October 9 - Saturday - Athens

We were up and off to breakfast this morning (quite a nice American Buffet) and then out to hop the Marriott shuttle to the Hop-on Hop-off City Tour bus by 9:00. Problem was that everyone else wanted to catch the Marriott shuttle, too, and so it filled up and left 15 minutes earlier than scheduled. We weren't going to wait for another hour to hopefully catch it for its next trip, so we had the front-door person call us a cab (from just around the corner, hiding out of sight behind some bushes) to take us to town. The cost was 8 Euros, an amount we found was more than twice what we should have paid when we caught a cab back home in the evening for 3.80 Euros. Hmmmm ... nice little thing these guys at the front door have going. Oh well, you have to earn a living somehow!

All's well that ends well or works well, though, and the day seemed to work well for us. We first rode the Hop-on Hop-off a complete round trip, about 60 to 70 minutes, then we rode a little past our starting point and got off at the Acropolis.

The walk to the entrance area was quite steep, but definitely doable. I wasn't sure I could go the further steps into the main area, but Lauren checked it out and came back to retrieve me. Arm in arm, we made it, and it was definitely worth the effort. (See the flickr photos to see the rest of the view.)

The rumor is, as they tell it here, the gods met in these elaborate buildings (or at least where these buildings are located) and discussed whether or not the creation of human kind was a good thing. Apparently the vote was close, but in favor of the creation, and the deed was done. Here's a Wikipedia article about the Parthenon - interesting.

Looking at Athens from this great height shows us a sea of white houses and buildings in all directions.

The Greeks also claim to be the first to see the divine within human kind, and with that insight came the idea of individual freedoms. With the idea of individual freedoms came the idea (and ideal) of democracy. Western thought has been built ever since on that idea -- either democracy in action or the strife for democracy. The early Greeks changed the world! Even the Romans, who conquored the world after Greece, retained their awe of the Greek way of thinking. Another rumor we heard was that the Roman Emperor Hadrian (around 132 CE) came to Athens to be educated because he felt Roman education was inferior. For more about Hadrian and Hadrian's Arch in Athens, see the Wikipedia article.

We hopped on and off the bus several times throughout the day, enjoying the National Gardens (where we took no pictures) while we admired the beautiful way in which they maintain them. A lot of work must go into these gardens.

Yesterday, we passed a building with a couple guard buildings out front, and we guessed it was the Parliament building. Sure enough, it was. Today, we got a few pictures.



Sue and one of the dogs in front of the guard shack




Lauren and one of the guards

We took the picture of Lauren and one of the guards, first, and then it just seemed a shame not to recognize the ever-present dog in a picture, too. I volunteered to be the dog's admirer. We see dogs like this all over Athens, sleeping in almost the same position. There's an identical dog in front of the other guard here at the Parliament building.

The uniforms are modeled after those worn by warriors when the Greeks fought against the Ottoman occupation in the late 1800s, early 1900s. See Evzones in Wikipedia for some fascinating information. The uniforms are quite beautiful, and their history makes them somewhat romantic.

Tomorrow, we must have our luggage out for pickup at 8:00 a.m., then we must be ready to board the HAL bus for the ship at noon. That will give us time for a leisurely breakfast and showers before our real journey begins, 14 days on the Black Sea!  Choosing to come a couple days early and adjust to the time changes was a good idea. We'll probably never come to Athens again; and although we surely didn't spend a lot of time here, we got to see a little bit of what it has to offer. On our way back from our Black Sea voyage, we'll be stopping at a few Greek Islands, so we're not officially through with Greece yet.

We're expecting to have internet access on the Prisendam, but I'm pretty sure it won't happen until after we leave port. We're scheduled to leave around 5:00 Sunday evening, so I hope we'll be online again sometime Monday.

Here's a link, again, to our Athens pictures on flickr:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sroesner/sets/72157625074928594/with/5062628816/