Cruise day: 120/152Ports days: 57
Sea days: 63
Countries: 20
Continents: 5
Ports: 41
**PG-13 WARNING**
There's going to be *a lot* of male nudity (and a very little female nudity) in today's post. And thankfully, no, it's not me...
I think I started out yesterday talking about 4,000 years or some such nonsense. Well, today, we saw more of that. I mean, you don't come to Greece for the current events. Greece is all about old, really old. Today, our excursion went to the archaeological museum.
We made the same stop as yesterday, at the stadium used for the first modern Olympics in 1896. We ran across the street today and grabbed some shots of sculptures honoring Olympians. Lucky for us, the weather today was pretty similar to yesterday with temps in the upper 60s and great sunshine.
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| To be fair, you were warned... |
We cruised past the Parliament building again, and the tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Today, we happened to catch the guard as it was changing, and marching back to the back of the building.
While this in some ways, resembles the Ministry of Silly Walks Monty Python sketch, these are highly trained and elite military men.
The skirt has 400 pleats to mark the 400 years of Ottoman occupation. They used to conceal knives in the pom in their shoes making a kick especially deadly.
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| The guard for the tomb is an honored position and only staffed by elite troops that see this service as an honor and a privilege |
The main stop for the day was the archaeological museum.
The stuff in this museum is old - seriously old. So much was thrown at us so quickly, that I won't even try to document what everything is and when it was found. But, we generally moved from unbelievably old to just incredibly old, meaning that the new stuff is still old.
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| Interestingly, the Nazi swastika was originally a religious symbol dating back to ancient Egypt |
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| Males were regularly shown nude while females were generally clothed - if it was me, I would have opted for the opposite, just sayin'... |
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| Given the age of this sculpture, the detail is incredible - the abdominal muscle structure, the arms, hands, and fingers, and so on - amazing work |
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| This was an early "GPS" concerning the stars as a navigational aid - this was recovered by Jacques Cousteau around 1960 |
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| Symbolism - when a carving depicted someone seated, it meant that they died - in this case, she died during childbirth, hence the nurse carrying the newborn |
The artistry of some of the pottery was amazing. Even more amazing is the effort expended to reassemble some of these pieces that were shattered.
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| Assuming that those are all wine bottles this guy had a great afterlife! |
We hit the road, heading for the old town.
We visited St. Catherine's Greek Orthodox church. Today was the Greek Orthodox Good Friday, falling a week later than the Catholic Good Friday.
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| This church was roughly 900 years old - it is small but huge in faith |
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| A replica of Jesus' coffin - the faithful come and kiss it - later on, Good Friday, this will be carried in a procession through the town |
After leaving the church, we wandered around Athens, window-shopping. One very interesting thing, at least to me, is that the Acropolis, and therefore, the Parthenon, are right here, right next to downtown.
Arlona & I continued to walk around the downtown area, taking in the sights.
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| Athens is an old town - and this is the oldest profession! Actually, yesterday, our guide described this area as the "red light" district. Today, most storefronts are traditional businesses, but a few like this survive. |
We met the group for Friday Manhattan night. We started out outside, but the temperature drop came on fast, so we moved inside. It's hard to believe, but we only have two more Manhattan Fridays left with these folks. As the temps dropped, we moved inside and helped ourselves to a Greek-style dinner prepared by the amazing kitchen crew.
Danielle, our dessert pusher, is back after well-deserved time off at home in South Africa. Her recommendation - try everything!
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| The Ouzo was flowing freely as were the "Opa" calls |
As we bid a fond farewell to Greece, the sun was setting, providing a beautiful backdrop.
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| Is there a luckier person in the world than me? (The answer is "no") |
Tomorrow is a sea day to recharge before hitting Italy hard with stops in Naples, Rome (Civitavecchia), and Livorno (Florence/Pisa), followed by a stop in Monte Carlo.
We get an hour back tonight as we shift to Italy time, UTC+2, or six hours ahead of the US east coast.
