Today we arrived back in Athens. The cruise we are on is almost the same one week cruise for two weeks. In Athens, some folks left the ship and others joined us. Since we boarded the ship last Sunday in Athens, we weren’t able to tour the city then.
Today is another HAL tour. Our bus left the port about 8:15. A short drive to the acropolis. This acropolis one of about 200 in Greece.
This area represents the Venetian, Greek, and Roman Culture. Each used the same location and built on the other ruins of previous cultures. Arches and bricks are from later Roman construction. Greeks used huge blocks while Romans found it faster to use bricks.
Lots of tourists but I am guessing it is a fraction of who is here in normal times. There was a lot of climbing in the heat. We grabbed a coffee at a nice cafe.
After lunch, our guide took us through a museum and stopped at the most important pieces. The first pieces was used a timer. Water was put into the vase and it poured out of a hole in the bottom. 6 minutes was the time limit for a senator addressing citizens.
The next piece was a series of discs with names on them. These were used by members of the Senate to eliminate members they thought were unworthy. Names of those that should be removed were placed in a bin and then counted. One woman next to me said “Joe Biden”.
The next piece was a child’s potty chair.
The final piece was a shield used by warriors from Sparta. The shield weighed almost 50 lbs.
Our final stop was a large parthenon that had about 7 pillars remaining. One of the pillars was on its side and one could see the hole in the middle that was used to line up the pillar when it was assembled.
We returned to the ship about 4:30 pm and headed to the Lido deck for dinner. We joined Tim and Kelley for another game of euchre on the back of the ship. Terri and I won and moved the tally. 3 games to 3 games.
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