ATHENS

We woke up to a glorious sky blue sky with not a cloud to be seen. It was seriously HOT. So hot, we sweated all over the seats of the HopOnHopOff bus.

We passed the Olympiakos Stadium,

and the 2004 Olympics Basketball Stadium,

and got off at the Acropolis Bus stop (as you do).

 We were immediately whisked off to the roof of the nearest toiletblock. News reporters reporting from Athens usually have the Acropolis in the background as they give their report. To get this view they have to stand on the roof of a toilet block to get this as the backdrop. So now you know :)

"Acropolis" means City on a Hill. 

UNESCO Pavement

The HopOnHopOff bus ticket included a free walking tour of the city and we started at

 the marble hill of Areopagus,

famous for being the hill on which St Paul debated with the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers about the identity of "The Unknown God" and preaching the Gospel of Christ and the Resurrection.

Acts 17 v 16-21

This is the metal plaque with the Greek text of St Paul's sermon on Christianity.

We had been up the marble hill of Areopagus before but hadn't been as entertained as we were this year - this was our guide Dimitri, and he was hilarious.

As well as various adultery stories we had the animated story of how Ares, the God of War, (also known as Mars to the Romans) was put on trial, on this hill,  for the murder of Poseidon's son Alirrothios.

View from front, Stoic building

Looking left,temple of Zeus' wife I think

Looking back

View of Lycabettus Hill (been there, done that, got to the top)

I hate to admit it, but we actually lost Dimitri walking through The Plaka (oops) in fact we nearly got swept up by another tour. He was walking as fast as he was talking (!) and we were at the end of the tour (3hours!) He had been great entertainment and certainly lightened the mood after us not visiting Mykonos....

so, having lost the group we hopped back on the HopOn bus

and passed the government building

and the Panathenaic Olympic Stadium...

and we hopped OFF at the National Archeological Museum.

It was still ridiculously hot and the sky was getting bluer.

The museum was full of statues, mind boggling when you considered they started out as a lump of rock.

I needed Husb to stand next to one so I would remember how HUGE they were.

THIS one was PERFECT POSING material !!

I struck my pose, getting it exactly right, right down to the position of my fingers and angle of feet

when the security guard came along and said "NO POSING"

NO POSING??????

Whaaaaat?

But that's what I DOOOOO!

I felt like a naughty child.

I would have loved to peep my little face over this.

I would have posed beautifully with this m'laddo had the guard not been lurking.

I could have replicated this perfectly too.

I even had my shawl with me, I could have done a lovely pose with HIM.

And I thought this looked fun... piecing together fragments of pot/ceramics and making a picture out of them.

We remembered  Dimitri saying how aesthetically pleasing spirals and circles were, and they are prominent in Greek decorations.

We love horses..

and we like racing. Winner of the 2.20 at Haydock?

So the hopping on and off was a huge success, it was a great day in Athens.

Next day was a day at sea with dressyuppydinner. 

That was interesting, as Mary and Stewart were dining in the speciality restaurant instead of being on our rabbletable, so their places were taken by an odd Israeli couple who actually didn't eat ANYTHING. That wouldn't have been a problem, but by this point in the cruise we were all ordering 2 starters,or extra chips, or 2 dinners, or more breadrolls please and can I have the chicken off that meal with the baked potato off that meal with no sauce please and is it possible to have extra veg etc etc so to say we felt like porkypigs is a bit of an understatement. I blame Andrew. He started it haha.

BODRUM, TURKEY next!