Cool breezes from the seaside sent us eating a leisure breakfast inside the Garden Cafe. We grabbed our camera bag and headed off of the ship looking for a way to get to Athens. We were flogged by taxi cab drivers offering to take us to Athens for $120 Euro....the tourist information booth was closed. So we approached a policeman who was kindly giving another couple the directions that we needed. We ended up making friends with the couple and traveling to Athens with them.
We walked for about a half an hour through the city of Piraeus to the train station E8 and bought two tickets for 2.70 Euro... a long way from what the taxicab drivers was offering us at the ship. The city was very clean with lots of cars, buses, and taxis buzzing by us.
Along the way many taxi drivers offered to take us to Acropolis for 15 and 20 Euro. We just kept walking to the train station. After riding the train for 8 stops, we got off and boarded the metro red line with the same ticket going 3 stops before arriving at the Acropolis. The trip took about 30-40 minutes. It was quite crowd, I was the lucky one to find a seat.
Christiana & Galen from Belguim with Larry
The metro was very modern and had exhibits of old statues and ruins glassed in cases down in the metro station. What a great way to preserve these antiquities for all enjoy. We went up two escalators to the wide streets in Athens and saw the Acropolis on the top of the hill. Awesome... except it had scaffolding around parts of it. We had been told years ago that they were letting these pieces of history disinergrate in the weather. Larry and I were so happy that they had decided to try to keep them intact, even if we did have to look at the scaffolding.
We parted from our new friends from the ship, Galin and Chris from Belguim. They did not want to go into the Acropolis and had planned on doing some shopping.
Larry and I bought two tickets for 24 Euro to enter the Acropolis, one of the seven wonders of the modern world. We are so glad that we did because the views of Athens from there were phenominal. Larry and I had seen the Temple of Athena (built in 420 BC), the Parthenon (rebuilt in the second half of the 5 centruy BC), and the Erechtheion (built in 420 BC) in books back in our earlier high school years of studies....long ago...so it was very exciting to see these in real life.
We enjoyed the expansive view of Athens below the Acropolis while having a picnic lunch. Athens must be a wonderful place to live because it is packed with buildings from the sea to as far as the eye can see. The view was incredible!
Athens has been occupied for a long time. By 1400 BC the Acropolis was a powerful Mycenaean city. Athens Golden Age peaked during 5th century BC. Romans turned Athens into a learning center and later it split with the east remaining Roman and the west going to the Byzantines (modern day Istanbul). It became a delapidated city under Ottoman rule. In 1834 Athens became the capitol of Greece. The city was rebuilt with large squares and tree lined boulevards. It became known as the"Paris of the Mediterranean" during the 19th and early 20th century. A large influx of refugees from Asia Minor influenced a large unplanned concrete building spree to occur causing Athens to become traffic clogged and polluted. Turned down for the 1996 Olympics caused the city to complete a facelift with a new airport and metro system. The Olymics were then held in Athens in 2004.
After walking down the many steps and slanted stone walkways, we ended on a very nice road back to the metro that had numerous musicians along the way. We enjoyed their tunes and watched several along the way.
Larry and I really enjoyed Athens. We found the trains and metro easy to navigate. The people were friendly and helpful. The streets and sidewalks were very clean. We saw many, many large healthy dogs that would lay about on the sidewalks sleeping. They were friendly and seemed to have a good life....there must not be a leash law.
We arrived back to the ship around 4:00. The ship sailed out of the harbor at 5:00 sharp. During this trip we have been fortunate to visit five lovely Greek cities....Iraklion, Katakolon, Olymipia, Piraeus, and Athens....all were delightful. Two musicians strummed Greek music on the back deck as the ship pulled out of the harbor. What a great way to end out visit to Greece!
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