolis area

We started to get tired and decided to head back to the apartment. We walked back to the Monastiraki Metro station and took the subway to the closest station to our Airbnb.  There was an art installation of stamp like portraits of famous Greek musicians, actors etc.  

Metro artworks by Kostas I. Spyriounis (b. 1965- )

We walked back to the apartment.  What a great day!  We are so glad we went to the Museum of the Basil and Elise Goulandris Foundation (so many wonderful pieces in a superb collection) and the food tour was excellent.  Always great to find hidden gems in a big city.  Athens really is a city of neighbourhoods.  We are glad we are in Pagrati - it is a really a  residential area with funky stores and great cultural sites, without the hoards of tourists we saw in Plaka and Monastiraki.  However, it does mean we are doing a lot of walking!!