Piraeus, Greece (Gateway to Athens) - Mar 26, 2013

Happy 85th Birthday to my dad, Lance! Also, with us now sailing into Greek waters, it is now official that with Holland America as our carrier, we have circumnavigated the globe by water - how exciting is that !!! There are still a few parts in the north Atlantic and around South Africa for us to venture too, but as of last night we have completed our first lap around this incredible planet. We have been to Athens before, on our honeymoon, so we have seen all the tour highlights - all very exciting to see but today we were looking for a bit more of a local flavor. So with Jeff and Joy in tow, we headed for the metro and the 20 minute train ride to Athens (highly recommended and very easy to do on your own). We jumped off at the Monastiraki Station transferred to the airport line for one stop where we began our walking tour at Syntagma (complements of Lonely Planet). Again a great tour for anyone that is in decent walking condition as it covers some great areas in Athens all focused around the Plaka region with the Acropolis looming overhead in the background - great for pictures. Let’s see we went from the changing of the guards at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier to the well preserved ruins of the Roman Baths, then we had great views of the Temple of Olympian Zeus and walked under the Hadrian’s Arch. We viewed, touched and photographed a monument that was built in 334 BC. I mentioned this because at the end of this road we saw this monument and with my write up in my hand described it, the commentary goes something like “... built in 334 BC to commemorate a win in a choral festival. The reliefs on the monument depict the battle between Dionysos and the Tyrrhenian pirates, whom the god had transformed into dolphins. It is the earliest known monument using Corinthian capitals externally. It stands in what was once part of the Street of Tripods, where winners of ancient dramatic and choral concerts dedicated their tripod trophies to Dionysos.” So pretty cool right, kind of where the first Grammies where presented. Well a couple I noticed from the ship wandered past us and commented about this whole site as “there is nothing here, let’s get going” - the things some people miss. Now don’t get me wrong, I do miss things but I do try to bring something with me so I am not wondering around aimlessly - I try to educate myself on what I am doing in a city especially when I do not have an organized tour planned. Let’s move on, we then continued on our walk to a beautiful residential are known as the Anafiotika quarter. This was certainly a highlight, this was a picturesque maze of little whitewashed houses that is the legacy of the stonemasons from the small Cycladic island of Anafi who were brought in to build the king’s palace after independence. It is a very peaceful spot with a narrow path that winds around the houses and leads eventually to the Acropolis. We headed back down the hill for lunch in the Plaka area, we confirmed our location with a guide in the one of the squares where he also recommended a great little spot for lunch (all in about $10.00 Euros each, including drinks), fantastic. A bit more retail therapy back to the subway station and back to the ship around 4:00 pm. We had a great wifi connection from Jeff and Joy’s room so we were able to Skype call Dustin, Jan’s mom and were able to sing Happy Birthday to my Dad - who was very surprised to get the phone call. Another great day, here are our some of our favorite pics, hope you enjoy.... By the way special thanks to Jeff today, who I found out today can read Greek. My map was in English, many of the street signs are in Greek, so with me scratching my head Jeff was able to easily interpret where the heck we were, awesome.