21st March – Athens
We have now sailed away from Port Said and have noticed a change in the temperature and weather conditions. We no longer have the hot days and balmy nights..
Today we sailed into Piraeus, one of the largest cities in Greece and the port of Athens. Since ancient times this has been the gateway to many historic sites, as well as many treasures, including the Acropolis, the Corinth Canal and the Temple of Poseidon. We woke up as the ship sailed into the port and the captain announced over the intercom that the weather would be overcast with maybe some showers. How wrong he was!
We joined our coach for what should have been a half hour drive into Athens. This turned out to be 1.1/2 hours due to demonstrations being held in the city following a strike by the refuse collectors, which meant the streets of Athens looked very similar to the streets of Cochin (not what we had expected). When we finally arrived at the Acropolis the heavens opened whilst we stood listening to the tour guide explaining this history of the Acropolis. (She mentioned the fact that the Greeks want their Marbles back). We then walked in the rain through the narrow back streets of Athens down to the shopping area known as The Plaka. This put a smile on Doreen’s face as we spent an hour wandering through the Plaka. After a further half an hour walk (in the rain) we arrived at our restaurant “Ancient Tastes”, where we had food cooked to traditional recipes as described by ancient writers and as eaten by the population of Ancient Greece. We were served with wine and told to eat the food with our fingers as the Ancient Greeks would have done. This turned out to be good fun and a pleasant break from the rain.
After the meal we rejoined our coach for a drive past various places of interest in Athens (still in the rain) before joining the rush hour traffic out of Athens and back to our ship in Piraeus. All in all not the best excursion we have had on our world trip, but we now have a flavour of what Athens has to offer.
We returned to our ship as the sun came back out and later we watched a beautiful sunset as the ship left the Port of Piraeus and set course for our last destination – Barcelona, where we hope the weather will be a little better.
We have now sailed away from Port Said and have noticed a change in the temperature and weather conditions. We no longer have the hot days and balmy nights..
Today we sailed into Piraeus, one of the largest cities in Greece and the port of Athens. Since ancient times this has been the gateway to many historic sites, as well as many treasures, including the Acropolis, the Corinth Canal and the Temple of Poseidon. We woke up as the ship sailed into the port and the captain announced over the intercom that the weather would be overcast with maybe some showers. How wrong he was!
We joined our coach for what should have been a half hour drive into Athens. This turned out to be 1.1/2 hours due to demonstrations being held in the city following a strike by the refuse collectors, which meant the streets of Athens looked very similar to the streets of Cochin (not what we had expected). When we finally arrived at the Acropolis the heavens opened whilst we stood listening to the tour guide explaining this history of the Acropolis. (She mentioned the fact that the Greeks want their Marbles back). We then walked in the rain through the narrow back streets of Athens down to the shopping area known as The Plaka. This put a smile on Doreen’s face as we spent an hour wandering through the Plaka. After a further half an hour walk (in the rain) we arrived at our restaurant “Ancient Tastes”, where we had food cooked to traditional recipes as described by ancient writers and as eaten by the population of Ancient Greece. We were served with wine and told to eat the food with our fingers as the Ancient Greeks would have done. This turned out to be good fun and a pleasant break from the rain.
After the meal we rejoined our coach for a drive past various places of interest in Athens (still in the rain) before joining the rush hour traffic out of Athens and back to our ship in Piraeus. All in all not the best excursion we have had on our world trip, but we now have a flavour of what Athens has to offer.
We returned to our ship as the sun came back out and later we watched a beautiful sunset as the ship left the Port of Piraeus and set course for our last destination – Barcelona, where we hope the weather will be a little better.
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