Mycenae – Gateway of the Lion
Well, this old photo from my world trip says on the back, ‘Gateway of the Lion, very famous apparently’.
It’s in Mycenae. Greece, near Athens. Can’t remember what the hell we were doing there though. Didn’t even know about it, shame on me for someone with a degree in Ancient and Medieval History and Archaeology.
We’d got dropped off on the bus from Athens (or maybe we had taken the train??) and gone down the road to the youth hostel, and then, when I discovered there was a famous archaeological site up the road, we were off to find it. Rucksacks dumped, sleeping bags spread out to claim our bunks, and we were back up the hill in the not very cold Greek winter to find this famous site.
I think there was meant to be orange picking around there too. We didn’t find any work. At least I have a pic of a very famous site. Similar to the one on Wiki 😀
Edited to add:
I forgot when writing about Mycenae to mention my trip to Delphi, of which I don’t have a pic. For some reason I don’t remember, my travel companion didn’t accompany me on that one, so off I went on my own with a tiny overnight bag as I figured I would need to find somewhere to stay. For another reason I don’t remember there was no direct bus, but the tourist people told me it was easy enough to change at whatever village in the middle of nowhere and pick up the Delphi bus. And no, I didn’t want to fork out lots of drachmas for an organised tour. I wanted to organise my own tour. Which I spectacularly failed to do. After wandering around said village in the middle of nowhere for around an hour trying to find anyone who could even understand remotely what I was asking about where to get the bus to Delphi, I gave up, and got the bus back to Athens. So that’s why there is no pic of Delphi. And just as well I have this one of Mycenae.
Every picture tells one 
ah, the joys of travel!
for the record, it is a most impressive-looking gateway, oozing with history and untold stories….
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I take it you visited too on your Greek adventures?
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Not this one but others similar to it. My comment was more of a perception, and not based on historical knowledge. But knowing that this is an ancient gate, and that each stone was put in place by sheer manual labour based on blueprints that were not computer-generated, that always fascinates me.
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Ah, now there’s your Delphi story, sad as it is. At least you told it well, so I hope that the writer in you can find a bit of consolation in that! We did make it to Mycenae, and I do have a picture of that gate (though not as impressive as yours!) My strongest memory of the place is how excited my oldest son was to be there (and I guess he was about 13 at the time). It sounds like you had a fine Greek excursion, anyway–I hope so!
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I’d forgotten I had added the Delphi bit to the tale!!
Thanks for your comment about my pic, total fluke as usual, but I do like it 🙂
I loved Greece.
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Me, too. (and it’s still a good story!)
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Thank you. Will see if I have any more Greek pix
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That’d be great!
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Thanks RJM!
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