Cruise Day

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Day 15 - Thurs. Oct. 6 - Athens & Piraeus



Today we transferred from the hotel in Athens to our floating hotel, the ms Prinsendam, which was docked in the port city of Piraeus. This city has served as the port for Athens for 2,500 years. It is a very busy place with ferries of all shapes and sizes constantly coming and going. Cruise ships regularly make this a port of call and at least two other cruise ships were in port when we arrived.



We were picked up at 11:15 am by the van that we had arranged last night. The driver told me that the 10 km trip from Athens usually takes 20 minutes, depending on traffic. As we discovered previously the late morning/early afternoon time slot, the very one that we were using, can be nothing less than a bottleneck, and today was no exception. The majority of the driving time to the port was consumed getting out of the central district of Athens. Parking is one of the major problems; if there are laws in place to control it they don’t seem to be working. Cars, principally taxis, park wherever they please, including right at street corners making it very difficult for anything to move around them. But our driver prevailed and we made it to the port.



Check-in went smoothly and we were aboard and in our cabins by 12:10 pm and enjoying our lunch in the Lido restaurant. The afternoon was spent with the usual unpacking of suitcases, boat drill, exploring the ship and more food. Departure was scheduled for 11:00 pm and as soon as the local dance group, Orpheus, that had been our evening’s entertainment, had left the ship the gangway was pulled up and we slipped out of port and started our 14 day Adriatic & Ionian Adventure. Tomorrow our first port of call will be the island of Mykonos.

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Comments

[Gillian Wade]

Ferries.
Oh dear. Did the ferries ever cause a laugh. Happy Sailing. G xxx