PIRAEUS (ATHENS), GREECE

Tuesday, May 14th

     Opened our balcony drapes this morning find more rain again today.  We were suppose to do a 7 hour tour up to the ruins of the Acropolis and Parthenon.  There were also two huge NCL and Celebrity cruise ships in port with us.  I did not want to repeat a day like we had the day before at the Ephesus in Turkey with pouring rain and fighting the masses of umbrella carrying tourists.  So I went down and turned in our tour tickets for the long tour and put us on wait list for a 3 hour bus tour of Athens.  We were accommodated at last minute so off we went!  Rebecca seems to think we have been to Athens on a Princess cruise maybe 10 years ago.  I do not recall it.  So I attempted to take some photos through the wet bus windows.  As you can tell it did not work very well.  That evening our friends who did go up to walk around the Acropolis said it was worse than the Ephesus fiasco.
     There are some 3000 Greek islands in the Mediterranean Sea of which 172 are inhabited.  Greece has a population of 11 million and 5 million of them live in Athens or just around it.  We were not impressed with Athens as it is today.  Their corrupt government is broke and you can see that everywhere.  The people are not happy.  Greece makes a lot of money from tourism and if the people start fighting more it will drive tourists away just as it happened in Egypt.  We had a good time on the island of Rhodes and other islands are probably ok but Athens is a mess.  Just one man's view!  Loved the olives, feta cheese, and baklava however.

 We (I anyway) like sitting on back seat of tour buses.  then I can snap photos on both sides of the bus.

                                                          Church of St George

                                  Old port of Athens where ancient battle ships use to be moored.

                                            Ruins of the Temple of the Olympian Zeus

                The old Olympic Stadium that was built in 1896.  Can hold 69,000 spectators.

                                                   Stadium made of marble

                                    Parliament House and Tomb of Unknown Soldier in front.

                                                    Academy of Fine Arts

                                                           University of Athens

                                                                      Library

 Took this out of back window of bus after turning the corner.  Police let us turn in front of this protest march.  Not sure what it was about.  About two blocks further in front of us was about a dozen police in riot gear.  Greece is in a lot of financial trouble as you have been reading in past 6 months.  The Greek government has raised taxes and reduced retirement benefits in order to meet EU demands so they could get loans.  Unemployment in Greece now is 27% but it is 64% for the young people here.  Nothing good here in this country.

                                                    Church of the Apostle Paul

                            There was graffiti on almost every building in the city.  Big mess here.

                                          Roman era gate to the Temple of Olympian Zeus

                                        Athenian acropolis on top of hill overlooking Athens.

Remains of the Parthenon which is a temple completed in the year 438 BC and took 9 years to build.  It was dedicated to the Goddess Athena.  In the 5th century AD it was turned into a Christian church dedicated to the Virgin Mary.  In 1460's it was turned into a mosque by the Ottoman empire.  I was partially destroyed by a huge explosion in 1687.   In 1975 the Greek government made a concerted effort to restore the Parthenon and other Acropolis structures.

                                             More interesting graffiti at least

     Last night the ship's staff put on a special event for the full 78 day (Grand) cruisers.  There are around 80 of us doing the Beijing to Southhampton cruise.  So last night they closed Signatures (French restaurant) and had a special Italian themed opera dinner for just our group.  After dinner there was a performance in the Horizon lounge just for our party.  The performer was Vincenzo, a classical guitarist.  We did not go to it as there was a production show in the theater later by the ship's singers and dancers cast.  I wanted to be there when the doors opened at 9pm so I could get a front row seat.  The show was fantastic as always.  It was 4th time we have seen that show since boarding in Beijing.  Day at sea tomorrow and we gain an hour's sleep as turning clocks back an hour.

https://goo.gl/photos/LR5qgqgjaQ4kmviQA