World Cruise Day 119/152 - Athens (Piraeus), Greece - My big fat Greek day!

Cruise day: 119/152

Ports days: 56
Sea days: 63
Countries: 20
Continents: 5
Ports: 41

4,000 years.  Let me say that again.  4,000 years.  More than 1,700 years before Christ through today.  4,000 years.  That, my friends, is history, and that is what we got to see today. Athens has been continuously inhabited for that amount of time.

Welcome to Piraeus, Greece, the port city that services Athens.  Did I mention 4,000 years?  I can't remember.

Yesterday, I mentioned that Viking arranged for a new, included tour today to take us to the Acropolis and Parthenon, replacing the optional (and paid) excursion to the Acropolis.  It also included a Greek heritage and folk show, plus lunch.  I have one word that describes the day.  Damn.  And, that's a good damn.

Part of that comes from our bus 25 tour guide, and arguably one of the best tour guides we have had on this journey.  She was intelligent, informative, funny, expressive, outgoing, and just a pleasure to be around.  That can make or break a tour, and she certainly made ours.  The other part comes from what you get to see and do, and, did I mention, damn?  

But...before we left, we had breakfast.  I asked for some toasted English muffins.  The server asked if I had already ordered as someone had and she couldn't remember who it was.  I replied with my standard line that I often get confused with either Brad Pitt or George Clooney.  As she was laughing uncontrollably, a light shone out of the darkness!  Alex from Genoa, Nevada stepped up, looked at me, and said, "Nice to see you this morning, Brad!"  Ha!  Thanks, Alex for having my back!

So, let's start with the drive from the port in Piraeus to Athens.  Our guide gave us a 15-minute Greek history lesson, plus gave details about Greece.  For example, did you know that Greece is made up of 6,000 islands, but only 290 of those are inhabited?  With 6,000 islands, that creates a lot of coastline.  In fact, Greece's coastline is roughly the same as Africa's.  Wow! (A side note - after researching this, it isn't true - Greece's coastline is about half of Africa's. Do not trust tour guides.)

Greece is now the #1 country in maritime operations.  The two industries that are powering Greece's economy are maritime operations and tourism.

We also learned that holding an open palm forward is not a good idea in Greece.  In America, we flip someone off with a middle finger.  In Greece, they use all five fingers and a palm.  So, if you want to order five beers, face your palm toward your face and show the back of your hand to the bartender.  The other way may result in a fight.  Pro-level tips.

There are three natural ports around Piraeus and we passed them all on the way to Athens.

St. Nicholas is the patron saint of sailors and captains and every port town has a church dedicated to him - this is the one in Piraeus

A pass by of the temple of Zeus

Our first look at the Parthenon

This statue, made of sheets of glass, is an interpretation of a runner and is an homage to the original person that ran the 42km, or 26.2 miles from Marathon to Athens to deliver a message, and then died, creating the basis for the modern marathon

Our first stop was at the Panathenaic Stadium. This was the site of the first games of the modern Olympics in 1896.

A traditional warrior explains the boomstick

This location also provided a nice view of the Parthenon

We boarded the bus and headed up to the Acropolis.  Just to be clear, the Acropolis is the hill. Many cities have an Acropolis and it is typically the highest point in the city.  The Parthenon sits atop the Acropolis in Athens.  Acropolis - hill.  Parthenon - building.

The Odeion of Herodes Atticus from the second century AD could seat 6,000 guests.

Other views from here.

We continued climbing up to the top of the Acropolis to the Parthenon. Eurasian magpies were flitting about.

Our friends, Kathy & Steve - more on Steve a little later...

There was also a temple shared between Athena and Poseidon.

We stayed here for 15 minutes since it seemed official - we finally breached protocol and moved.

We walked down the 80 or so stairs, boarded our bus, and headed for the next stop - lunch.  Along the way, we caught some sights.

Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the Old Royal Palace

We continued our travels - we could only write so many notes.

This is the Athens city center, where all distances to other cities are calculated from

The archaeological museum that we will visit tomorrow

We finally arrived at our lunch venue.  Did I mention, damn?  Wow - excellent food, great music.  A terrific show of local dance.  Audience involvement.  Free-flowing wine.  Seriously, wow.

Plates were broken!  They did a great job having a waiter carrying a huge stack of plates and a dancer bumping into him, toppling them to the floor - breaking plates is a long-standing Greek tradition to ward off evil spirits

Our friend, Kathy, smashed a plate

Our friend, Steve, on the plate-smashing cleanup crew

They grabbed a bunch of "volunteers" for...something.  While they were getting ready, they grabbed some more folks up for a dance.  I don't know who this guy is, but he sure looked like he was working hard to keep step.

The "volunteers" then came out, and wow - did they do a great job.  All costumed up, they performed some traditional dances that wowed the rest of the crowd!

Eventually, the professional dancers came out and closed the show.

I mentioned earlier that we had the best tour guide ever.  Here she is, demonstrating the belly dance, on a table!

This venue was amazing.  Sitting high up in the hills, it provided breathtaking views of Athens, a city of 5 million, nearly half of Greece's 11 million residents.

There were chickens outside the venue - I'm not sure if this is tomorrow's lunch

After a completely amazing day, we headed back to the ship.

Let me be perfectly clear here - this excursion that Viking provided was an included excursion, meaning it was at no cost.  This replaced an at-cost excursion we had booked to the Acropolis. Thank you, Viking, for providing this no-cost excursion that included what we had already planned to see, plus so much more!  This was a great day!

After returning to the ship, we turned right around and hopped the shuttle bus into Athens.

We were the only passengers on the 5PM shuttle - so we had our own private coach

Hadrian's Arch - 2nd century AD

Temple of Olympian Zeus

We spent about 90 minutes wandering around the tourist area, window shopping,,, and just enjoying the culture.

We popped into the Holy Metropolitan Church of the Annunciation to the Virgin Mary - this is a Greek Orthodox church so they were getting ready for a Maundy Thursday mass - a week after US Easter

We got back to the bus pick-up at 7PM, just in time for the next shuttle.  Once again, we had our own private coach back to the ship.

As we ate dinner with friends, we caught a nice sunset over the harbor.

Today was an awesome day, and Viking played a large part in that.  I was hard on Viking for our excursion experience a couple of days ago, and I stand by that commentary.  But, I also stand by this commentary where Viking went above and beyond to provide an exceptional cultural experience for its guests at no cost.  Couple that with a tour guide that simply rocked it from minute #1 through the end of the day and we had a great day in Athens.

We are here overnight and have another excursion planned for tomorrow.  Now, it is after 11:30PM and I am dog-tired.  Tune in tomorrow for more from Piraeus and Athens.