More Holidays

That's where we stayed. Behind the olive tree on the left was an outdoor, freshwater shower. After a long day's swimming, it was good to return to the shower and luxuriate under the cool water.

The children loved the water; for hours at a time they swam and dived for shells and sea urchins. The water was salty but clear.

Although there was a heat wave in Athens with temperatures of 45-46C, we spent two days there visiting the Plaka area of the Acropolis with our friend and guide (the charming and beautiful Isidore, the youngest ever female Greek civil judge, soon to be made President of the Court, well known for her work on human rights, lately concerned with children's rights); the Archaeological museum which contains treasures from Mycenae, frescos from Santorini, the bronze masterpeice, The God of the Sea, or Poseidon, found on the sea bed in 1928; and of course the Acropolis itself and the greatest temple in the world, the Parthenon.

Hundreds of tourists clambered over the worn and slippery marble slopes around the Parthenon. Athens is a noisy city and it is difficult to imagine what it must have been like over 2,000 years ago without the constant traffic and aircraft noise - one imagines a kind of Arcadian paradise. The ancient Greeks knew how to choose the best places to site their temples and marble homages to their gods.

On the 11th August the skies dimmed for a couple of hours but otherwise the eclipse passed as something of a non-event. The sun came back with vigour and strength a few hours later. Helios the sun god assumed mastery again, and Apollo's lips were sunlit.

Under the Attic sky, the marble ruins glowed again with a glorious light.

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