Athens, Thursday.

The ship sailed overnight Wednesday into Thursday to Piraeus, the port nearest the Greek capital Athens.

There are several ways to eat meals on board, by buffet, a regular sit down restaurant style or an upmarket restaurant.  The first two styles are available at no charge and are included in your fare.

So last night we booked seats in the sit down restaurant. During booking the restaurant we were asked if we would be prepared to share.  As it turned out the people we shared with we knew!  They were Val and Bill, who are friends of Carol and David we know from Melbourne.  Our room is 7131, their's is 7130 which is on the same deck as ours but the opposite side of the ship.

Upon our arrival in Athens, and instead of booking one of the organized incredibly expensive ship's excursions, a group of 6 of us had considered booking a minivan and driver instead of the overpriced ship's tours to Athens on Thursday.

So for half the price we had our own minivan and driver.  We thoroughly enjoyed a drive around the nearby coast, driving by millions of dollars worth of luxurious boats and cruisers and the 20k's into Athens.

Currently there are 5 cruise ships in port. We visited the Acropolis but did not enter. The place was literally crawling with tour groups pushing and bustling up and down the steps. I don't think we missed a lot by not going in.  We found  a pretty good spot to get great (but distant) views of the Acropolis and Athens.

We also saw Hadrian's Gate, Zues' Temple, the modern marble Olympic stadium and watched the fascinating changing of the guard at the Princess' Palace.

We were driven through Athens with a running commentary from the driver.

We saw around what we had hoped to see.  The major remaining thought which we all noticed was how the Acropolis dominated the Athens skyline.

We set sail at 4:30 this afternoon for Istanbul where we are due late afternoon Friday.

The weather forecast for Istanbul is for rain.

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