Abingdonian 2017

6 The Abingdonian Classics Trip to Greece In October, the Classics Department ventured forth on its annual week-long excursion, and it was Greece’s turn to host according to the established four- year cycle. After departing the coach park in the small hours of the morning and meeting a mysterious man in a trenchcoat who turned out to be Patrick Cole, the company was fully assembled in time for BA to see us from Heathrow to Athens International without incident. Soon after landing we started on what proved to be a busy schedule. Greece has many sites to offer and I was glad to make the most of the time available. As custom dictates, much of the guiding at the sites were undertaken by the pupils themselves. For the first time, middle school guides took the stage. Assisted by a local dog, the GCSE ancient historians effectively shared their knowledge at Marathon. Joe Salter narrowly avoided a hefty bill for performing unlicensed Greek tragedy at the spectacular theatre at Epidauros, Silas Gill stunned audiences with his rendition of the Herakles, while Alasdair Czaplewski spoke particularly astutely at Mycenae, and Ben Ffrench appropriately pedalled his powerful rhetoric on the Pnyx. My tour guiding at Delphi - critically acclaimed as ‘somewhat militaristic’ - carried well across a vast, totally deserted mountainside, while William Sheffield was left to battle the infuriating sound of southern Europe’s noisiest pulley system on the slopes of the Athenian Acropolis. The mysterious man in a trenchcoat led the proceedings at Olympia, while credit is due to Charlie Burnand for consistently outshining his father’s presentation skills, most notably at Argos. Invaluable local knowledge came from Dr Burnand’s and Mrs Fishpool’s combined careers of Greek exploration, granting us such pearls of wisdom as what it means when a Greek throws an apple at you. Our bus driver from Hellene Travel showed considerable ability in our language, ferrying us tirelessly and safely across many miles of panoramic Greek countryside, a feat for which every cent of our whip round was well deserved. Our travels took us through many a museum exhibition, where Miss Moore came into her element among the geometric bowls and archaic smiles of the Greek archaeological record. The tendency of Greek curators to send their star artefacts on tour around the globe is at times frustrating, but this reminds us how fortunate we are to have the Ashmolean and the British Museum. This brings me to the Elgin/Parthenon