Today I had booked us a tour with a taxi driver named Jordan. Once again chosen cause he had been recommended on Cruise Critic. There was only 4 of us on this tour and by 7.15am we were off running before anyone else had finished breakfast.
Our first stop was the Acropolis, where our early start really paid off..... When we first arrived there was only a handful of people on the whole site.... it was easy to walk around and get some really good shots as you have seen above.
By the time we worked our way around the site and were ready to leave, all the tour buses were just arriving.
All I can say is our taxi driver Jordan is very Greek.... and I explained to everyone that if our driver got loud or sounded aggressive it was alright as that is how we Greeks communicate. I am not sure what is happening out there but it seems that all guides must go to the same school and during each tour we seem to have pop quizzes.... now at the time we think this is a bit over the top... but what we found is that when relaying our day to our friends on board we can embellish our stories with all these facts that we had absorbed..
From there we were taken to the Temple of Olympian Zeus and Hadrian’s arch, more ruins.... It was now nearly time for the changing of the guard and we were taken to one of the sides streets were we could not only get up close and personal with one of the guards, we were really close to witness the actual changing.... So close that Ros was actually kicked up the bum by one as she walked pass ... but you would have to read her blog for that story. It was fascinating to watch, each set of guards have a minder and they stand watch for an hour before each change. Things are done that meticulously that before the change starts the minder goes up to each guard and inspect their attire and then proceeds to make any adjustments to their attire that they see fit.
Jordan then took us up towards St Georges Church where you have a 360 degree view of the Athens ..... Being lazy as you have to walk part of the way up hill we settled for a nice little lookout which also gave us a panoramic view of the Acropolis and the city.
We had a little time up our sleeves so he dropped us off at one end of the Ancient Roman Agora. We made our way up to the Wind Tower and as a reward we had about one hour to walk around the Plaka where the area is full of shops a bit like a flea market all geared for the tourist in mind.....
Once back in the taxi we started to make our way out of the city and along the coast for our visit to Cape Sounion. Along the way we stopped for a bit of lunch..... Jordan took us to a little restaurant where we enjoyed Yeros meat with a plate of Greek salad and lots of bread to help mop up that yummy olive oil.
We finally made it around to Cape Sounion and up to Poseidon’s Temple where we enjoyed wonderful views of the Saronic Gulf.
On the way back as a treat Jordan decided that we should dip our feet in this beautiful water. He pulled over and bought a couple of ice cold beers for the boys and a couple was waters for us, then we found a little rocky outcrop where we sat and paddled our feet....
On the way back to ship he drove exactly how I remembered Greek taxi drivers drove to get us there on time.
All in all another great day and once again we gathered up on deck for a drink as we sailed out of Athens and waved goodbye to Greece. Now we only had one sea day to rest up before the onslaught of 5 port days in a row with the last being Barcelona.
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