My travel agent’ is associated with a company that provided me with 4 free tours on this trip. The last one was here in Greece. It lasted the entire day from 8 a.m. until around 4 p.m.
From Piraeus where we were docked, we drove by bus to Athens where our first stop was the Acropolis. It is located on a high hill in the middle of the city. I visited it before in 1958 and was quite happy to see it again. The last time I was here, we must have ascended the hill from the other side, because then , the first building we came to was the Parthenon and we had to climb the hill on a rough path with no stairs. This time we climbed a very comfortable, wide set of stairs and arrived at some of the other buildings first.
The Parthenon is a really magnificent sight. There is a lot of restoration going on, so there will likely be cranes visible in my picture. It was also quite windy up there and I didn’t use a lot of hair spray that morning.
There are other temples on this site and we spent at least an hour up there looking at all the buildings as well as enjoying the splendid view of the city below.
Our next stop was the museum and our guide gave us a well narrated tour. I got a lot of pictures of naked men at the museum and here is a fine sample – hopefully this will not be interpreted as pornography, after all it is art ! ! !
Couldn’t bring myself to send the front view – you’ll have to come and visit me when I get back for that “show and tell”
By then it was well into the afternoon and we went to a local restaurant for a good Greek lunch. I had a Greek beer to go with it and that tasted really good. A b it of time was allowed for shopping before our return to the ship. I just browsed and compared prices. Things are a lot more expensive here than in the other countries we visited lately. Now that we are in Europe and the Euro is the currency, we notice a big difference. Also there is no haggling and bargaining.
We returned to the ship shortly before 4 p.m., just in time for the safety drill. Every time we reach a new segment of the trip and take on new passengers, we have this. The captain gives 7 blasts of the ships horn and all passengers must go on deck at their allotted spot near their lifeboat. Attendance is taken and then a demonstration is given on how to put on a life vest and instructions given on what to do in case of emergency. In the past, passengers had to come to the safety drill carrying or wearing their life vests. This is no longer the case. I believe there have been accidents due to people tripping over the cords of the life vests, so these now remain in our cabins during the drill. One long blast of the ship’s horn is the signal that the drill is over.
The tour today was the fourth consecutive long tour I’ve had, and I was sick for a couple of days in between, so I’m beginning to feel tired. Because of that, I only went for the first session of dancing and when that finished at 8 p.m., I came to my cabin, went to bed and slept for ten hours. Ah that felt good ! ! !
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