This was the first time, since the Opening Ceremony that we have been in the Olympic Arena.
On our walk back to the train station, I took the opportunity to take a few 'snaps'.
The Olympic Stadium was opened in 1983 and has a highly aerodynamic shape. It has 78,000 seats, distributed on two double arches that mirror each other. The new covering was designed by the famous architect Santiago Calatrava and it is considered by many the biggest and most beautiful in the world. It is made of steel tubes with up to 3 metres diameter, woven together and large sheets of sky blue bio- acclimatised glass. The overall structure is 304 metres long, 206.7 metres wide and 72 metres high and it weighs 19,000 tons.
With the futuristic covering was added for the 2004 Olympics, this stadium has finally been completed and has become a real architectural marvel to be numbered among the most interesting monuments of our times.
How can such a structure stay standing seeming as light as a feather? This shows the cleverness of Calatrava who not only is a great architect but also a sublime engineer who has used the best laws of physics and combined them with a harmonious and light design.
The Wall of Nations is a 250m long and 20m high steel wall, suspended at 5 metres from the ground that sways as if it were as light as clothes flapping in the wind!!!
It is a huge mobile screen on which images can be projected, and acts as stage for the great Agora square.
The Wall of Nations was designed by Calatrava.
The Agora is framed by a huge square, shaped like an amphitheatre, which holds 500,000 people, with wide marble avenues splayed radially extending to a long line of harmoniously set plane-trees and by little artificial lakes and dozens of fountains beyond.
This impressive structure is an unforgettable walkway in the shade of 100 steel arches placed so as to form an enormous tunnel. It is a modern version of the ancient Athenian Agora, it aims to enhance the colours and the characteristics of the Greek landscape, the water, the soil, the sun and the waves of the sea. It is a real work of art and a modern building which is going to compete with the most ancient ones of the city centre.
On the opposite side of the Agora square and of the impressive tunnel made up of arches, the wall of nations is yet another public work that will leave you speechless.