Wednesday Nov 17, 2010
All pictures from our port of call in Piraeus/Athens can be seen in the Athens & Sounion, Greece photo albumn.
Honestly, I would have welcomed another day at sea to recharge and relax, but alas the cruise schedule saw us in Piraeus, Greece - the principle port on the periphery of Athens. As with our other port stops thus far, we had another full day of touring ahead. Due to what we were scheduled to see, we were supposed to meet our driver from Spiro's Athens Taxi Service at 7:30 am. This was the only service we used on the whole trip that we had a problem with. We're still not sure what happened exactly, but our driver wasn't anywhere to be found when we entered the pickup area about 7:35. We waited and waited, and looked and looked, and actually ran into Spiro himself. Turns out his driver was running late for some unknown reason, but he assured us he was on the way. Finally, our driver George showed up at about 8:25. He was very apologetic about being late and blamed traffic. After we began our drive into Athens, I wasn't buying it. It happened that that day was a national holiday, and traffic was relatively light.
Either way, we finally got our tour underway. Due to the lateness of our start - and the threat of riots later in the day in the city center near the parlaiment building - he had to abbreviate a few of the things we were (I'm assuming) supposed to spend more time seeing. Our first stop, after driving past the parlaiment building, was the ancient and original Olympic Stadium. Actually, the name of the stadium is The Panathinaiko - or Panathenaic Stadium - or the Kallimarmaro. It came into its current marble form in 329 BC and was enlarged in 140 AD to a capacity of 50,000. It is definitely an impressive sight to see, especially with the Olympic Rings, and especially knowing how ancient and significant the stadium is to the Olympics as a whole. They held the archery competition there, and the marathon finished in this stadium during the 2004 Athens games. Unfortunately, the stadium wasn't open, so we couldn't go into it. We had to settle for pictures of it from the outside, but it was still awe inspiring. The venue also offered us our first view of the Acropolis.
 Olympic Stadium   |
 Olympic Stadium |
Again thanks to our late start, we didn't spend but a few minutes at the stadium - essentially long enough to take a few pictures - and then we were back in the van. Our next destination likely should have been the Temple of Olympian Zeus, but because of time restraints, George pointed it out as we drove by on our way to the Acropolis. Luckily, we were able to see some more of it from the top of the Acropolis. We finally arrived at the Acropolis, and George got us as close as he could to the entrance to cut down on some of the walking. It was a pretty good climb, and ultimately quite a few steep steps to the Propylaea, or main entrance to the Acropolis at the top of the hill. A few in the group didn't feel comfortable climbing the steps, so they remained at the bottom of the Propylaea while the rest of us climbed to the top and into the entrance. We did pass by the Odeon of Herodes Atticus, and that was very impressive to see from the top.
 Odeon of Herodes Atticus |
 Temple Athena Nike |
 Acropolis Propylaea |
Although we didn't go into it (or really near it after we were on top), it was very neat to see the Temple of Athena Nike just to the right of the Propylaea as we were entering the main area of the Acropolis. After climbing to the top of the Propylaea and walking through it, there it was: the Parthenon, that iconic symbol of Ancient Greece and ancient Greek civilization. Everyone has seen pictures of it and most likely read a little about it or know a little about it. It is something completely different to see it in person, to stand there next to it and on the top of that hill with so much history - ancient history - and to know that the building and the Acropolis as a whole stands as a symbol of the beginnings of the western world as we know it. It was also interesting to find out that it stood almost intact as it was originally built until the occupation of the Ottoman Turks. It was bombarded by a Venetian assult in 1687, and the contents - an Ottoman ammunition depot - exploded, resulting in the ruins as we generally see them today. Over its life before the explosion, it served as a temple to Athena, a Christian church, a mosque, and an ammunition dump for the Ottomans when they occupied and ruled Greece for nearly 400 years. Crazy to think so much occurred there, and it was humbling to stand there and see it for myself.
 Parthenon |
 Parthenon |
 Parthenon |
There are obviously other structures still standing on the Acropolis, and other ruins of older buildings and temples, but the Perthenon is by far the dominating structure on the Acropolis. Another impressive structure there is the Erechtheum, which is also the home of the Porch of the Caryatids, or Porch of the Maidens. None of the original sculptures is still at the building, though, having been replaced by replicas. Most of them now live in the Acropolis Museum, and another lives at the British Museum. Regardless, it is still an impressive structure.
 Erechtheum |
 Erechtheum |
 Porch of the Caryatids |
The Acropolis is obviously a raised area, and it affords fantastic views of Athens and the area immediately surrounding it. From the top, you can see other important structures (mostly ancient, but some modern) like the new Acropolis Museum, the Temple of Olympian Zeus, the Theater of Dionysus, Lykavittos Hill, and the Temple of Hephaestus.
