Friday October 4th, 2013 Athens, Greece

Today the ship docked at the port of Piraeus which is about 6 miles south of Athens; this was a "turn around" day for the ship with most passengers disembarking at the end of their cruise. In our experience the whole process of getting >2000 people safely off a big ship in one morning can either go really good or really bad - this time it went really well, at least for us. We were promised a departure time of 8:30am and we were in the terminal collecting our bags at about 8:40am.

To ease the transition from the port to our hotel in Athens, we had arranged (through the hotel) for a car to pick us up. It's always a thrill for me to see my name on a card held up by a smartly dressed driver in a crowed terminal - I introduced myself to George and he promptly whisked us off to his car, loaded up our bags and we set off for Athens. We took an instant like to George and his nicely appointed Mercedes (including wifi connectivity!) - we found him to be knowledgeable and informative, but not pushy. We quickly arranged for him to take us to the airport the next day. In addition, George offered his services as a tour guide and driver at an hourly rate.

The Electra Palace Hotel is located right in the heart of Athens Plaka district; Pláka (Greek: Πλάκα) is the old historical neighborhood of Athens, clustered around the northern and eastern slopes of the Acropolis and incorporating labyrinthine streets and neoclassical architecture. Plaka is built on top of the residential areas of the ancient town of Athens. It is known as the "Neighborhood of the Gods" due to its proximity to the Acropolis and its many archaeological sites.

Since we arrived before the official check-in time, our room was not yet ready - so we ditched our bags and set out to explore the city. On our last visit to Athens were took a Cunard organized shore excursion that included a trip to the Parthenon, national museum, original Olympic Stadium, and many other city highlights. So we decided to spend the rest of the morning exploring the Plaka district.

During the aforementioned shore excursion, we had visited an area of Plaka that was mostly filled with trinket shops, and this had not left us with a very favorable impression; and so we were very pleasantly surprised to find that most of Plaka is actually not just full of tourist focused shops. In fact, it seems to be the place where many Athenians go on a Saturday to shop and hang out.

Please be aware that the term “pedestrian area” in Greece is only a very loose guideline – on several occasions we found ourselves almost mowed down by scooters, motorcycles and even some small cars whizzing through the so-called pedestrian areas. 

Sandra was doubly happy; she found a whole area devoted to fabric shops AND a six-story Marks and Spencers shop! Admittedly, the M&S store did have a very small footprint.

We decided to take George up on his offer to provide us with his driving services and take the opportunity to get outside of Athens. A quick phone call and George was set up for 4 hours after lunch.

Back at the hotel we were finally able to check-in to our very nicely appointed and situated room – we could actually see the Acropolis from our window, with only slight neck distortion. The view from the adjacent roof pool and bar was simply breathtaking.

George arrived exactly at the arranged time and set off on our tour; he had previously mentioned visiting the Temple of Poseidon located about 1½ hours south of Athens. Over lunch, Sandra and I researched this location and we quickly decided that this would be a great trip. 

As we left the outskirts of Athens the scenery quickly changed to reveal beautiful bays with many small islands offshore and several summer resort towns with a mix of apartments and large exclusive homes – all were shuttered for the coming winter.

Cape Sounion is a promontory located 69 kilometers SSE of Athens, at the southernmost tip of the Attica peninsula in Greece and is noted as the site of ruins of an ancient Greek temple of Poseidon, the god of the sea in classical mythology. The remains are perched on the headland, surrounded on three sides by the sea. As we approached the tip of the peninsula the ruined temple came into view.

After paying a nominal entry fee we made our way up the hill towards the temple – we were immediately struck by how few people were around, just one small tour group and a couple of other tourists; we put this down to the relative remoteness of the location coupled with the lateness of the season, either way it made the whole experience very pleasant to not be tripping over squads of people.

The Temple of Poseidon at Cape Sounion is simply awesome.

Our amazing driver, George, somehow managed to make the 1 ½ drive back from Sounion, through the busy Athens streets and get us right in front of the parliament building at about 4 minutes before 6pm; the ceremonial changing of the guard takes place at 6pm. We jumped out of the car and ran towards the small crowd that was gathered in from of the main building – having just enough time to get into position and fire up our cameras, perfect timing! After watching the proceedings, I knew for sure where John Cleese got his inspiration from for the Monty Python “Ministry of Funny Walks" sketch. Many in the crowd were actually giggling as the young men swung their legs high into the air only to briefly hold them there before slapping them into the ground.

Back in the car George drove us past many of the major sights in the city, most of which started with “the first…” library, courthouse, museum… Finally, we stopped at the highest point in the area and from a vista point we could see the whole city spread out beneath us with the Acropolis rising up and Piraeus off in the distance.