Athens - Saturday 28 September

My word, what an amazing day we had in Athens! We had a more leisurely start than many others, having booked a private taxi tour with Athens Tours for just the two of us - a little more expensive (but still way cheaper than any other taxi or transfer we've used anywhere - David was sure I must have been mistaken about the price, and had me worried for the rest of the day). This gave us the freedom to see what we wanted and move at our own pace.

We were out of Terminal B earlier than my requested start time of 9 am. I had booked an 'extended half day tour' of 6.5 hours with this company that I had found on TripAdvisor. Having seen most of the key sights during our 2009 visit to Athens (and walked the soles off our feet in the process), I wanted to visit some sites that were more spread out and thus too hard to walk to.

As it turned out, our driver (Christos) was also early, and by 8:45 am we were on our way to my requested stops, and many more along the way. We stopped at the Panathenaic Stadium (a marble stadium build in the 2nd Century AD, the site of the first modern Olympics, and where the Marathon finished in the Athens Olympics).

We were driven up Lykavittos Hill for fantastic views from the highest point in the city. Being driven up saved us the E8 each for the funicular, each way, and was much faster. We did have to walk up the last few steps to the top for the amazing views across Athens in all directions. Christos stopped to buy us a bottle of cold water each before we began the climb, and was careful to point out any slippery sections of the steep pathway and steps.

We had a quick walk into the National Gardens, rather like some parts of Hagley Park, and very peaceful. We drove past the temple of Olympian Zeus, the Arch of Hadrian, Parliament and Syntagma Square (an area of recent rioting), and Monastiraki Square, all places that we had walked through in 2009.

We drove past other parts of the city that we had missed - Thissio (an upmarket area), the University, an area with meat/fish/fruit and vegetable markets and a flea market area.

We'd seen the guards on our previous visit, but this time we were taken past the Prime Minister's home in time to see the ceremony involved in the changing of the guards. They march as if in slow motion, and flick a leg out in front and lower it slowly (their boots look like they have giant pom-poms)! There is a long history involved here, related to the 400 year rule over Greece by the Turks.

Rick Steve's audio guide helped us tour around the key areas and highlights of the National Archaeological Museum in just over an hour (entry there was free for the day). We listened to him at double speed on my iPhone. It was very interesting.

We had a drive through different parts of the city, and then had a further hour at the newer Acropolis Museum, this time using a tour in Rick's guide book. This houses archeological finds from the Acropolis and surrounding area, and is very well done. This is the space they hope to use to house the Elgin Marbles removed from the Acropolis by Lord Elgin, and on display in the British Museum.

Lastly, we were taken on a long drive along the 'Athenian Riviera' (a long beach resort area) for a scenic tour and then a nice lunch at the Zaxos Restaurant, where we shared a great value lunch of a large Greek salad, and then a dish of sliced chicken with pita bread. Actually, it was too much to eat, even though we were effectively having lunch at 3 pm. We've noticed how amazing the tomatoes are here, really flavourful and you get served generous portions of goodness knows how many tomatoes.

I was getting a bit worried because we should have been finishing our tour at about 3:15 pm, according to the pick-up time. But Christos told us not to worry and assured us there would be no further charge for the extra time. Nevertheless, I was a little worried, because you hear these stories of Greek taxi drivers stopping before your final destination and demanding extra money. So we gobbled what we could on this amazing, hot day (unusually so, apparently, for the end of September), and got on our way again. Christos declined any lunch, saying it was too early for him to eat (!!) and that he normally ate around 10 pm at night, and the Greeks did everything late, and got up late the next day as well. As he drove, we asked about his family and found that his wife is Swedish and that his 18 year old daughter is going to live in Sweden next year with her grandmother. She will attend university there, and study.... Economics!

Christos toured us around the yacht area of Pireas, in no hurry, and then delivered us back to the ship just after 4 pm. Before we left him, he gave us a signed book about Greece and the sights to see, and a map of Greece including the main archeological areas and ancient sites. We managed to get a photo of him with his taxi, and another of us with him. He was an amazing host - a quietly spoken gentleman, with excellent English (he said he'd taught himself with tapes and books, and had been driving taxis for 30 years, after first doing the two years compulsory military training on a rusty bucket of a Greek naval ship).

It was nice to catch up with the Barrows over dinner, and hear about their private tour with a Cruise Critic group and a wonderful guide who helped Rick Steves write his Athens chapters! Then we attended a comedy show that had us all laughing.

