Enjoying Greek wines in Athens

Where to go and what to taste, when you are keen on tasting Greek wines? That’s a question I’m going to help you with. Of course you can travel around in Greece, visit as many as possible wineries, taste wines from all different regios, like I did when I was writing my book (in the Dutch language) Druiven en droesem, een reis langs Griekse wijngaarden (2011). That’s of course not necessary, you can also start in Athens. I will guide … Read More

The National Gallery – Alexander Soutsos Museum in Athens

In the pouring rain I’m heading for the National Gallery. Because of the heavy rain, it’s a perfect day to be inside a museum, and immerse myself for a couple of hours in the world of Greek art. The National Gallery – Alexandros Soutsos Museum is a brand new museum. The opening ceremony was held on March 24, 2021. That was a day before the 200th anniversary of the Greek War of Independence. It is located in the district of … Read More

Workplace and museum: the Passimenterie Mentis in Athens

Traditional factories and workplaces in Greece are dying. They either scale up their production, replace outdated machinery and modernise their production lines, or they just perish and close their doors. Just very few workplaces still cherish their old machinery, keep on producing like they did for decades. Mostly because their owners can’t afford renewing and replacing, sometimes because they just love their old-fashioned production line. One of the oldest manufacturing venture in the country, Mentis, started in 1867. The factory … Read More

Robert McCabe’s passion for Greece

From June 10 to June 16, 2023, the Embassy of Greece in the Netherlands organized the exhibition Greece: Images of an Enchanted Land in the Atrium in The Hague. The exhibition showed some of the best photos of the American photographer Robert McCabe. I was asked by the Greek ambassador ms. Catherina Ghini to give a short introduction to this exhibition. In May, to prepare for this presentation, I had the pleasure and the privilege of meeting Robert McCabe in … Read More

Anafiotika, an island without sea

The capital of Greece was still a large village two hundred years ago. When Athens was chosen as the capital by King Otto in the 1930s, it was home to about ten thousand people. After that it went fast. In 1879 more than sixty thousand people lived there, in 1896 more than one hundred thousand and now there are almost four million. Many Athenians come from other parts of Greece. As early as the 19th century, people from all over … Read More

Robert McCabe’s Greece

From 10 June to 16 June 2023, the exhibition ‘Greece: Images of an Enchanting Country’ can be seen in The Atrium in The Hague. The event is organized by the Greek Embassy in The Hague. The exhibition contains the beautiful photographs that the American photographer Robert McCabe (1934) took in Greece from the 1950s.Chicago-born McCabe began taking photographs in 1939, at the age of five. Since then he has traveled the world with his camera. In 1954 he visited Greece … Read More