Oct 18 - Athens

Oct 18 - Athens

We booked a "Athens on Your Own" with the ship, where the bus from the ship drops us near the Acropolis and picks us up about 6 hours later.

Our first stop was the new Archaeological Museum (5 euros) which is a good starting point for our visit to Parthenon. When we left the Museum, Don and Myrna went on their own as they were here 30 years ago. Quote of the day from Myrna "I'm not paying 12 euros to see a pile of rubble".

Evelyn and I paid the 12 euros each and climbed to the top. It was a beautiful day, clear skies, and in the high 60's, no rain in sight. The view is 360 degrees of the City of Athens and the surrounding area. The ruins are beyond words, there is restoration going at most of the sites. There are areas where marble and other carved stone sections are stored waiting for fitting back into one on the temples. Quite a puzzle.

Here we started to see dogs sleeping along the pathways and in general almost anywhere. These dogs were all over 50 lbs. Some had collars and later we found out they have radio transmitters in them. Athens seems to have the unique situation of having many thousand (one article on the internet reported 15,000 of them before the 2004 summer Olympics) dogs that appear to be in good health, feed and just about everywhere.

After our climb down we walked the short distance to the old town of Plaka, a 19th century shopping district. We had lunch a a small cafe and then walked the shopping area buying some souvenirs.

Our guide on the bus spoke about the ongoing demonstrations, but we didn't any. When we talked to D/M they did see some on the taxi ride back to the ship.

Tomorrow we are in Turkey.

For the pass two evenings we both have gotten large plate of small bites. We are not sure why. but they are great.

Sent from my iPad

Hal