Day 10 Athens

Posidon's Temple

Another full day is done.  We docked in Athens at around 9AM and were on the tour bus by 9:30.  This was another bus ride along a coastline to start, but a very different coastline  The terrain around Athens is comparatively flat along the coasts, with hills just a little inland.  The land is rocky with sparse growth.  Still lovely, but in a different way than Naples.   The road along the coast was winding, but the curves were more spaced out and the rocks had been blasted out to widen the road to a reasonable size, so the trip was easy.  It took about 2 hours to drive to our destination, Sounion Cape.  This is the site of the ruins of Poseidon's Temple. The walk around the temple was a little challenging, on top of a hill overlooking the Aegean Sea and over uneven rocks.

The Acropolis, with Parthenon on right

We learned a few words in Greek to get us by.  Hello or good day is "calimara".  Thank you is "efcaristo".  Yes is "ne" and no is "ohi".  I know that's probably not the way you spell these words, but that's how they were pronounced.   The other difference is, when they say "ohi", they don't shake there heads from side to side like we would for no, they lift their head up and down once, like a horse neighing.  So when I said yes to a store clerk and nodded, it confused her until I said "ne".    

From there we headed back to Athens for lunch at the Metropolitan Hotel.   The meal proved that Greece is different in more ways than their alphabet.   Almost every time we have lunch on a tour, the main course consists of a chicken cutlet, cooked however it is cooked locally.  Here the first course was an eggplant  dish that I believe is called Mousaka, and the main course was veal over a pasta that looked like rice.  It was served with Greek red and white wine which was quite good.  We had ice cream and a very sweet honey cake for dessert.

1st Modern Olympic Stadium

After lunch we headed to the Acropolis, which is the highest point of ancient Greece.  There are a number of ruins there, the most significant being the Parthenon, dedicated to the goddess Athena.  We could not actually go into the gates of the Acropolis because there were protesters at the gate and the gates were closed to prevent problems.  Instead, we went to a hill in a park just below the Acropolis and took photos from there.  Along the way we saw the caves used as jail cells in ancient times, one of which was noted as the place Socrates spent time in.  We also passed a small historic Greek Orthodox church, Saint Demetrius, but didn't have time to go inside.

Hadrian's Gate

On the way back to the ship the bus stopped at a small store for a souvenir shopping opportunity.  The bus pulled into a side street to bring us to the store, and when we were ready to go, the driver had to back out into another small street.  A woman from the store stood in the street in the back of the bus directing, but even with that help, it was an interesting maneuver that took about 10 minutes to complete.   Once he extricated the bus from these side streets, we passed the temple of Zeus and the original Olympic stadium built for the very first modern Olympics in 1895.   

I believe our bus was the last one to get back to the ship. Everyone was supposed to be on board by 6:30PM and I think we arrived at 6:29PM.     It was too late for the 6PM dinner seating, so we just dropped our stuff in the room and headed to the buffet for a quick dinner.  Then we wandered up to the bar on the 14th floor for a drink as we watched the ship leaving Athens.   This bar has a great view forward over the pilot's station.

Time for another day to end.  I will post this in the morning.  Tomorrow we dock in the 2nd Greek port - Rhodes.