Athens

We met with some other Cruise Critic friends at 7.15 am today, to go with one of them, Bev, into Athens by train. The ship had docked at a distant terminal (B), so Princess provided a shuttle bus for us to take into Terminal A. From there we had a 25 minute walk around the port to catch the train. It was hot, even early in the morning. We got our trains, David having a bit of trouble with one ticket machine and thus we almost forgot to validate our tickets - dashed off, validated them, and back on again. We all got off at the wrong stop (Monastiraki), one past the one we'd intended (Thissio), but Bev was able to help us find our way up the route to the gate of the Acropolis. On the way, we passed the Roman Agora and Tower of the Wind. We bought our tickets at the Roman Agora so we didn't have to queue once we got to the Acropolis.

We didn't find it too steep, some of the marble steps were slippery, but not too bad, thought the ground was uneven at the top and the crowd was growing rapidly. It was wonderful at the top, to see this amazing building - the Parthenon, and the other temples and ruins on the way up (we missed the Theater of Dionysus, but saw the Herodian Theatre), and around the Parthenon. The views were amazing too. We read some of Rick Steve's notes about all of this, but also remembered a History Channel episode about the Parthenon which helped us appreciate it even more. It was sad to think that we had seen the Parthenon Marbles on display in the British Museum a few days earlier. We saw the Propylea, the Temple of Athena Nike and the Erechtheum and the Porch of Caryitids. Unfortunately, the Acropolis Museum was closed because it was a Monday. By the time we left the crowds coming in were getting horrendous. A couple at our dining table at night told us that they'd been amongst the crowd, on a Princess Tour, and they'd felt like cattle being herded - just awful. We were lucky we got there earlier!

We were up there about an hour or a little more, then found our way down into the ancient Greek Agora area below - got a little lost, but then looked at some of the main sights there. We were impressed by the replica of the Stoa of Altalos (now housing the Agora Museum) and the Temple of Hephaisteion.

After the Agora, we sat and had a a coke and then wandered through the main street of the Plaka area - an older area with narrow streets and lots more little shops. We bought a bag of fresh strawberries and nibbled on these as we walked - they were amazing! Really sweet and juicy - a real treat! We got through that area pretty quickly, then headed past Hadrian's Arch (he has them all through the Mediterranean - he was a Roman Emperor), past the Temple of Olympian Zeus, along the edge of the lovely National Gardens, past Parliament and the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior. By now we were starting to melt in the heat and my feet were killing me again. We stopped occasionally, but had to keep going unless we got held up in the traffic later in the day and couldn't get back to the ship on time.

We walked through Syntagma Square (can't say that many of the squares in Europe have particularly impressed me (they are all paved, no grass), I reckon Victoria Square can give them a run for their money), walked along a main street (Ermou) and gradually found our way back to the Monastiraki Square (passing Hadrian's Library on the way) and the train station to get back to the ship.

We caught the train and stood on board with the crowd, David watching out for anyone that looked like a pickpocket - we've been warned about them everywhere, but particularly in Athens. Apparently their latest trick is to cough nastily right in your face, and while you try to gather yourself from that, they take your bag, or pick your pocket. Ugh! We heard later that one couple from our cruise had had a handbag taken - she had placed it on the back of a chair at a cafe, and even with four of them sitting there, someone had managed to lift the whole bag with her camera, glasses, and wallet (she'd left the credit cards and passports back on the ship). And she told us of a couple of women that we'd caught the train into Athens with, who both had their handbags slashed while they were on the train, and didn't even realise till a little later - nothing being taken on this occasion. Scary!

By the time we got back to our station, walked the 25 minutes back around the port to where we could catch the ship's shuttle bus the rest of the way, I was just about dead. I had a migraine rapidly developing and my feet felt like pulp. And, it was SO hot. A couple of different people told us the temperature was 35-37 degrees - we didn't feel that it was that hot, but certainly it was tough walking those distances in the heat.

I collapsed into a cold shower, and then lay on the bed and went to sleep for an hour, took some panadol and neurofen, had David massage my feet, and gradually came right. I discovered I'd developed a nasty rash on the lower parts of my legs, above my ankles - not sure what that is, but we've noticed other people have this too. Looks like some sort of allergic thing. Anyway, I've got the USANA Night Renewal on it and will watch it carefully.

After dinner, we went and saw a 45 minute Comedian show - it was reasonably funny - we had a few laughs - he was Irish...