Friday April 17
Day at sea. Doing laundry, catching up on things and recovery the hallmarks of the day. Sailing the Mediterranean is new. Weather is very windy and cooler. We can tell we are getting closer to home.
Saturday April 18
Athens Greece: I didn’t realize how many islands are off the coast of Greece. We are in the homeland of democracy. The harbor here is very quaint, full of sailboats and coves. Our bus takes us on a journey weaving thru typical narrow European streets. The first stop is a very large football field looking sports arena. It first took shape about 400 BC, and was updated with all marble seating around 100 AD. Updated the last time in 1896 for the beginning of the modern Olympics. It holds 70,000 and was used for some events in the 1996 Athens games. Next was climbing the Acropolis to see what’s left of the Parthenon and other structures. They were all in pretty good shape until the wars with the Turks in the 1600’s. They actually had a powerful cannon of sorts that laid waste to most of it. From the top of the hill where the complex is situated a view of all Athens is visible. The entire Parthenon is locked in a web of steel scaffolding as work continues puting this huge puzzle back together. Looters and wars have taken their toll but considering it’s been around since 437BC it’s a small miracle. The collection of artifacts in their National Museum is one of the best in the world. The guide gave us high tech headphones to hear her stories unencumbered by any ambient tourist noise. We are now seeing sculpting of the human body in marble taken to a pinnacle of mastery that time has shown us nothing better. The end of the day was a leisurely stroll through a neat old market place where we bought something cool for Jill and Ginger[If you’re reading this you can have it!} We also got to do some people watching and coffee drinking.
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