Piraeus (Athens)
We knew this was going to be a long, hot, exhausting day full of people. It was, but it was also really great. I’ve always wanted to go to Athens and I’ve always wanted to visit the Acropolis so it was a really great day for me. It started early with a 5:40 AM alarm clock. We got up, had breakfast and disembarked the ship at 7:15 to meet up for our 7:30 AM tour. We booked a small group full day tour with PK Tours. The traffic was crazy getting from the port in Piraeus (Athens’ port since ancient times). After about an hour of driving we arrived at the Panathenaic stadium, the stadium built for the first modern Olympic games in 1896. It is now open for visitors and for unique small concerts. It was just a quick stop and we didn't go inside (it appeared that they were setting up for a concert). We left there and drove through even more traffic, arriving at the Acropolis around 10 AM.
Our guide went with us to the top, giving us information and history and then gave us some free time to spend there and meet back down at the bottom. It was pretty congested with people on the way up and down, but the top wasn’t too bad and we walked around and looked at the whole site. It’s really amazing.
We regrouped at the bottom at 11:30 AM and walked over to Plaka (touristy shopping/dining area at the base of the Acropolis) where she set us free to have lunch and go shopping. We were tired, thirsty and hungry so we pretty much picked the first place promising air conditioning. I probably should have done a bit of research to find the best lunch option. (I just wasn't really paying attention to the itinerary on their website.) Lunch was fine, but not amazing. After lunch we shopped, tried to find cats and then had some coffees and treats before rejoining the group at 2 PM to go to the Acropolis Museum. I will say that 2 hours was longer than we really wanted/needed at Plaka. It was in the itinerary, but I felt really overwhelmed by choosing a tour in Athens and the PK tour was recommended, not overly expensive and mostly what we wanted. We met a family later (that we shared a tour with in Naples) that did a slightly different version of the tour visiting a different monument (something about Poseidon) instead of all that time at Plaka and it sounded better. So my advice to you is pay attention to your itinerary to make sure it's really what you want. (You'll get another repeat of this when you find us in Naples so stay tuned for another round of "I didn't really pay attention to the itinerary.")
We spent a little over an hour at the museum. It was a really cool museum with a lot of really incredible things from the Acropolis. Unfortunately, a lot of things from the Acropolis were stolen in the 1800s by the British Lord Elgin and are now housed in the British Museum who apparently doesn’t want to give them back. They let Greece have some nice copies though. Wasn’t that nice of them? Acropolis Museum got in a little passive aggressive dig at the British Museum by putting an empty slot where a statue should be to complete the set of Caryatids. (The Caryatids up at the Acropolis are now copies.)
We drove back to the port where we reboarded the ship around 4:15 PM. We were totally sweaty and gross so we took turns cycling through the shower. Emmaline and I went to karaoke which was pretty quiet so she was able to sing twice. I sang once (“Spoonful of Sugar”) before going back to the room to get ready to go to Palo for dinner. Emmaline went to dinner on her own at Royal Court.
Roger and I went to Palo and had an amazing dinner while the sun started to set. While we were at dinner, Emmaline went to a performance by Ian Knauer who is a Broadway musical theatre performer onboard. Often on these longer itineraries they have Broadway performers onboard to give small performances and have little talks. She said it was really good. I was sorry we missed it. Roger and I went back to the room and crashed out, but Emmaline went to pirate night and the pirate dance party afterwards before returning to the room. It was fine because we had a sea day the next day.
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