We set our alarm for 6 a.m. so we could get breakfast here at the Piraeus Port Hotel, and then join the CitySightseeing Bus (otherwise known as the Hop On Hop Off Bus) to go to the Acropolis and the Parthenon and then tour Athens. Breakfast was good, but as Skinny Pappy might have said, “Nothing X-tree.”
The desk clerk gave very good directions and we found the bus with no difficulty, walking about 20 minutes to the stop where he said we could join it. There was a bus parked across the street, and we walked over to ask the driver when one would come in our direction. He said it would take more than 30 minutes, but since he was going to the first stop – at the cruise terminal, where we will be tomorrow – he would take us. We didn’t know it at the time, but that would be the first of two buses we would have all to ourselves.
Exploring the Acropolis and the Parthenon was on my bucket list before I knew what a bucket list was. Sometimes you wait for something to happen and it is less than you expected, but today I was not disappointed. We bought tickets and explored for about two hours. It is immense and we could have spent more time, but I also wanted to see the new Acropolis Museum. The exhibits cover three floors, but the first exhibit is outside of the museum. Walking up to a young man to ask a question, I looked down and through the glass floor you could see ancient ruins. He said, “Mysterious city,” and then explained it was part of old Athens. It is kind of unnerving walking on glass floors (is it bad to throw stones if you have glass floors and not a whole glass house?).
The neatest part of today’s adventure was the CitySightseeing hostess at the Parthenon, Evdokia Zkeri, a fantastic lady who really took care of us.
We had taken the green line to get to the Parthenon and after exploring there and the Museum (both incredible) then we rode the red line around Athens. When we got back to the Parthenon drop off spot 90 minutes later, we learned that there was only one more bus coming for today and it would be an hour and 15 minutes. We shared our disappointment with Evdokia, and she said, “Let me see what I can do.”
She got on the phone and found a driver who was close and off duty. He brought his bus up and took just the two of us to our chosen spot to return to our hotel. Now that’s above and beyond! I wish I knew his name, too, because we had a bus all to ourselves going straight to out stop. Thanks to him to be willing to go out of his way for us. And thanks to Evdokia for taking the extra step to find him and take care of two tired tourists!
We were both ready for supper because other than breakfast I had an Atkins Bar and Bonnie had some M&Ms. We went back to Refene, the restaurant where we had supper last night. Tonight we had only one salad, an order of Feta Cheese Croquets and pork chops with French fries. The chops were not like the ones we buy at Kroger or Walmart. They were more like tenderized beef – thin, no bones. We ate almost everything and washed it down with a large bottle of cold water. Tonight our waitress brought us two pieces of baklava each (last night only one each) and I ordered a Greek coffee, semi-sweet. It was served in a small demitasse cup, hot, sweet and delicious. It was the best cup of coffee I think I’ve ever had. The only thing that compares with it is a cup of espresso I had many years ago at a Georgian restaurant in Moldova. Excellent!
I'm going to try to post some pictures at the end.
Well, there was more to the day including a stop in a Greek Orthodox Church where service was in progress and our trip to the post office, but I will turn the keyboard over to my traveling companion.
TTFN
He has finally found a way to limit my writing. He leaves the computer on so I have less than 30 minutes to write. Well, to say breakfast wasn’t much was an understatement. For 8 euros each we won’t go back tomorrow. We stopped at the church on our way to the bus stop. A very ornate church inside. They were having a service and one priest was doing the ceremonial stuff and two other guys were singing a capella. Beautiful voices . We didn’t understand anything but it was wonderful to watch.
Where the bus finally stated its trip was in the cruise dock and the rest of our fellow passengers were from a celebrity cruise ship that was in dock. We rode to the acropolis and had a great time walking around, 2.8 miles in all today. Before we went to the museum we stopped at the little souvenir stand to find a hat since we only brought a winter hat. I got a beautiful hat of Greece. Really pretty but expensive. He got a hat about the Olympics.
The museum was great. The glass floors were a little unnerving. But I did okay. The bus ride around the city of Athens was fantastic. The city is huge. Cars and scooters everywhere. The scooters really drive very recklessly. The stores on the streets are very different from any city we have visited. There was even one street that had a flea market all along the street in the stores. They had a square where every weekend a large flea market is set up. It was funny the tapped talk on the bus said it was mostly junk nobody wanted.
When we rode back to the stop to get off to return to our hotel it had started to rain. And we had no umbrellas. We kept under awnings and tried to stay dry. We came to the supermarket we had visited yesterday and we bought 2 small umbrellas for 6 euros and of course it stopped raining! Oh well, no we have 4 umbrellas in our luggage. While in the supermarket we bought some rolls with nutella stuffing for breakfast. We also got some juice and chocolate milk. About 3 euros. Well, I have tried to repack the suitcases for tomorrow. We also found a post office and managed to make our self understood enough to buy stamps for our postcards. They actually had a machine where you took a number and waited for your number to be called to be waited on. Well, not long out of bed and off to the ship tomorrow. Hopefully they will know who we are!!
Love Mom, Granny and Bonnie
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| Our hotel is on the right |
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| Hopped on |
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