Visit the Paul Bailey's Beer Blog site

I had booked an excursion for when we docked in Piraeus, the latter being the port of Athens. As afirst-time visitor to the Greek capital, I was determined to view the city’smost famous site, even though tens of thousands of other visitors to Athens areas equally determined. I am talking about the Acropolis, and the Parthenon, thetwo monuments from antiquity, that are sited on a hill overlooking Athens, andthe two structures that everyone associates with the city.The trip I booked was a half-day one, departing at 8 am, andreturning at around 12.30pm. There was also an afternoon trip, but my reasoningwas the morning one would the cooler of the two. This might well have been thecase, but as I discovered a 1,500-foot-high hill, offers little in the way ofshade. Consequently, I made sure as much of me as possible was covered, and Isensibly wore a wide-brimmed hat, but despite my precautions the top of a smallmountain is not the place to be if you want to stay cool.
It was quite a hike from our ship’s berth at Piraeus to thefleet of waiting coaches, but one onboard I settled down in my seat to enjoythe journey from the port into the Greek capital. Being an organised tour, wehad a guide looking after us, in the form of a pleasant and quite feisty younglady. I can’t remember what her name was in Greek, but she told us to call her"Shorty." She wasn’t that tall, in case you haven’t guessed – something thatproved awkward, later on!
Our journey out from Piraeus took us along a very busymotorway and into Athens, passing on the way the Greek National Stadium, alongwith another sports arena belonging to some Athenian football club or other,whose name meant absolutely nothing to me. We also passed an attractive marinawhere a number of very expensive looking yachts were moored up. The coach thenbegan ac climb up towards the mountain where the Acropolis is situated, before eventuallyturning into a car park where a large number of coaches were already parked.This was not a good sign.
Before leaving the vehicle, Shorty gave us all a quick pep-talk,advising us to stay close to her, and not to wander off. She said that if anyof us, at any time, felt unable to carry on we were to let her know and shewould make arrangements for that person to be escorted back down. She boasted that she had never lost a tour member and had no intention of doing so on thisoccasion. To aid communication, we were all given a Blue Tooth device thatclipped over our right ear, in order to hear the commentary and follow anyinstructions she might give us. So far, so good!We set off towards the entrance to the monument, where therewas already quite a queue. Shorty warned us that as many of the steps, andwalkways were paved with marble, and thus could be quite slippery, so not forthe first time that day I was wishing that I’d brought my fold-up walking stickalong with me. Although it is quite a climb to the summit of the Acropolis,there are several flat stages along the way, so apart from taking the care thatwas obviously needed, I found the ascent quite easy. It was quite an ascentthough as we discovered once we eventually reached the summit.
The main difficulty was the sheer number of visitors, andwhilst the upward and downward paths were supposedly separated, in reality theyweren’t, and this led to all sorts of confusion as tour parties, of all sortsof nationalities mingled and became entwined with one another. It was at the summit,and close to the Parthenon temple that I became separated from our guide. Icould hear her talking, via my Blue Tooth earpiece, and as I could also see thered flag she had hoisted, in front of her, I thought was on the correct path,but as her voice became fainter, and started to break up, I realised thatperhaps something was wrong. I pushed forward, as fast as conditions and crowdswould allow to what I thought was our guide, only to discover it was adifferent tour leader, with a very similar looking red flag.
Panic set in for a while, as I realised that I’d lost theguide, but looking at the situation rationally, I thought that in the unlikelyoccurrence of not finding Shorty and the rest of the group, I could make my waydown to the entrance gates and ask a member of staff to get in contact withher. In the meantime, I continued my look around, marvelling at how high wewere, above the city, but also somewhat gobsmacked at the sheer numbers ofvisitors scrambling all over the flat, rocky and rather uneven summit. Fortunately,I recognised a fellow Brit from the Queen Vic tour party, mainly by the colourand design of the lanyard he was wearing and was soon reunited with the rest ofthe group.
Shorty hadn’t realised I was missing, along with anothermember of the party, but she did, quite sensibly, give out specific times for departingfrom the summit, and also for meeting at the exit gates, two thirds of the waydown. This still didn’t work, as after most of us met, as instructed, twopeople were still missing. I’m not sure how she found them, but eventually wewere all reunited and re boarded the coach.
On the way back to the ship, our guide revealed a lot offurther information about the Acropolis and its famous temple, along with apotted history of the area, the various figures from Greek mythology involvedwith the story, and how the temple ended up as a ruin. All this was whilst wewere driving through the centre of Athens, looking at several other importantbuildings, including the Greek Parliament, the former royal palace, the stadiumconstructed to host the first modern Olympic Games, and several other sites ofinterest.
We eventually returned to the where the Queen Victoria wasberthed in Piraeus and said farewell to ur vertically challenged guide. Therewere some shops, close to the boarding point, so I treated myself to a T-shirt,along with a few goodies for both Eileen and Matthew. Athens was the halfwaypoint on this particular cruise, with some passengers leaving the ship thereand new ones joining. We all had to pass through the obligatory bag and personnelscanners prior to boarding, but as luck would have it, I received a text fromMrs PBT’s inquiring of my whereabouts. I called her and arranged to meet at the restaurant forlunch, where a was able to regale her of my visit to the Acropolis, and how Inearly got lost. Despite all this, I’m really glad I undertook the tour and wasable to view the sights of this historic and world-famous monument.


Follow Blog via EmailClick to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.


More...