Athens

 

I didn’t sleep well last night, we went to bed a bit later than usual and I woke about 4.30am and just dozed on and off until 6.30am when I decided to get up.  We knew that it was an early start as we were on a coach trip from Piraues, where the ship moored, to Athens and that we could pick up our tickets anytime after 7.15am.  I wanted to be one of the early birds but even getting to the ticket place at 7.05am still meant that others had got there before me, but if was then off to Al Fresco for an early morning scrambled eggs and tinned tomatoes on toast before ambling down to catch the coach.  This we did manage to be first on and grabbed two nice seats with a big picture window before anyone else could get them.  The day was a little overcast but I risked going out in a short sleeve shirt but when I saw our guide all decked out in a black quilted jacket with a fur collar I did wonder if I had gauged it wrong.

With a full coach we were taken from Piraeus to the Acropolis via a short tour of Athens and during the ride (and subsequently during the tour) she proved herself to be an absolute master – or should that be mistress – of her subject.  We were bombarded with details about Zeus, Athena, Mars, etc. etc. until we were all quite bewildered by it all.  However it was all great fun, if a little crowded and also a little bit ankle twisting as we climbed up and down steps and over rocks.  With the tour of the Acropolis over it was time to see a bit more of the town from the coach before being dropped off close to the Plaka which is the narrow streets containing huge numbers of tourist shops and cafes.  Hilary purchased a nice loose cotton dress in blue which she may wear for the wedding in August plus a long sleeved cardigan/shawl that you can apparently tie in dozens of different ways.  I forgot to add that while sitting on the coach the first time around we succumbed to the sales pitch of a little Greek man selling 10 postcards and a book about Greece for €5 and at our first stop we bought a table cloth from a little Greek lady, although we did knock her down from €30 to €15.

Our coach party was packed up and ready to come back and we left Athens at 3.45pm and back on board for a nice cup of tea by 4.30pm.  There is WiFi in the Piraeus port terminal and I could just get a connection in our cabin, but it was too weak to be useful so I will have to pay for this blog.

As you could probably see from last night, getting pictures up and in order is a problem with Blogspot unless you have a lot of time to play around with it, so I will just continue to stick some up and hope that they come out OK.

It’s another casual night tonight (hooray for tour days) and then we must prepare ourselves to walk around Ephesus tomorrow, if the weather is as kind to us then as it was today we will be in good shape – I would hate for it to be too hot or too  cold to be honest.  I haven’t looked at our tickets but being another 6½ hour tour it probably means an early start so wish us well…