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Published: October 5th 2016
Day 14 - Wed. Oct. 5 - Athens Today is our last full day in Athens and we spent part of it on a Hop On - Hop Off buss exploring the city. Unfortunately the traffic in this city, especially during midday, is exceedingly congested. The route we selected to follow was timed at 90 minutes but in reality it took twice that.
Even though the travelling was slow the bus saved us a great deal of walking and we were able to see many of the historic sites of the city in a relatively short period of time. Our first stop was at the Panathenaic Stadium, which was refurbished in 1896 for the first modern Olympics. The stadium is in the form of a large oval and seats 60,000 individuals. In its original format a temple to Tyche (Fortune) one stood on a nearby hill.
Our second stop was at the Parliament Buildings where we watched personnel from the Greek Army as they performed their version of the changing of the guard. The unique feature of their drill is the extremely high steps that are executed by the guards. In addition
the soldiers are dressed in traditional uniforms that include a tunic that in appearance is closer to a skirt, white tights and pompoms attached to their boots.
Back on the bus we completed the circuit back to our starting location near the Acropolis followed by lunch at an outside café before returning to the hotel for an afternoon of relaxation.
This evening we met up with John’s nephew Duncan who is stationed in Athens with the NGO “Save the Children”. Duncan led us on a 10-minute walk to a traditional Greek restaurant for an excellent meal and conversation. After our walk back to the hotel we parted company with Duncan and then we made arrangements for a taxi to the cruise port in Piraeus tomorrow morning.
This is our last blog from a land based Wi-Fi and depending on our Internet connections aboard ship future blogs may be less frequent.
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Gillian Wade
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Happy Cruising.
Ouch. I can imagine the humidity. I remember taking Mum and Dad to Crete and we did nothing for two weeks apart from slob out. Just tooo hot. I love the guards changing their posts.. Have you seen John Cleese 'Funny Walks'? Looking forward to the cruise. G. xx