Before The Last Segment:
On our last day at sea, Jewel Winery sponsored two wine tasting events; one at 10:30 AM and the other at 1:30 PM in the Toscana restaurant. Bill and I attended the afternoon one where Jewel Winery presented a Jeopardy contest on wine. Bill and Dick at our table are wine connoisseurs, so guess who won the first prize of a dinner for ten at the Jewel Winery Celler restaurant?
Athens:
If Rome is the Eternal City, Athens is the center of philosophy, learning, and mythology.
Modern Athens provides both a mixture of the old and new, and one cannot but be enchanted by the food, sites, shopping, and people.
Our ship was our home for the first day and night in Athens, Bill wasn't feeling well, so another couple (leaving the following day for home) and I hired a cab for the day to take us into Athens at 35 Euro p/p. To begin with, it was a beautiful sunny day; a perfect day for touring. The driver first took us to a local Greek Orthodox Church, and took us inside. The architecture of Greek Orthodox churches all look similar in style. He then drove us around Piraeus to show us the old port area where he pointed out some old Roman ruins and the famous restaurant row. We hit all the important sites of Athens with plenty of time to roam around. Our first was the Acropolis where we walked all around the Parthenon and visited the small museum, followed by the Temple of Zeus (Corinthian style of architecture), then to the (modern) Olympic Stadium that can hold up to 69,000 spectators. The Acropolis was followed by Hadrian's Gate and the Temple of Zeus. Leccabetus Hill was next, but the taxi could take us only so far, and we had to walk a steep uphill grade to get to the top. The effort was well worth it; the view from here is spectacular. After about 30-minutes, we climbed back down to where our taxi waited for us, then proceeded on our tour. We visited the Palace (and the guards), the Parliament building, and the downtown area. We then proceeded our tour by a visit to Plaka where we walked around and shopped for over one hour. We asked our taxi driver to take us to a nice seafood restaurant in Piraeus. He took us to the Four Brothers restaurant where we had Greek salad, an appetizer of calamari (the best I ever tasted in my life - it was tender and full of flavor), and for the main coarse a fish fried in olive oil.
We also had the house red wine with lunch. It was too much food as usual, but it was fantastic! We returned to the ship by 4 PM. The couple from Pleasanton had to get up before 3 AM to catch their 6:15 AM flight back home. We had two more days in Athens before we faced the same schedule.
The following morning, our group that opted for the two day extension in Athens rode the bus to the Athenean Intercontinental Hotel (5 stars, I think). Our local tour director explained our general schedule of events, and what we needed to do on our day of departure. He also asked us to meet in the lobby for refreshments and a short meeting where he will provide information on Athens and a map. By the time we checked into our room, it was past 1 PM.
When I looked out of our window to the right from our third floor room, we could see the Parthenon. What a treat!
For lunch, six of us went to a restaurant about a block away from our hotel, that was recommended by our local tour director. We ordered about seven dishes with local wine and beer to share community style to taste as many different dishes in one sitting. It was past 3 PM when we starting with Greek salad, and what followed were all very good; I just can?'t remember their names. Tastes that were different, yet familiar. The meatball soup was the most disappointing, because it was so bland; salt and pepper were needed.
When we were about half finished with our meal, another couple from our wine group joined us. The discussions were animated and fun.
In Greece, the service is relaxed and slow; one is forced to enjoy their meal.
When we settled our bill, a woman in our group enjoyed the wine so much, she asked how much it would be for a bottle. The lady suggested she empty the large water bottle to be filled with the wine for 5 Euro; a bargain. I think it had something to do with our generous tip.
It was almost 5:30 PM when we walked out of the restaurant. I told the group about the view from our window, and invited them to come to enjoy some wine and Cavas (champagne) after 7 PM. Only four people took up on our offer.
After a short respite in our room, at about 8:30 PM, I felt a little hunger, so I went downstairs to the Café Vienna in the hotel lobby for a sandwich and beer. Bill came by a bit later, and only ordered a dessert for dinner. My sandwich was so huge, I could only eat half of it.
It was early to bed.
The following morning at 9 AM, we gathered in the lobby for our included visit to the Acropolis. When we arrived at the Acropolis, it was raining rather profusely, so I with a few others opted to sit in the café to drink cappuchino.
When Bill walked into the café about an hour later, he was drenching wet! I'm glad I did the Acropolis the day before, and the view from the café window of the Parthenon was very good. The rest of the tour was essentially what we did the previous day mostly sitting in the bus, except we didn't go up Leccabetus Hill. After the tour, we were given free time to do as we please for the rest of the day. The rain had stopped.
Bill, Bev and I took a cab to the Archaeological Museum, because although I have visited before in 1996, I had a desire to revisit this museum with the best collection of Greek artifacts.
After our museum visit, we took the Metro back to the Plaka and Flea Market area to have lunch. We started out from the McDonald's towards Plaka, and walked to the Flea Market where we looked for someplace to have lunch. At a small outside café, we saw a few from our wine group having lunch, so that's where we stopped for our lunch. We had a peta bread sandwich filled with gyros, salad and French fries all rolled into one. It was so huge, neither of us could finish it. We downed it with some local beer. It was delicious!
I bought a pendant of Opollo for my wife's friend that teaches piano. Opollo is the god of music and poem. I didn't buy anything for my wife on this trip except two large bags with TAORMINA embossed in gold and a white t-shirt with a gold design.
For dinner, eight of us climbed into cabs to have dinner at Vosporos restaurant in Piraeus. It seems the travel agent of our group knows the owner and staff at this restaurant, so we were given extra drinks and dessert on the house. We ordered community style, so we shared huge containers of food. Some people in our group also brought wine and shared them. Several of us ordered the local beer. A lot of food were not eaten. The total bill for each of us was only 15 Euro; unbelievable.
It was about 10 PM by the time we returned to the hotel, and we had a 2:45 AM wake up call.
I slept solid for about one hour, but that seemed sufficient to keep me awake for the important activities from Athens into San Franciso with our layover in Frankfurt. I allowed myself the luxury of a taxi home from the airport. I had about 15 Euros left in my pocket when I arrived home, and hardly spent any of the cash I brought with me - but my credit card balances won?'t look too good. .
Epilogue: Bill and I consumed about 14 bottles of wine plus the three winery tour tasting plus those in our group that shared their wine with us, but we shared many with strangers we met on the ship. I walked 76.68 miles from beginning to the end of this 14-day tour . That's 5.5 miles average per day, and I try to walk at least 3 miles a day. I must remain healthy to continue traveling.
Another great journey under my belt.
I hope you have enjoyed this travelogue.
