Athens

ATHENS, GREECE
September 27, 2012

PIRAEUS is the port city if you want to book a cruise on Royal Caribbean for an Athens visit. It was here that we were put ashore and gathered together in a tour bus for a tour called, "A TASTE OF ATHENS". Our guide pointed out many notable places and explained the culture of Athens as we rode along. It was a 7 mile drive to Athens from Piraeus, and there was much to see.

We headed for The Acropolis. The bus stopped in the designated area and we walked the many marble steps of the ancient walkway to get to the top where restoration of the majestic Acropolis stands on the highest point on the hill. Other such magnificent structures were also being renovated and uncovered. Much work is yet to be done. In its day, it must have been a magnificent sight to behold!

We took a walk over and stood on top of Mars Hill, where Paul addressed the people more than 2000 years ago. It was strange to know we stood near where he stood and walked the Marble paths that he walked. It was touching. Our imaginations raced ahead of us! Large Marble stones were put down making a unique Cobblestone walkway. They were polished slick by the thousands of tourists and visitors coming here year after year.

We returned to a place downtown near the Monument of Lysicrates, where we were given about 3 hours of shopping/gawking time in the narrow streets of Athens. We stopped in a sidewalk cafe and tasted some Greek Cuisine. We visited some of the shops and bought a few trinkets that we just couldn't do without.

As we strolled alone, I spotted a couple of cute children's outfits and was trying to read what was printed on the shirt, when a Greek man hustled over to me and said, "How old your children". I said, "Say what?". He said again, "Your little children, how old?". I said, "I don't have any little children". He abruptly turned away, rolled his eyes and shrugged his shoulders and mumbled something in a foreign language as he walked away. Ha Ha!

After walking around and snapping off a few pics, we headed back to our rendezvous point with Tour Bus #4 for a ride back to our ship. we are relaxing for a little while. It will be dinner time in a couple of hours. That's about the same time that we head back out to se and tour next Port of Call, CRETE.

It was a good day!

P. S. Pics will follow later. Gotta go take out a bank Loan to finance Wifi.