Athens, 16 August

We left the ship shortly after breakfast, only to get into a long queue for the taxis.  There must not have been anything else going on in Athens that morning, because every taxi seemed to have gathered in the port of Piraeus.  Finally made it to the apartment around 9:30.  We had a fifth floor penthouse, overlooking the Acropolis Museum and the Acropolis itself. 

After a week onboard without access to a washing machine, laundry was the first task.  How glamorous is it when you spend your time doing laundry?  Somebody has to do it.  The place had a washer, but the good old fashioned laundry rack was out on the porch under the Greek sun.  

a museum with a built in "dig"

a city existed outside the Acropolis

Since the museum was across the street, I had arranged for tickets around lunch time.   We started in the excavation area at the bottom of the museum, then worked our way up.  There were many artifacts, and excellent explanations.

Two of Athens most famous citizen scholars were highlighted:  Aristotle and Plato.  (Plato, we had learned, had been a champion boxer at the Olympics.)

Aristotle statue

Plato

throughout the city - jars

I got about halfway through before one of the docents pointed out to me that there was no photography allowed.  Caught a few good pictures before I was stopped.

Hercules, battling the Hydra

four horses

Parthenon from the museum cafe

We had lunch at the museum café.  The best sandwich we had had for a week.  (Scott had an ongoing discussion with the restaurant manager on the ship about no place to go to make a good old fashioned sandwich.)

Afterwards, it was siesta time.  I did go out and scope out the neighborhood.  Without knowing I had picked one of the nice areas in Athens, Makrygianni. (This area isn't all touristy, but a nice mix of old-school residential, extremely upmarket residential properties and pretty good restaurants.)  The restaurants have tables outside under the trees that line the streets, and there is a constant buzz from the streets while they are open.

The night finished looking up a the task for tomorrow – the Acropolis.