The Full Acropolis Experience

Today we took our first Viking excursion. The excursion was called “The Full Acropolis Experience.” Our tour guide’s name was Marianne and our bus driver was Costas – short for Constantine. Marianne is from Athens as all the tour guides are local. That way they give you a flavor of the local culture by their stories and their personalities. Marianne was very friendly, witty, and of course, knowledgeable.

We rode from the port where the bus picked us up to the Acropolis, with Marianne pointing things out along the way. There were beautiful views of the coast of Athens. 

We saw some people swimming in the sea. Marianne said that people swim all winter, as the water is warm and the sea temperature doesn’t change much during different seasons. The port of Athens is called Piraeus. 

It is the largest passenger port in Europe. We passed the many different kinds of ports: besides passenger, also cargo, fishermen ports, and some beautiful marinas.  The name of the street we drove on alongside the sea was Poseidon Boulevard, which makes sense, because if you remember from Greek mythology, Poseidon was the god of the sea.

Marianne said that when they don’t understand something, unlike Americans they don’t say “It’s Greek to me” as that would make no sense. Instead they say “It’s Chinese to me.” Due to Marianne’s wit, it was hard to tell if she was serious or joking about this.

Athens is one of the world’s oldest cities; it was built in the 5^th century BC. Marianne informed us that the city was built by Constantine (the Great, not our driver). Every time an attempt is made to put up a modern building, they first have to excavate, and almost always find ruins from an earlier time. Athens is considered a center of philosophy, as both the Plato and Aristotle schools of philosophy are located here. Athens is also considered to be the birthplace of democracy.

As I mentioned in yesterday’s blog, you run into ruins almost everywhere. As an aside, there are also lots of cats roaming around in Athens. We saw them from our hotel room – in the street below, on the rooftop of the house across the way, wandering along the pedestrian streets and sidewalks. And today we saw cats wandering in and out of the columns of the Parthenon. Not that that has to do with anything, just thought it was a curious thing.

The Acropolis is the name for the hill that the temples are built on – the most famous one of course being the Parthenon. The Acropolis is the most visited archaeological site in the country. It is the second highest spot in Athens and provides a beautiful view of the city of Athens below. 

(The highest hill in Athens is occupied by St. George Church.) 

Hill with St. George Greek Orthodox Church atop it

The bus dropped us off at the bottom of the hill and we climbed up to the top via a pathway consisting of a combination of steps and sloping walks. The walkway was made of marble and so was quite slippery even though it wasn’t wet. You had to carefully watch your footing. At the top, we visited the different ruins with Marianne giving us the story behind each one. 

There were a number of temples. The most important one, according to Marianne, was not the Parthenon, but the temple of Athena and Poseidon (they shared a temple).

Temple of Athena and Poseidon

The Parthenon, one of the most famous buildings in the world, is a magnificent site. Because it was built in the 5^th century BC, it is a symbol of Ancient Greece. The Parthenon was built as a temple to Athena, who was the principal goddess worshipped by Athenians at the time. All the temple buildings on top of the Acropolis are made of marble, with the Parthenon being the most stunning.

Parthenon

As tends to happen in the ancient world, there was a time when some of the temples were destroyed by invaders. When Greeks re-gained control, they rebuilt the ones that were destroyed. To differentiate between the original and re-built temples, today they are referred to as the “new” and the “old” temples, with “new” temples being 2500 years old. That shows how long this place has been around.

While we were at the Acropolis, someone in our group asked Marianne if she knew where the hill was located where Paul gave his speech, a reference to Acts chapter 17. The place in the Bible is called the Areopagus. It was not far from where we were standing, as Marianne pointed it out to us.

Another interesting bit of information from Marianne: The word agoraphobia has a Greek origin. Agora in Greek is a meeting place or place of assembly, and the area of the Acropolis was known as the Agora. Combined with the word phobia (fear), the origin of the word agoraphobia has an Acropolis connection.

After we left the Acropolis, we walked to the Acropolis Museum. This museum was very well done. They kept it simple and didn’t overwhelm you with facts. It was set up to complement the Parthenon. A lot of the statues that typically would be at the Parthenon are kept here instead to preserve them so that they aren’t exposed to the outdoor elements, weathering, and discoloration caused by smog and pollution. There are replicas of the statues at the Parthenon, but the originals are kept safe and sound (and clean) in this Acropolis Museum.

So that was it for our excursion today. A few other things that I’d like to share –

Even though it is only our second day on board the ship, I am already addicted to the chocolate gelato in the World Café. It is absolutely delicious – so smooth, creamy, and rich. Hard to resist!

Our ship was supposed to leave the port in Athens at 2 p.m. today; however, we didn’t get away until closer to 3:30. The reason: Greece Security and Passport check. When we returned from our excursion, before we re-boarded the ship, we had to wait in a very long line and have our bags (purses, backpacks, etc.) passed through security (just like at the airport) and then show our passports to two Greek police officers. Yes, a very long line – only two officers. It was agonizing. I know I’m on a cruise and it’s petty to complain about a small thing like that, but I’m going to do it anyway. We were tired and hungry and didn’t enjoy standing in this long, slow moving line to get back aboard the ship. I know – first world problems. Anyway, none of us could figure out why they chose to do that at this time rather than yesterday upon our initial arrival when we first boarded the ship. Oh, well.

Also, we were a bit confused about our cruise. We booked this cruise which – we thought – started in Athens and ends in Bangkok, and was called The Voyage of Marco Polo. But every reference to the cruise and all the information about our excursions that we were given seemed to indicate that the cruise ends in Mumbai. They are even calling it Passage to India. We were wondering if perhaps we got on the wrong ship! So we called guest services and learned that because the cruise is so long, they divided it into segments, and this segments goes from Athens to Mumbai. Some of the people aboard will be disembarking in Mumbai and new people will be coming aboard. They reassured us that we were booked all the way to Bangkok. Whew! Also, we met a couple today from New Zealand that actually started this cruise in Barcelona, Spain and will continue on after Bangkok to Auckland, New Zealand. I thought we were in for a long cruise but their total time is over 90 days. 

When our ship did finally set sail today, it was rather exciting, since we are after all on a cruise, and this was the beginning of the cruise part of the trip. You could hear the engines start up and see the water churning as the Viking Mars slowly headed away from Athens and out into the great Mediterranean Sea. 

Joe and I went out on the balcony and watched, and even enjoyed a show spontaneously put on for us by dolphins doing their thing – jumping in and out of the water – alongside the ship. I think they were escorting us out of town.

One more thing about the trip and then I promise, I will be done for the day. In the Viking newsletter that we get delivered to our room each day, with news about the trip in general and that day’s activities in particular, there was a note about a certain aspect about the operation of the ship. The newsletter noted that we shouldn’t be alarmed if we see white smoke emanating from the ship; it is merely due to their ongoing efforts to protect the environment. Either that or we’ll be electing a new pope while aboard ship. :-)

And I’ll leave you with that!