Monday, September 19th - Athens
Last night we scheduled a tour of Athens with ChaTours. We met the tour rep in the lobby at 8:45a and headed out.
Before loading up the buses, I got a chance to take one photo of the Athens Parliament:
This one isn't up to my usual quality but we were rushed.
Our tour gude Vicki was attractive and FULL of information about ancient Greece. By the end of the day we had grown a bit tired of her cheery voice and accent, but we learned a lot.
The first stop was at the Panathenaikon Stadium where the first Olympic Games of the modern era were held in 1896. We had about ten minutes for photographs which was more than ample. The stadium has 69,000 marble seats:
Next stop was the Temple of Olympian Zeus. These impressive ruins, right in downtown Athens, provided us with terrific photo opportunities. We were there for an hour and Vicki told us EVERYTHING about the temple. Hadrian's Arch marks the old entrance to the temple.
The above photo is absolute proof that SWMBO was here.
A young fellow, Neil from Arkansas, was on our tour and asked if we'd like a picture together. Above is "it". This is the sort of photo cliche' that we try not to do often; you know, "This is us in front of the Temple of Zeus, this is us in front of the world's largest ball of twine.." and so forth.
Below is the money shot. on the left is the Parthenon, in the center are columns at the Temple of Olympian Zeus, and on the right is Hadrian's Arch.
Above is the Lysicrates Monument that we could see from the RoofTop restaurant of the Hotel Grand Bretagne.
This is a nice telephoto shot of the Parthenon from downtown Athens; more to come!
Back in the bus for the ride up to The Acropolis where the restoration of the Parthenon continues. I walked most of the way up before my legs gave out so Gael went the rest of the way up without me. She tells me that seeing the Parthenon is much like seeing Tiananmen Square in China; until you see it in person, you have no concept of the scope or size. My photographs represent what I could see from near the top of The Acropolis:
Above is the Monument of Philopappos.
Greece has 11 million inhabitants with half in Athens; above is a shot of much of Athens from The Acropolis.
Above and below is the Theatre of Dionysis where the Three Tenors, Andrea Boccelli and others have peformed.
Above is the Temple of Hephaestus, one of the most complete restorations of the Athens ruins.
It wasn't all about waiting for Gael to return from the Parthenon; there was plenty of time for people-watching. This young lady had a t-shirt wrapped around her more-than acceptable bosom, along with her Daisy Dukes with the top two buttons unbuttoned. I'm pretty sure this is not the way her daddy wanted her to dress today. I only took a few (300?) pictures of her..
Back to the hotel at 12:45p. A side note: Everywhere we went in Athens, large dogs were sleeping on the sidewalks. Some with collars, some without. At no time did we ever see one of these dogs on their feet; they lie in about the same position as this one:
No one seems to interact with them at all. Odd. Perhaps they are "sacred dogs" similar to "sacred cattle" in India, free to roam at will?
On the bus tour we saw three really beautiful buildings that Vicki said were the favorites of Athenians.
They were close-by the hotel so we walked the few blocks over so I could add those photos to the travelogue.
This is the Academy of Athens:
Above is Plato,
..and above is Socrates.
Above is University of Athens.
This statue (above) had the same pigeon perched on his head whenever we saw it. OK, it might be a different pigeon; perhaps they work shifts?
The palm trees throughout Athens, we're told, were all imported from Africa.
The following two photos are of the National Library:
This is the old Athens Parliament just a few blocks from our hotel:
Gael and I split up; I went back to the hotel to work on the blog and she went -- wait for it -- shopping.
On the way back to the hotel, I spotted the front door of a bank riddled with bullet holes; no explanation:
We were told to assemble in the hotel lobby by 6:15p to be taken to the port to board our ship; we did. But though the two Regent Seven Seas reps were bustling about, no one told anyone when it was time to board the three buses. After a while we just got on one, hoping it was going to the port and not to Belgium or someplace. We guessed right and arrived at the ship where the boarding process was the standard Regent smooth operation.
Champagne awaited (and graciously accepted) as we made our way to the theater to check in and get our room key and photos taken. Though we were on the first bus (so far as we could tell) 89 people had already checked in and our number was 131. Sorta like a "Now serving #xxx" in a butcher shop. SWMBO? Not pleased.
And this is where we learned that, because of the four-hour delay in departure, we were not going to Delos as planned tomorrow morning. Instead, we are sailing directly to Mykonos. Disappointing (letters will be written!)
As you may recall our suite is the last one aft on the port side of Deck 8:
Even though this is a relatively small ship, it's still quite a hike to what Gael calls "the back of the boat."
We met our Steward Ali:
..and our Butler Trevor:
Both are typically welcoming, helpful and charming.
Our suite has a nice surprise; because we're at the "corner", our balcony is three times larger than others on our ship (except, of course, the other corners):
We had a light dinner at the Veranda Restaurant (buffet-style) and so to bed. We get to sleep in since we won't be arriving in Mykonos until noon-ish.
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