Athens, Greece

November 21, 2009

Kalimera - good day from Athens. Our tour in Athens was one of the Princess excursions. Our tour guide was Georgina who was great. We visited the Olympic Stadium which was the one they built for the revival of the Olympic Games in 1896. It was used again for the Olympics in 2004.

We visited the Acropolis including the Parthenon and the Erectheion. These are ancient temples built to honor Athena and Poseidon. We stopped at a taverna for lunch for a Greek feast - great food and service. We were served wine and bottled water, a yogurt and cucumber spread (tzatziki) with bread, meatball, musaka, roast beef, spaghetti and a phyllo triangle filled with, I think, goat cheese. We had an ice cream dessert. Off for some shopping and back to the bus to drive along the coast to Sounion to the Temple of Poseidon. The bronze statue of Poseidon is in the National Museum. Lord Byron's name is carved into one of the stones.

The sun was getting low in the sky as we headed back to the ship. As a city I found Athens to be a bit drab looking and had lots of graffiti and some smog. The coastal areas are very pretty.