GREECE 2010: Quarry Hike

These sculptures are part of the outdoor Quarry Museum, located down the hill from the entrance to the hiking area, and were created by the departing quarry workers who moved on to work another site when this site closed. Some have very interesting themes and some are quite beautiful. Don's favorite is the rock with the hole in it, which has cleverly carved feather wings around the hole which is shaped like a bird in flight. I liked the squiggly one in the lower left corner below.

After weeks of ruins and artifacts we decided it was time for a hike, so we drove up into the hills between Nea Makri and Athens. Driving in the hills is a fun experience, because the road is, of course, twisting and winding, with a double solid line and lots of blind curves. This affords the Greeks an opportunity to enjoy a favorite weekend pastime, passing on a blind curve. This is a common driving technique as the Greek drivers are not known for their patience. Don prefers to drive about double the speed limit, which is a bit slow for the Greek drivers, so they often choose to pass. As we drove through the ups and downs and twists and turns of the road, we were often passed on the blind curves, increasing our heart rate substantially several times.

Often when we taken this route we have seen, across the valley, a big white fortress-type building with huge doors and windows. This is actually the Dionysus Marble Quarry, and the white fortress we see is the white marble cliff and the doors and windows are actually the cuts where they are taking out the marble.

We drove on to an older site of the Dionysus Marble Quarry, which is no longer in use and has been turned into a historic park. It was a nice hike up a fire road to the old quarry site. Now, in mid-April, the wildflowers are in full bloom. The predominant flower is a yellow daisy, about the size of a marguerite. But we also enjoyed beautiful flowers in lavender, purple, blue, pink and the bright red poppy.

Many of the stone workers cozy stone cottages still remain intact and there are nice stone staircases and walkways they put in place when they lived there. We hiked around the site, admiring the workmanship in the cottages and stairways. There are cottages and staircases that go way up the cliff. We also saw a very steep chute that must have been used to winch slabs of marble down the mountainside. We had our lunch overlooking a lovely view down into the valley, which was full of very nice homes. (See top of the report)

After lunch we hiked back down the hill and headed back to Nea Makri. Don wanted to get a closer picture of the big white cliff where the current quarry operations are conducted, so we took a few side roads to explore and find a good place to take a picture. Google Map.

We found the main gate to the quarry, but it was closed to the public. We drove on for awhile. Then we pulled off onto a side road and followed it around the hill in hopes of a good view of the quarry. What did we find? There, in a bucolic green setting on a hillock, was what appeared to be a garden or park, surrounded by a great stone wall. We stopped to investigate and when we approached the enclosure I saw the engraving, in Greek, referring to German soldiers. Yes, it was a cemetery and memorial for almost 10,000 German boys who lost their lives in Greece. Plaque after plaque detailed the names, birth dates, and date of death of each young man. Another surprise reminder of the terrible cost of WWII. I felt so sad to think of all of those young boys losing their lives.