Athens

Very fast post for today while we accept the hospitality of the port of Piraeus' free internet service! It only works while we're out on our balcony. Finally the starboard side room pays off!

Today was easily my favorite of the whole trip. We got a great sense of the ancient city climbing the Acropolis and seeing the Parthenon and a feel for modern Athens as well. We went to the Acropolis first on our tour. What I didn't know before was that Acropolis really is just the highest point in the city. We got to see the Parthenon where they were replacing the iron used during the previous reconstruction efforts with titanium to prevent rusting. We also had a great view of the city from up there and I uploaded a nice shot of the ruins of the temple of Zeus from up above.

After climbing down we went to the temple of Zeus, saw Hadrian's arch (he gave the money to finish the temple). Next we went to the metro station where they had a big display of the ancient ruins they found while excavating for the station. Finally before lunch we saw the parliament building and the tomb of the unknown soldier.

Lunch was excellent with dolmades, pastitsio, and souvlaki. Unfortunately the honey puff places were about a 20 min walk from where we had lunch so we didn't get to go. Some quick shopping in the Plaka and a scenic drive to the top of Likavitos to see the city.

That's all for now, we'll be at sea tomorrow and then in Venice. I don't know if we'll post again before we get home or not.