Friday May 25, 2018
I looked out of our balcony door early this morning to see the city of Piraeus. (pronounced: “pee-ray-us”) The ship had quietly crept into town while we slept. Approximately seven miles away is Athens, the capital city of Greece, one of the oldest cities in the world. As the brochure states, “the goddess Athena gave the city an olive tree as a token of her protection and the god Dionysus gave the grape vine to the city.” What more does anyone need?!
We had made reservations for a bus to drive us seven miles from the port of Piraeus to The Acropolis in central Athens so we could visit the historic site on our own. The bus stopped at an Olympic stadium which the guide explained was built for the Olympic Games of 1896. We all got off the bus to take pictures.
The traffic was unbelievably slow. Our “panoramic tour” of Athens took an hour and a half and we finally arrived at the Melina Mercouri statue which marks the pedestrian street to the Acropolis. Our guide led the group part way to the Acropolis and set us free to climb up to the ‘high city.’
We located the very long line to buy tickets and queued up and waited. Jeff overheard a man say there was a “cash only booth” without a line so I went over to take a look while Jeff held our place in line. Sure enough I found a very short line and bought tickets: 20 euros each. We walked up, and I do mean UP, to the top of the Acropolis.
The Parthenon is the largest structure on the Acropolis. Another interesting ruin is the Erechtheion which was another temple dedicated to both Athena and Poseidon.
Construction of the Parthenon began in the 5th century BC by Pericles, who was a prominent Athenian general during the Golden Age of Greece. It was a former temple dedicated to the goddess, Athena.
Our ascent up to the ancient land of the gods – with thousands of other tourists, was very crowded. Of course there was scaffolding on the Parthenon but we were there! We finally made it to the top! It was so exciting to finally be standing right there on the ancient Acropolis overlooking Athens, Greece!!!
From the top of the Acropolis, there are spectacular 360 degree views of the beautiful city below. It was a thrilling experience to be standing above Athens and see the city spread out like a magnificent multicolored carpet.
We eventually climbed down the steps and walked back toward the meeting place to take the bus back to port. We had a little extra time so we walked down one of the tiny streets and into the Plaka district. This is an ancient neighborhood which attracts many tourists. We found an outdoor cafe and rested with a couple of iced cappuccinos and Greek baklava.
It had been another amazing day!