Athens

Artemison Jockey, 140 BC

We disembarked from the Cristal bright and early this morning for the city of Athens. We must be spoiled, I can't recommend the Louis Cruise Line, they just didn't seem to respond to customer needs, whether it be our dining arrangements or mixing drinks. They sat 10 of us at a table for 8, meanwhile there were 3 tables for 10 sitting empty nearby.



We used the morning to visit the National Archaeological Museum, one of the best in the world. It contains numerous pieces of stone, marble, and bronze from the 5th C BC through the 2nd C AD. The intricacy of the bronze pieces and the true to life depictions of muscles, eyes and fingers make you realize how advanced Greek art was in the 5th Century BC. To quote from "The Greek Way" by Edith Hamilton: "No sculpture comparable to theirs; no buildings ever more beautiful; no writing superior.... Little is left of all this wealth of great art: the sculptures, defaced and broken into bits, have crumbled away; the buildings are fallen; the paintings gone forever; of the writings, all lost but a very few."

Aphrodite, Pan, and Eros 1 C BC

We checked into our hotel, the Oscar and lucked out - we have a huge suite with its own air conditioner. Everyone else is complaining about the stifling heat in their room because the air conditioning was turned off weeks earlier, but we're having 70 and 80 degree weather.

This was also our day for Greek meals. We had some chicken gyros for lunch at an outdoor cafe near the museum. In the evening, we took the Metro (built for the 2004 Athens Olympics) to the Psiri region to have dinner, Greek salad and kabobs.