We arrived in Athens at about 7 am today. The city was very beautiful to see from the ship as it is quite hilly. We toured the city and went to the Parthenon and walked the Acropolis, which was built about 500 BC. There have been many restorations undertaken of this area and it is still an ongoing process. The entire structure is composed of tall columns of marble that were removed from a quarry that is several miles away. The tall columns are made of several disks of which each weighs 5 tons. The Greeks had an ingenious method of transporting the columns to the mountain top by putting each disk on a cart pulled by horses and they stacked the pieces on top of each other using a wooden crane. The whole project has resulted in a very beautiful structure that has been visited by millions over the centuries. We then visited the Olympic stadium. We learned about the origin of the Olympic games and that Marathon racing also originated in Greece. We also saw lots of historic sites and governmental buildings, museums, and hospitals, one of which was donated by Aristotle Onassis, the shipping magnate, and is known for cardiac care.
After the tour, we decided to have an authentic Greek luncheon. We walked along the pier area and found a lovely local restaurant named Gato Mediterrano. They specialized in seafood. We had a delicious whole fish, giant shrimp, and a nice salad along with Greek bread and mussels as an appetizer. After the fish was presented to us for our approval, it was then filleted and the head and the tail of the fish were presented to us on a separate plate to demonstrate that the complete fish was being served. At the end Tin had a cup of espresso and Sue had a cup of green tea. It was fun to eat along with the local people and the wait staff seemed to enjoy our being there. Everything was very good, but expensive for us as the dollar and the euro exchange rate has increased with the rate now 1.69 US dollar equaling 1 euro on the day of our visit.
All in all the city is nice and clean and the people were very friendly. Greece along with Egypt, Malaysia, Australia and Singapore are the five most visited countries by tourists of the world. So far we have not been disappointed with any of these locations we have visited.
Tonight we look forward to watching the final of the NCAA basketball tournament. They are showing it for us at 8 pm. This is better than at midnight as they did the semifinal games. We will be at sea for one day and then arrive in Sorrento, Italy.
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