World Travel with Bob: Athens Visit

Today was our port stop in Athens.

Our plan for the day was to take an all-day city tour. At 8am we met Dimitris, our taxi driver, as we disembarked the Reflection. The last time we visited Athens was in 2000 and we anticipated seeing some new sites this trip as well as revisiting a number of Athenian sites.

Our list of places to visit included:
• The Acropolis - an extended 75 minute visit
• Panathenaic Stadium
• Rome Agora and Tower of Wind
• Greek Agora
• Changing of the Guard at Parliament
• Hill of Lycabettous
• National Archaeological Museum - an extended hour visit
• The Plaka - an extended hour visit

While we did not have a formal guide, Dimitris had a thorough knowledge of Athens, Greece, current issues and Greek history. He also was a great driver, weaving in and out of the narrow one-way streets of the Athens central district. For lunch, he brought us to a traditional Greek restaurant in a non-tourist area. There we ordered too much food but enjoyed the Greek salad, Pastitcio, chicken giro and baked squashed stuffed with a lemon flavored beef and rice mixture (perhaps Kolokithakia Yemista Avgolemono?).

The weather was warm throughout the day but still pleasant. Given our 8:30am stop at the Acropolis, the morning air was still cool in the shadows with a nice breeze. It continued to warm up during the day, but we actually saw some rain drops at the end of the day.

We ended our city visit at 4:45pm, a hour before our departure from Piraeus to Kusadasi, Turkey. Apparently, the emergency evacuation system was having problems. An external lift was brought to the terminal and ship for repair work. The Reflection finally left port at 7:15pm.

We recommend PKTravel (also known as athensbytaxi.com) for terrific Athens city touring assistance.

World Travel with Bob

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Monday, September 2, 2013

Athens Visit

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