Our Greek Isles/Mediterranean
Crown Princess Cruise May 2009
Athens Greece
Monday, May 25, 2009
We came into port about 6:30am this morning. Jerry and I were headed to get some breakfast shortly thereafter. Our tour group was to meet at 7am so we headed down to meet them right after we grabbed something to eat.
We had a group of 16 today. The bus was a nice size so you weren't stepping real high to get in and out of it that was very nice and my hip and knees really appreciated it. The steps and walking is hard enough but when you start adding in the amount of times you're in and out of the big buses it causes lots of pain.
We met with Paul as we exited the terminal. He owns Athens Taxi. He was great. He grew up in New Jersey and then came back to Greece and has been here quite a while.
He
took us to the Acropolis which included the Parthenon, the Propylaea,the
Temple of Athena Nike and the Erechtheion. We went to the Temple of Zeus
and Olympic Stadium past the Hadrian's Arch and up to the highest point
of Athens for a beautiful panoramic view of the city.
He actually drove the bus up as far as he could go. If someone wanted to
they could make the 7-10 minute hike up for a better view of the city but
no one chose that route.
Our pictures of our visit to the Acropolis, Temple of Zeus, Olympic Stadium.
We also stopped by the Greek Parliament which has the tomb of the unknown soldier and we saw the changing of the guard. After watching the changing of the guard we went down to the subway which was built for the Olympics back in 2004. There they had some artifacts that were found when they started to dig for the subway system. We walked down there and saw a really clean subway. We have seen a few subways in our travels but never anything so clean as this.
Our pictures of the changing of the guard.
We
stopped at the Plaka which is at the foot of the Acropolis where there were
lots of places to eat and shop. We ate at one of the restaurants Paul suggested
and had the gyros. Jerry and I enjoyed the chicken gyro. It was delicious.
Paul told us if you take it to go it is 1.80 euro, if you sit down to eat
it is 8.50 euro. We all went in and sat and ate.
Our pictures or our walk to and around the plaka.
After we ate Jerry and I went shopping and then made our way back by the library and took some pictures on our way back to the bus.
All of the bus except for 2 people voted not to go to the museum. We were all pretty worn out after all the tours we have done at the other ports so Paul drove us by a boat from some time B. C. He did this on our way back to the ship. We were all ready to get back to get out of the heat and relax.
Jerry and I both got overheated today. This was the hottest port we have been in so far. I hope it is the hottest for the entire trip because it really took a lot out of us.
We have been in our cabin for well over an hour and we both are still
pretty whipped! We have enjoyed the cherries we bought in the Plaka and
brought back to the ship. We also had some other fruit awaiting us when
we returned.