Day 6 September 14 - Athens (Piraeus) Greece

 What a difference in waking up to Athens as opposed to Katakolon! Here in Athens this morning there are about 15 cruise ships that I counted at dock - all smaller than ours and about 20 other ships waiting to dock. As well there are ferries going back and forth. Talk about a busy port. No trouble to get a job on the docks Tish!

Wow! That's all we can say about today's excursion to Mount Lycabettus and the views of Athens. Apparently Greece has 10 million people and 5 million live in Athens. There isn't a bit of room anywhere as you can see from the photos below. There are no single dwellings like ours at home. All the narrow streets are lined with 4 - 6 storey brick dwellings. It's crazy to see that so many people live so close to one another. It's impossible to get a photo of Athens unless you have a drone. From Mount Lycabettus which is  over 900 feet above sea level and the last 689 feet are travelled in a funicular - type of railway - which takes about 3 minutes each way. You get amazing views of the city as you can see from the attached photos. Our tour guide, Karen who is originally from Britain say she was born in BC - before computers. She was very knowledgeable of the area and kept us entertained for the afternoon. We were a small group of 17 so it was easy to keep us together. 

We finished the day taking in a comedy show put on by a Canadian from Nova Scotia who was very good followed by dinner which was again delicious. I had a Pasta Chimayo Luinguine which had some peppers, shrimp and was covered in lobster sauce while Gladys a Beef Brochette which was quite good except some part of it had onion. We completed dinner with a Chocolate Lave Cake with ice cream. Now we are ready for bed.

Tomorrow we are in Mykonos. We don't have an excursion planned so we are going to go ashore to check out the town. I think there is a short complimentary bus ride into the tourist area.

Moring sky with all the cruise liners in the distance.

Part of Athens - to the left of the ship.

Athens to the right of the ship - notice all the busses to take people on excursions - there are 1300 people going today. Ours is in the afternoon.

Ships waiting to be docked.

Royal Caribbean Explorer of the Seas docking next to us. She is close in size to the Reflection.

Athens in the background!

We get at least one photo with port of call in the background.

A selfie while outside for a reading break! Not too good at selfies for sure!!!

View of part of Athens from Mount Lycabettus.

Gladys in front of the modern Olympic Stadium which was used for the 2004 Olympic Games. This stadium is where the Marathon Race ended. Notice the Olympic Rings in the background.

A view of the Olympic stadium from Mount Lycabettus.

The Athens National Gardens - not much green in this city.

The Acropolis in the background as seen from Mount Lycabettus.

Little church on the top of Mount Lycabettus.

Gladys starting her climb down from the top of Mount Lycabettus.

This is the funicular - train - that takes you up & down the Mount. It's about a 3.5 minute ride each way on about a 45 degree angle.

This is our guide Karen keeping us entertained waiting for our bus. He had to drop us off and go park elswehere as there isn't any parking for busses near the drop of point.

Hadrian's Arch or what's left of it. It was built over 2000 years ago.

Government building with some young army recruits holding for by the 2 little blue roofed buildings. They have to standstill for 30 minutes after which they change which leg they are standing on. After 1 hour they change out for 2 new soldiers. They do 4 1 hour stints in 24 hours. Apparently they are not even allowed to blink. By the way there is automatic military service for all Greek men.

It's me enjoying the chocolate lava cake. Gladys had one too! 

Athens in our rear view mirror!