Athens & At Sea - April 17-20, 2012

The next evening after the ship sailed from Egypt, guess what was on the dinner menu – pigeon!  It was quite tasty.
At sea lectures:
A lecturer on ‘The Sahara’ provided a good recap of the history and explanation of some of the mystery of this large multi-national and multi-cultural portion of Africa.  We definitely know we are not ‘sand people.’   (An interesting factoid:  The original Star Wars movie was filmed in southern Tunisia and place-names used in the movie are actual locations in The Sahara.)
Final lecturer on the Concorde and speculation of the future of fast airline travel.
Interview with Master of the Queen Elizabeth, Captain Julian Burgess – he’s been working ‘at sea’ for 33 years which is remarkable given that he is only 50 years old.  He was on the P&O cruise line, Princess cruises and now Cunard.

Tugs helping

The morning of April 18 upon arriving at Piraeus, Greece, the port to disembark for Athens, the wind speed is over 65 knots and the rain is pelting the decks.  The Captain makes an announcement to reassure everyone regarding their safety and continues to provide updates about efforts to enter the port. The ship has picked up the harbor pilot and has made an attempt to enter to dock, then is directed to return to sea. Then we learn the port has been temporarily closed.  Our ship has to move further out in the Saronic Gulf and the ship lists quite a bit as we come about in the strong winds.  The Captain tells us that as long as the wind is this strong, the ship will not re-enter the port.  The ship is turned into the wind so as not to list and sits in the Saronic Gulf awaiting port-authority word on whether to reattempt entry.  Finally, 3 hours later, the wind has abated, the port has reopened and we are given clearance to dock.  We require two tug boats to help us to the berth because of the narrow entry to this port and reestablished winds. Since the ship is docked perpendicular to the wind and presents a rather huge profile to the elements, the two tug boats remain, fully engaged, along side of us, keeping the ship pushed up against the dock, with the fulltime assistance of the ship’s stern azi-pods and bow side-thrusters, and with the ship lashed front and back with all available lines. It’s like a day-long rugby scrum between Nature and the devices of man.

Street Scene from Bus

Athens side street

Odeum of Herodes Atticus

Everyone heads ashore on tours.  Some tours have been dramatically shortened because the ship is still planning to depart on schedule at 5 PM.  For example, the tour to Corinth will only allow for a traverse of the canal and no tour of Corinth itself.  We decided on a tour that is just the Acropolis and a drive-by of other Athens architectural highlights.  Our tour guide is young and friendly.  A few questions about the unrest are deflected although she does tell us that the bitter oranges growing on the trees were used as projectiles by the protestors.  There also seems to be a lot of graffiti which she laughingly says that yes, it is young people doing it but graffiti is a Greek word!  And she also says we won’t see any protestors or demonstrations today because it is raining and people therefore will probably just go to work…..form your own thoughts about the future of Greece!

Where Paul preached (Acts 17)

View to Parthenon

Eroded detail

Rennovation at Parthenon

Back to the past, Greece has such a long history with a rich culture.  Along with the many islands and coastal towns, it is a destination requiring much more exploring than what little time we have today.  The weather also isn’t cooperating as it is a little drizzly and the wind is blowing in excess of 25 mph.  You can imagine how windy it is on the rocky Acropolis outcrop.  It’s even difficult to hold the camera steady enough to shoot pix.  We wander around and explore, snapping pictures and taking in the amazing views.  Even though the site is constantly under restoration/renovation, there is definitely more there to see than one would expect.  Yet, like Cambodia’s Angkor Wat and the Egypt’s pyramids, your imagination has to come in to play.

The Parthenon other side

The Caryatides

The Erechtheion

Temple of Zeus

Temple of Hephaistos

Back on the ship, our planned departure is delayed due to the winds again picking up.  Finally around 9 PM, four hours later than planned, the Captain-and-crew, pilot and three tugs jointly direct a logistical ballet to somehow launch us out of the wind-blown, tiny-and-maze-like ship-filled harbor.  We note that along with us, one of the other cruise ships also wisely waited to depart.  The departure was a very interesting operation to watch from our balcony at night.

Puzzle Pieces Numbered

The Arch of Hadrian

Now the ship is back at sea and sailing into a 32 knot headwind.  We are notified at noon by the Captain that the ship will be making an itinerary change.  Because we are not able to sail at the speed we need to arrive on time at Civitavecchia (the port for land-tours to Rome and Tuscany), the ship will take an extra day at sea and skip Monte Carlo, the port after Civitavecchia, in order to have a full day in the area of Rome.  For us this is not a big deal as we have both been to Monte Carlo before.  While Monte Carlo is an interesting city, the surrounding Cote d’Azur/Provence area is definitely of more interest to us and we wouldn’t have had any time to really see it.  So……we are at sea for another day and then Civitavecchia on Saturday.  We hope that the weather will cooperate for Lisbon, Portugal (next Tuesday, and the last port of this trip on Steve’s bucket list), our final port before disembarking in Southampton to change ships.

 



The Stadium (marble!)

Let Sleeping Dogs Lie



Sail Away from Athens