Interestingly enough, the ship has to get permission from the authorities to enter the port so the arrival time is just an estimate. I watched as the tug approached and guided us into port. We were very close to the predicted arrival time, so that was good. Today we decided to do our own thing in Athens. We took a bus from the port to the center of the city. Once off of the bus, we headed to the Acropolis. The views from the top were amazing as were the ruins themselves.
As we were heading to lunch after climbing down from the top of the Acropolis, we were passing by some buildings and Dawn mentioned a building that just had windows drawn on it instead of having actual windows. When I looked, I did see what she was talking about, however, it was not a building with drawn on windows, it was a building that was under construction and the tarp covering the construction had windows drawn on it. Once this was pointed out to Dawn, she said it was all about perspective.
We ate lunch at a nice restaurant. The restaurant had cooling fans, which were very welcomed as it was quite hot, and we had just exerted some energy with our trek at the Acropolis. Cindy was happy as she was able to get her chicken gyro. Dawn played it safe and got grilled chicken and I got lamb gyro. We also split a spanakopita. The food was fantastic. The waiter was not warm and fuzzy, but he got the job done.
After lunch, we did a little shopping. Again, no discussion regarding what we bought as some are gifts and there will be no spoilers here. After some shopping, we went to watch the changing of the guards at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. The whole ceremony was incredible. I need to look up more information about why they step the way that they do – that is what is the symbolism of it. Once I am able to find that out, I will update this page. The guards dress in classic uniforms. One thing that I found interesting was that after the guards changed, another soldier (it appears that he is there to watch over the guards) approached each guard and wiped down their faces. After that, the guards went into a small hut – each had his own right next to him – and the soldier when went into the hut, poured some water, and then poured the water into the guard’s mouth. The guards did not move while any of this occurred. Once they had their water, they then returned to their post outside of the hut. Again, I do not know much more about this ceremony, and I will definitely do some research once I have a Wi-Fi signal that will cooperate. I will also post some pictures.
Other points of interest that we saw were the Columns that marked a memorial to the Greek God Zeus and Adrian’s Gate. More on these after research. The guide told us about these, but I did not take any notes, so I cannot give more detail now.
I just want to note that the salesperson in one of the stores that we went into was very nice. She told us about Athena and the evil eye.
Okay, that is all for now. I know that this post is lacking information, but it has the highlights and as I noted above will be updated soon.
As always, thanks for reading.