We were glad to have a couple of sea days
at the beginning of this 12-day cruise so that we could catch up on some sleep
and conquer the jet lag/travel exhaustion.
Our two days at sea were very relaxing and unhurried.
On Saturday, we were all up with the sun as
the ship was docking at 7am and we wanted to get an early start to try to get
to the Acropolis before the ship’s tours arrived. From research on the Cruise Critic
discussion boards, I found out about the X80 tourist bus that went from the
port of Piraeus right to some key spots in the city of Athens. It appears to run during the bulk of the tourist season but stops for the winter months when tourism drops. I also learned that cruise ships usually dock
at Terminal A or B and the bus stop is different depending on which terminal
you are at. We docked at Terminal
A. We did not get off the ship until
7:30am and we went left outside the terminal doors, along the curve of the roundabout, through a parking lots filled
with tour buses and vans and found the small kiosk where we could buy tickets for the
X80.
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| ticket kiosk |
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| bus stop sign |
We paid €4 each for a
round-trip ticket (which also gave us Metro access) and did not have to wait
long for the bus to arrive. The bus stop was not far from the hut but the sign is not very large. It does show
X80 on the sign, you just have to get close to see it…or maybe it was just my
poor eyesight. You will note on the above photo that the bus stop we used was "OLP to athens". I checked the map of the bus route and it appears that if you dock at terminal B, your bus stop would read "Terminal X80" but since I did not see this with my own two eyes, you will want to verify this. When you get on the bus, you need to validate your ticket by inserting it in the slot in the red metal box before taking your seat or you could be fined.
The trip
into Athens took about 25 minutes and the bus dropped us right across from the
end of the street (Dionysiou Areopagitou) that ran up by the Acropolis. We started our walk up the street toward
the ticket entrance of the Acropolis with a group of tourists from Vancouver on
our heels because they figured we seemed to know where we were going. We saw what looked like a ticket booth but had to ask to confirm as signage was not very clear. There was not much of a line and we paid the
€12 per person entrance fee and started the hike up the hill to the Acropolis. Looking up at what we could see of the Parthenon, backed by a vibrant blue Greek sky, was such an incredible
moment.
It was quite steep at times so we paced ourselves and moved slowly with periodic rest stops. We told ourselves this was in consideration of our parents, who were in their 70's and one with a bad knee, but I think we were all glad for the rest breaks. There is an elevator available
for those who are disabled but it did not look like it was for the faint of
heart…straight up the side of the Acropolis!!
After the walkway, we then
faced a good amount of stairs. We took
our time and took photos and explored the Odeon of Herodes Atticus and the
Temple of Athena Nike on our way past.
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| Odeon of Herodes Atticus |
Once we got to the Acropolis, the view was just stunning! The whole of Athens spread out at our feet,
360 degrees all around us, with white buildings as far as you could see and lots
of Greek flags.
We used Rick Steves’
Mediterranean Cruise Ports travel guide to learn about the different structures and had also downloaded his
walking tour of the Acropolis, although we listened to parts of that at triple
speed.
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| Porch of the Caryatids |
We spent probably an hour and a
half exploring and taking photos before the crowd started getting noticeably
larger and it was obvious that the ship’s tours had arrived...so we moved on to
Mars Hill. Mom and Dad did not climb up because it was
very steep but the rest of us went to the top of Mars Hill after reading the
write-up posted at the bottom of the stone steps.
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| Stairs to Mars Hill |
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| View of the Acropolis from Mars Hill |
This was the spot where the apostle Paul gave
his speech about the altar to the unknown god from Acts 17. It was incredible to think that we were
standing on the same spot where this biblical event occurred. We came back down an easier set of stairs
and took a rest in the shade on a bench while Dad read Acts 17 to us. We had some water, snacks and then started
meandering our way down the hill through the narrow, cobblestone streets. We passed many homes and small churches and spotted
a little tourist shop where we picked up some more water and bought a couple of
souvenirs to remember Athens. It was
getting pretty warm so we wanted to stay in the shade as much as possible and
keep hydrated.
