Europe Travel Diary – Part VI – Athens

Previously: Part V – Greek Islands

In Athens we did our first tour organized through the cruise. After docking in Piraeus we took a bus into the city of Athens passing many venues from the 2004 Olympic games. The first stop on our tour was the original Olympic stadium from 1896. I don’t believe that this was included in the tour itinerary and I was way more excited than anyone else on the bus to be visiting the stadium. During the 2004 Olympics the marathon ended at this stadium and the archery competitions were held here. There was actually someone running stairs in the stadium and I was totally jealous. I settled for a picture of me in front of the Olympic rings.

Next we went to the Acropolis. The only bad thing I have to say about the Acropolis was that it was insanely busy. There were a tonne of cruise tours (from our ship and many others) and our guide had a hard time keeping the group together. Most of the time we wouldn’t even hear what he was saying. Still we got to see the Parthenon and that’s what it was all about. I also quite liked the Caryatids. We visited the little museum that’s up near the Parthenon and marvelled at the artefacts. Having now seen the Parthenon (OK, technically I saw it as a child but I got more out of it this time around) I’d really like to go to the British Museum in London to see the Elgin marbles. It goes on the life to do list.

Mom and I were pretty wiped out from being out in the sun all morning and chose to go back to the boat for the afternoon instead of staying to shop in downtown Athens. After four days straight in ports it was actually sort of nice to know that the next day would be a sea.

The rest of my Athens pictures are here

Next: Part VII – Dubrovnik