Day 40 Athens

Me in front of Parthenon

Parthenon

Katie and I

dancer at our lunch

gelato mmmmm

We arrived in port nice and early as the ship had to be docked before
the early morning rush hour of big ferries starts. Our tour was again
with Princess and we only had 15 of us on it, it was a little more
expensive than the others which accounted for the smaller number. We
started the day with a small drive around Athens to see a number of
sites, including the new and old Olympic stadiums, before joining the
rest of the tourists at The Acropolis to see the Parthenon, The Temple of
Athena Nike and other ruins there. The day again was beautiful and sunny
and we didn't feel too crowded, our guide was happy to find a shady spot
that is"never vacant" at one point to stop and tell us some interesting
facts. She explained the history and what was what before leaving us to
wander around for 30 or so mins. There is continual reconstruction going
on at the site and Katie and I know where we are visiting when we get to
London..........The British Museum there, as apparently it seems to have
a great deal of The Parthenon in it's possession! It will be nice to put
the whole thing together visually :)
Once we came off the site we ventured to a shop where they have a
captive hot audience who happily pay 9 euro for a big glass of fresh
orange juice and a frozen lemonade (well we happily did)..........
We then had another drive through the city and arrived at our lunch
venue. It was a beautiful old building where they serve food like it was
thousands of years ago, no forks, only spoons and knives and we were
encouraged to eat with our hands. We started with a glass of wine
flavoured with honey and rosewater, very nice, and then were plied with
a big salad with egg and pine nuts and pomegranate seeds to name some of
the ingredients. Next course was spinach pie, followed by lightly battered saganaki
(cheese) with a berry sauce, sausage slices with leeks and cress, we were
full.................but then out came our main course, chicken with
barley and mashed minted peas (Katie was given a vego moussaka type
pie). When we didn't think we could fit anything more else in they
brought out dessert, fresh yogurt topped with dried fruits and honey,
and as a special treat a girl did 3 ancient Greek dances during the
meal. (Most tours do a buffet, so this was a lovely change). We were the
only ones at the restaurant and this made us feel extra special or maybe that was the white wine we drank! We waddled back to the bus and were taken to the National Museum, we were supposed to go to the Acropolis Museum but being a Monday it was shut. As I didn't know what was in either museum it didn't worry me at all. Our
day ended with some shopping time at The Plaka ( a sort of civilised
bazaar/street of shops), and some how or other Katie and I fitted in a
small tub of gelato each! Not sure what the flavours were as we didn't
recognise the names but they were yummy!
Got back to the ship where Katie had a nap and then we weren't intending
on having dinner til Dan knocked on the door and said he was having
Pizza so the 5 of us (Dale and Margaret and Katie,Dan and I) went to the
Pizzeria. Though Katie and I shared a pizza........we usually have one each!
Tomorrow is a sea day before we start our run of 5 straight port days.