When we reached the lower streets, we
walked up Aiolu (Monastiraki area) looking for Falafellas, a well-reviewed
falafel spot where Heath & Phie wanted to get lunch. The shop only opened at noon so Dave and I
left everyone there and walked over to “Souvlaki Row” and found Thanasis
(another well-reviewed restaurant) where I got a kebab wrap and Dave got the
most stellar Greek salad we had ever seen.
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| Thanasis |
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| Stellar Greek salad |
Obviously, they originated it, so they should make the best!! Both dishes only cost us a total of
€5,90. We brought our lunch back to
where the others were sitting and we all ate lunch, did a bit of window
shopping and then headed to Syntagma Square.
We arrived in time to catch the changing of
the Evzone guards, which happens every hour, on the hour. A special changing of the guard ceremony is
held every Sunday at 11am. Their
uniforms are very unique and everyone was jockeying for position to get a good photo. The captain warned the crowd that they better
make sure they don’t get in guards’ way as they will not stop marching…they
will march right over you if you did not move. Dave calculated the path he thought they
would take and sent me to an area where nobody was standing. Sure enough, they headed directly toward me
and I got some great shots before everyone else caught on and swarmed the area.
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| Parliament House with Syntagma Square below |
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| Evzone guards |
After the ceremony, we headed down the
stairs under the Square and caught the Metro (also included in the transportation
pass we had bought) at the Syntagma station and exited at the Acropoli station. We found a gelato shop called Ice Queen and
sat at the outdoor tables to enjoy our treats.
They had vegan options and lots of dairy free sorbet options.
Then we found Mom and Dad a shaded spot to
sit and wait for us near the Tourist Information Centre. The three of us headed back up toward the
Acropolis to a small neighborhood called Anafiotika (Little Anafi) where the
houses were constructed by people from the island of Anafi who had come over
and settled in Athens. It was such a
quaint and unique little area with lots of whitewashed houses, steps and walls
with vibrant pops of colour on doors and windows as well as lush bougainvillea. Some lanes between the houses were so narrow
that only one person could pass at a time and you felt as if you were trespassing
on the resident’s property because everything was so close together.
When we felt we had covered most of the
neighborhood, we went back and picked up Mom and Dad and made our way to the
bus stop. The pickup spot was in front
of a fur store (Emzo luxury furs) across the street from where we were dropped off that
morning. We would have still had time to stop by the Acropolis Museum before heading back as our ship only left at 7pm but we were getting tired at that point.
I believe there is also a pickup
spot at Syntagma Square. We probably waited around 40 minutes for the next bus. The buses
are supposed to run about every 30 minutes but I suspect that is just an estimate so don't count on punctuality. When the bus finally arrived, the
crowd waiting was quite a good size and there was a real scrum to get onto the
bus as those who came after us jockeyed for position and stepped right in
front. We found that in Europe, there
was no real sense of lines setting up in the order of arrival, as it is in North America. It is each person for themselves otherwise
you get left behind. We got smart and
ran to the back door to get on instead.
The return trip took longer than the trip in as there was more traffic to deal with. Make sure you leave good room in your schedule to wait for the bus and travel back to the port. We made it back to the ship around 4pm, in
time to have a light snack and rehydrate before grabbing a wee nap before
supper. Some went to the show in the
main lounge but I just wanted bed and sleep.
We found that we had such an intense port schedule that very few shows
were seen on this cruise but we did not regret that one bit.
We really enjoyed Athens and did not have
any issues, despite the financial crisis that was going on at the time. We just made sure that we had the euro cash
that we needed as getting money from instant teller machines may not have been
easy to do. We were able to see just
about everything that we wanted to see except I would have loved to visit the
Acropolis Museum. I guess it is always
nice to leave something to see for a return trip.
* All photos are copyrighted and are not to be used, for any purpose, without first requesting my permission via the email address shown in my profile.
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