My Hands Full of Greece
A few weeks ago, my husband and I traveled to Greece. My next few blog entries will expound on the wonders of Greece and Crete. Please stick with me on this one because there is so much to say about this country full of tastes, scents, and music. This is without even mentioning all the historic sites that fill both cities and countryside.
I will start with a wonderful experience that took place on our first full day.
We were only spending one day in Athens before going on to Crete. It was hard to decide what to do with one day. To make matters more complicated it was a Sunday and we were not sure what would be open. In an earlier entry, I talked about Janet Kroll, the woman I found on the internet who provided me with so much information to help me plan our trip. One of the places she found for me was The Touch Museum sponsored by the Light House for the Blind of Greece. After visiting the museum website, we realized that we needed to contact the museum to arrange our visit.
After I sent a couple of emails and did not receive replies, I went back to Janet for more help. She contacted a friend in Athens who single handedly decided I was going to get into that museum by hook or by crook. I was getting close to giving up but everyone else was trying so hard I went along with the plan. Eventually all the pieces fell into place and the director had been contacted. Mrs. Geroulanou agreed to meet us on Sunday morning. We had directions to the secret entrance and we were all set.
When our cab pulled up to the address, we were still not sure we were in the right place. People at the hotel were not sure the street even existed although the cab driver seemed confident. Mrs. Geroulanou was waiting outside for us and seemed thrilled that we were there. The Greek adventure was about to begin.
Imagine rooms full of beautiful sculpture and artifacts that you are encouraged to touch. Of course none of this was the real thing but replicas created through intricate processes involving molds and all kinds of low and high tech tricks. My tour of the museum was fascinating as I got to touch much of the artwork that consisted of sculptures of masks, statues and parts of ancient buildings. It was quite an experience!
We spent over two hours out of Mrs. Geroulanou’s Sunday and she seemed to love it.
This museum is struggling and has just been able to hire someone so the exhibit can be open for 4 hours a day, 5 days a week. It was a real privilege that they opened for me and I will never be able to thank them enough. I guess there are other museums like this in the world. There is a great one somewhere in Italy. Maybe I could get a grant to visit all of them? I have been thinking about what American icons would be in such a museum and where that museum could be?
Stay tuned for more travel stories.
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