Costa Cruise Day 4: Athens

Sorry for the delay in posting about my wonderful cruise... we now return to our previously scheduled programming... Day 4 of the Costa Concordia Cruise - Athens!

Athens was meant to be a highlight of the cruise, but in the end it came to disappoint us a bit. For starters, we came in the middle of the Athens/Greece riots, so we had to be careful where we went - thank heavens we had an excursion to keep us out of the shady parts - and secondly the Acropolis was closed during our visit due to a workers' strike. So unfortunately, this photo above is about as close as we got to one of the world's greatest monuments.

Instead, we walked around to the front of the Acropolis and down a path surrounded by a beautiful view of the city to the Agora, the Roman marketplace, all the while longing to be up there, on top of the world at the Acropolis. Ho hum. Needless to say, Jace is already planning our trip back.

The tour of the Agora included going into this little church (anyone remember what this is?) and...

then walking around the grounds...

longing to be at the Acropolis... (oh, ok, I'll hush up about it...)

and finally ending up at the Temple of Hephestus, the best preserved ancient Greek temple.

Needless to say, the view from the Temple of Hephaestus of the Acropolis was beautiful... ho hum. (Doh, how did that get in there!)

Afterwards we were let loose in the area nearby the Agora, an area filled with shops and restaurants... and DOGS! I must say that I was really surprised during our trip by the stray animals out and about. Athens is definitely a dog town. Check out all the dogs that were harassing this poor motor cyclist on his way to deliver a potted plant to his sick grandmother... ok, I don't know where he is going, but it sure makes the story better.

After surviving the strays, we settled down to tuck into some traditional Greek food. After the gyro in Olympia were were salivating for more.

I tucked into a Greek appetizer tasting plate and Jace devoured some calimari.

We made our way back to the bus after buying a few things, and then our bus navigated us through the recently restored areas devastated by the riots - what a tour, I tell ya, although these highlights were naturally unintentional - back to the ship.

We will be back for you Athens... despite the pictures above, we haven't gotten a good taste of all you have to offer... oh yes, we'll be back (because Jace will make sure of that!).

Details on day 5, Rhodes, coming this week! Stay tuned!
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