Athens

Piraeus is the port for Athens. It is not as far from the city as Civitavecchia is from Rome, but because of traffic the best way to get there is by train. One train, two underground transfers and there was the Acropolis. It is very impressive with the Parthenon sitting on top.

There were two problems—my arthritic knees made it impossible to walk up the stairs to the top and it was overcast, which made the light very flat. We looked at ruins at the base and visited the new Acropolis museum, which is very good. There is now a good place for the Elgin Marbles to be displayed at the Acropolis; maybe the Brits can return them now. While it would have been nice to go into the Parthenon, I was very satisfied and happy to see it from below.




We then retraced our steps and returned to the ship without incident. That night we watched My Life in Ruins, a movie about a Greek tour guide starring Nina Vardolos and Richard Dreyfuss. Very funny movie, especially in the context of where we were and what we were doing—Athens alone, Olympia and Ephesus with guides. More on those places later.