Athens Makes the Heart Grow Fonder

Athens
Photos taken: 265

David had never visited Greece before, and Robin had been only been once during a smoggy summer when the garbage workers were on strike, so we were determined to get the most we could out of our 6-hour stop in Athens.

This stop was our biggest logistical success on the cruise. We saw everything we’d hoped to see (which is a difficult task on the short port days), and even had time for gyros!  We had a lot of help from our friend, Rick Steves, whose free walking-tour podcasts took us through the city center, Roman Forum, Acropolis, and the lesser known neighborhoods of Athens.  Which was a lot more than we could have seen on one of the cruise excursions, so we were happy!  We won’t bother recapping the famous sights of the city, but here are a few things we hadn’t been expecting to see and do. 

Best Sights:

• We unknowingly arrived at Syntagma Square on Sunday at 11am, the precise time that the weekly Evzone changing of the guard ceremony takes place at Parliament. The best free show in Athens! We’ve seen quite a few changings of the guard on our trip, but this one was the most fun. The uniforms involve tights, pom-pom toed shoes, and a pleated ‘kilt’ (let’s call a spade a spade, it’s a skirt).  The ceremonial march is a series of high kicks and slow toe points and shuffles, and looks like it was taken right out of Monty Python’s Ministry of Silly Walks.  

• We got to watch a stray dog who seems to make this ceremony his weekly routine, and marches and barks down the street ahead of the soldiers.

• Doing the Rick Steve’s walk through a small winding neighborhood up the hill to the Pantheon, we felt like we were on a Greek island!

Best Times:

Boarding an almost empty subway, suddenly it got really busy, and David felt a jostle. He instinctively swung his hand down at his hip, and knocked a guy’s hand away, who wastrying to unzip David’s pocket and get his iPod!  He dramatically fell backward, leaving the pocket halfway unzipped. The crowd of guys ended up not getting on the subway – this is just what they do all day.  We glared angrily at them from inside the subway car all the way until the train left (I think they learned their lesson).  But, it was more exhilarating than if it hadn’t happened at all, so we take it as a win.