Athens, Monday 4 September 2017

If you are ever in Piraeus, the port of Athens, do not, repeat NOT get on the x80 port bus. Just a big bunfight trying to get your bags on, then even more people get on the next stop squashing everyone in a hot bus for half an hour. Getting out at the Acropolis was another frantic rush to get out around too many people.

Guess we have had it good so far, so why expect perfection?

Cruising is great in theory, but it can feel like you are on a merry go round, each day a new port and you do not know what it will be like.

Probably good for finding a nice island, for instance Rhodes we liked very much.

A more relaxed holiday might be, go to Rhodes, find some hotel in a remote village and stay for 7 days.  Needless to say, it would have to have really clear water for snorkelling.

Sunday we did the Roman Agora, which you can see most of from the outside. So why did we buy tickets for 6 Euros? Dunno.

Nothing truly astounding.

Here it is, with the temple of the winds:

 

Forging ahead to the Ancient Agora, made it to the ticket box, but Rose pulled the plug, which made Bill quite happy, as he was near empty.

Sat in a cafe, Rose had coke, Bill had an Ouzo.

Monday, set off again for the Ancient Agora, tried to buy two iced teas, then realised I had left my wallet behind.  The waiter said no worries, and gave it to us anyway.

So a 1k walk back to the hotel and then returned to buy our tickets.  Rose thought it was nicer than the Acropolis, but I thought it appeared to be the foundations of what was once there, just like the forum in Rome. Having said that, we did find both of the buildings, one of them reconstructed, to be as impressive as the Acropolis.

Pics of the Ancient Agora:

 

Back to our usual cafe, where we balanced the budget with the waiter.

The area seems to have lots of homeless cats, and we noticed a young woman busy feeding them.  She has treated lots of them for blindness.  We tried to give her 5 euro but she flagged it away. 

Here she is with the cats:

Now zoned out under air conditioning. 

So what do we feel about the Greek people? Four days is not enough to give a really informed opinion, but the ones we have come into contact with seem to be friendly, competent and helpful.