Day 28 Athens, disembarking Enchanted Princess

We have come to the end of our cruise. Most things packed up yesterday. We got a notice they want us off the ship by 8:30 but we told the driver to meet us at the port at 9:30. So I guess we will wait. We are ready to go, we both have colds caught from so many close friends. Today we have a private tour of Athens. We had booked one from the ship, then booked a train for tomorrow. 3 days later, Princess called to say if we are disembarking that day, we can't take their tour. The only way we found to see Athens and get to the hotel with all our crap, was a private tour.

Sunrise in Athens

Our driver John met us with a sign.

He said he was there since 8a. We didn't know, so we were watching a movie called Greenland about a comet hitting earth, we had booked him for 9:30a.

We started out trying to go to the Acropolis and a vehicle hit our car. Just a minor collision and lots of yelling. So our driver decided not to go see the Acropolis first, but we went to go see Hadrian's Arch first. He was a benevolent emperor.

Our guide told us that they tried to stick the big huge pieces of pillars together with pine sap, but it didn't work with the earthquakes; they just slid apart.

We saw a Roman bath and it was funny to me that they had a cold water pool called a frigidarium, a warm water pool called a tepidarium, and a hot water pool called a caldarium.

Our next stop was the Olympic stadium where they end a marathon every year. It's pretty much looks like a high school stadium built in the 1800's.

We saw a guy dressed up in I don't know what kind of outfit, but he was charging $5 to get a picture so I went farther away and zoomed in.

We went to the top of a big hill to get a view of the city.

Then to see the changing of the guard.

We saw a statue of stacked glass that's supposed to be a runner.

We went to the Acropolis. We had tickets but still had to wait 45 min to get in. The climb up was not bad but we were cautioned it could be slippery. We could see some renovations in progress. Still a lot of ruins.

Now we go to the Agora. We walked thru the ruins and have no idea what it would have looked like when it was intact.

 

I think we are finally done with looking at ruins. I think this was a library.

Then John took us to our hotel. He told us how to get to the train station, and about the bakery next door. We tried to check in to the hotel, but they don't have rooms available till 3p. It's 2:30. We decided to go to the bakery, I had a salad and spanakopita, Paul had ham and cheese. We got a baklava for later.

There was quite a line to check in at 3p. And a bunch of angry people in the hotel lobby. One lady walked out saying she wouldn't stay here. 2 others came up to the desk pushy and angry. We quietly waited our turn. They checked if our room was ready and we got our room. I rode up the elevator with 2 angry women that have been trying to check in since 9am. They were going to the hotel restaurant. We are tired after running around today and are planning to lie low today.