 Temple of Olympian Zeus |
 Theater of Dionysus |
 Temple of Hephaestus |
After finishing our whirlwind look around on the Acropolis, we made our way down the hill to the new Acropolis Museum. Tthe original museum that was on the Acropolis was closed back in 2007 as it was being replaced by the new museum. Funny thing was - again due to my lack of pre-trip homework - that I actually went into a small portion of the old museum to find a restroom, and I had no idea that the building was the old museum. Now I know. Anyway, the new museum is a huge modern building and very well done. The interesting thing about the building was that as they were building the museum, they ran across some ruins that would have been damaged by the foundation if construction was executed as originally planned. In short, they redesigned the foundations of the building to incorporate the ruins into the museum itself. The building was actually built over the top of an active dig site, and the site is visible at the entrance area and throughout much of the first floor - through thick glass flooring! Some of the ruins were quite a ways down there, and it was freaky walking on the glass floor with the ruins below. We toured the museum for about an hour before heading to our next destination.
After finishing at the museum, George drove us along the Athenian coastline southeast of Athens towards our next (and final) destination of the day. The first order of business, though, was a bite of lunch. We drove a while down the beautiful coastline to the little town of (I think) Palea Phokea. We ate lunch - and enjoyed some Greek Alfa Beer - at a tavern-style restaurant right on the coast. Lunch was decent, but it wasn't great, and in typical European style, it was a smidge on the expensive side. I think I enjoyed the beer more than the food.
After finishing lunch, we hopped back in the van and continued southeast another 20 or so minutes towards Cape Sounion. Our ultimate destination was the Temple of Poseidon. I have to say I was thoroughly impressed with Sounion and the Temple of Poseidon. It is only a few decades younger than the Parthenon (in its current incarnation), and dates to about 440 BC. Only 18 of the outer colums still stand, and size-wise it isn't nearly as impressive as the Parthenon. I'm not sure if it was because there were considerably fewer people at Sounion than at the Acropolis, or if it was because the promontory of the cape afforded such magnificent views of the sea, or what else it might have been...but I thoroughly enjoyed this stop. I enjoyed it as much, if not more, than the Acropolis. There is also some cool mythology and an interesting legend behind events that happened at the cape and ultimately led to the Aegean Sea being named after King Aegeus. In short, Aegeus thought his son Theseus had been killed in the labyrinth by the Minotaur on Crete. His ship was sailing under a black sail, and Theseus had forgotten to sail home with a white sail, which would have indicated his victory over the Minotaur. When Aegeus saw the black sail, he thought his son had been killed, and leapt to his death from the cape. I looked all around the cape, and granted, the shape and structure of the promontory has likely changed in the intervening years between then and now, but there was really no place to jump off of the top and go straight into the water as was suggested. The way it looks now, Aegeus likely went SPLAT! at the bottom of the rocks before he ever reached water, if he jumped at all. Regardless, it was still really cool to see the temple and sort of "get a feel" for such an important area that was prominent in Greek mythology.
 Cape Sounion |
 Aegean from Cape Sounion |
 Temple of Poseidon |
After a very brief visit (perhaps 35 minutes) to Cape Sounion and the Temple of Poseidon, it was time to get back in the van for the relatively long ride back to Piraeus and the ship. It was about 50 miles away, and a portion of the trip would take us through some relatively heavy traffic on the southern periphery of Athens. This was the only excursion where I was slightly worried we might miss the ship. As it turns out, we made it back on board within 45 minutes of the scheduled sailing time, but it was still way closer than compared with the termination of our previous (and subsequent) shore trips. There was a pretty hefty traffic jam as we were approaching Athens, and while traffic crept along before the split we had to take, I was nervous about the ship leaving without us. They will do it, too, unless you're on an excursion provided through the cruise line. Ours was a private, independently arranged tour, so if we hadn't made it back, we would have been trying to figure out how we would meet the boat in Turkey the following day. Thankfully, though, that didn't happen, and we were back on the boat with a little bit of time to spare.
As I mentioned at the beginning of this article, we used Spiro's Athens Taxi, and that our driver was an hour late. George was a very nice guy and knowledgable about the things he took us to see. He even bought us some baclava as a "thanks and sorry I was late" present. However, we were definitely miffed that he was late and cut an hour off of our tour time - there is just too much to try to see and do in Athens to lose a valuable hour like that. Another disappointing aspect was that our group was virtually abandoned at the Acropolis. He gave some general directions and told us where to meet him a few hours later after we'd finished in the museum. It took several of us a while to figure out how to get from the Acropolis to the new museum, and in fact several of our group got lost and missed the museum altogether. So we were a little disappointed by our guide and service here, and in fact was the only tour we took where we (or at least I) had any negative feelings. I can't say I would not use them again if the opportunity ever arose, but I wouldn't necessarily give them a glowing recommendation, either.
It was a long day, but a fun day. After getting back on the ship, we scrambled into the dining room and then I was off for another evening of relaxation in my cabin. Our next stop: Turkey and Ephesus.