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Greece Chapter 5 - The Cruise Part I
19-July-2000, Wednesday
Olympic Airways, true to their reputation, was an hour late. Arrived Athens, took a very long cab ride to Hotel Stanley. L listened to J (again) and they spent the hottest part of the afternoon walking the city streets.
Discovered the flea market near the Parthenon and spent over an hour walking through various stalls. Fortunately, there was shade here. Found a lot of jewelry that would be the envy of most of the (sci-fi) convention goers.
We booked a bus tour of the city for tomorrow morning and returned to our hotel about 5:30 where we napped until dark. We went up to the roof top garden for ouzo and snacks, and a couple of hands of cribbage. Watched the moon rise more or less over the Capitals.
20-July-2000, Thursday
Alarm went off at 6 AM. After a shower we got dressed & went down for our complimentary breakfast. Bacon (soggy), eggs, cereals, fruit, yogurt, TOAST!, juices, tea, & coffee a really nice buffet. We then went down to the lobby to await our tour bus.
The tour took us around Athens first. We saw various museums & government buildings & we stopped at the original Olympic Stadium to take pictures. On to the Acropolis. There was a lot of scaffolding around the Parthenon where they were cleaning and restraightening the columns, etc.
The Acropolis from our hotel roof, the Olympic Stadium, J downtown
Athens from the Acropolis
The Parthenon and other buildings on the Acropolis
There is a big push on right now to get the "Parthenon Marbles" back from Britain & other countries. L's first thought, "Will Greece support Egypt if it pushes to get its' treasures back?". J's first thought, "They've lost their marbles!". Lord Elgin was the worst thief of Greek treasures though the British applaud him for "rescuing" (i.e. sneaking) huge quantities of Greek art out of the country. His house (in Athens) has been converted into a numismatic museum. We drove through the rich neighbourhood where property goes for as much as $10,000. US per square meter, where one apartment takes up an entire floor & where some apartments even have their own swimming pools inside.
We were returned back to our hotel around 1 PM. We walked down the street until we found a restaurant. As usual, they took us to the kitchen and we picked out our meals. Back to our hotel where we napped for a couple of hours & then we went window shopping for a while. J stopped at McD's for a milkshake, & later, we stopped at KFC for supper. Again back to the hotels roof top garden for Ouzo & snacks, and 2 games of cribbage.
21-July-2000, Friday
Got up at 8:30 AM, had breakfast and checked out.
We took a bus to Piraeus and, with a little bit of difficulty, we finally located the Passenger Terminal. The bus dropped us off at the Ferry Terminal and it's a bit of a walk from there, around the cove, to the Passenger Terminal. To add to the confusion, the first building you come across that says Passenger Terminal is closed for renovations. The interim Terminal is tucked away in behind it. Fortunately we had plenty of time to discover all this.
We boarded the Stella Solaris at 2:30 PM and were shown to our cabin. It is a small room but that's OK, we won't be spending a lot of time in it other than to sleep. We saw some of the smaller cabins and realized that ours wasn't all that small by comparison. Still, we didn't need a fancy state room. Our room was just fine. There was, however, a door to the adjoining room which was not locked. It turned out to be busted and could not be locked at all. We met our neighbours when they arrived and also discovered that it wasn't locked. They are 2 ladies from Boston here with a tour group. We found out at the end of the trip that the door had been fixed the next day. The neighbours had came in and found someone at work fixing it.
The Stella Solaris and our long narrow cabin
We had snacks in the Lido Cafe (L had a shrimp salad and a hotdog), then we booked our table for dinner (Table 27 Seating #2, i.e.. 9 PM seating instead of 7 PM seating), and then booked 3 excursions. Excursion tours are optional. You could just go ashore and wander around by yourselves if you want or you can join a guided tour of the highlights of that port. We chose the Palace of Knossos in Crete, Ancient Ephesus in Kusadasi (on L's B-Day), and the Highlights of Istanbul. After exploring the ship some more, we returned to our cabin and, our luggage having arrived, we unpacked and settled in to our room.
L on the Lido Deck, we're on our way
Around 6 PM, we went up on deck and watched the ship leave port. We then went to an orientation speech from the ship's Cruise Director and then to supper in the main dining room. We have assigned seating in the dining room for most of our suppers and we opted for the 9 PM seating rather than the 7 PM since we were getting used to the Greek custom of eating late. The food is quite good, though the 'Greek Specialties' tend to be done in fancy restaurant style rather then the run-of-the-mill home cooking that we've grown used to. Our supper companions are two other couples, one from California, near San Francisco, and the other from Ithaca, New York. Both very nice couples.
We wanted to watch the Lounge show but, when we passed by the Lounge, we realized that it really was a 'Lounge Act' and decided to pass it up. Instead, we went to the Card Room, played a game of cribbage and then went to bed. Our first Excursion (the Palace of Knossos) was tomorrow morning.