Greek Cruise Day 2...

Day Two – Thursday

We had decided to meet up with Mike and Robin in the morning to get some breakfast, and then do a bus tour of Athens. The tour sounded (and turned out to be…) like a great idea, since you could get on and off as many times as you liked, and it took us to the Acropolis and also out to the Port of Piraus. The Acropolis was a long hike up to the top (where the Parthanon was…) and it was around 100 degrees, but seeing structures that are around 2500-3000 years old was worth it… Actually, the heat wasn’t that bad, since the humidity is pretty low… in the shade it is almost always tolerable even in the middle of the day… However, on the top of the Acropolis hill, there isn’t any shade, so it was just wicked hot… It was more impressive seeing the structures than I thought it would be… I’ve seen them in books, on Discovery, History Channel, etc. many times, but it’s hard to explain how much more impressive they are in person…

After seeing the Acropolis, and the hill where Paul spoke (Mars Hill maybe…???) we got back on the bus and went to the port of Piraus. Walked around a bit and had a nice lunch (on the sidewalk again…) and looked at the yachts in the harbor that some apparently go well into the millions… Took the bus back to the Acropolis museum, and Ann and I got off to go shoe hunting… Ok, she got off to go shoe hunting and I obviously went along… Apparently, Greek sandals are all the rage now, and Ann had standing orders for a whole bunch of pairs. She ended up shopping in a store, trying on pair after pair, while I was relegated to standing outside talking to a total stranger, an local Athenian, who proceeded to tell me pretty much his whole life story in about 30 minutes… I mean details far beyond what you would talk to a stranger about… It was interesting, but more than that, after Ann had picked out her shoes and I was paying for them, he actually thanked me for listening to his story… Something you just don’t see back home… (or at least I haven’t…) Drank about 3 liters of water during the day… good that it is one thing that is no more expensive than back home…

After we got the shoes, and looked around a bit more (we took a side trip back to the base of the Acropolis and took a closer look at the theater that is at the base… don’t remember the name right now… seats carved from solid marble and all kinds of other cool stuff…) we walked the long walk back to the hotel and got cleaned up and went to dinner with Mike and Robin, Clyde and Pat, and Bob and Sheila on the roof of the Athens Hilton (the Galaxy, or something like that…) Great meal, lots of great conversation, and a view that is unbelievable… Sitting 12 floors up on the roof, in the open, with a clear view of the Parthenon in the distance (lit up spectacularly as it got dark…) Made a great evening even more memorable…