Second in command log: 7/15/2010, our voyage continues. After leaving beautiful Capri we set sail in our travels for Athens, Greece.

What we were looking forward to most was seeing the sites of the ancient civilization of Greece. The Acropolis is the center that contains the Parthenon and many ancient temples and ruins so we booked a tour that included these sites. Due to the political climate at the time we decided to book our tour through the cruise line this time. Booking through the cruise line is usually more expensive but with the cruise line responsible for your safety it is more secure so we were more comfortable doing it that way.( Hint: Be careful booking cruise packages thruogh the cruise line, you can end up with airline tickets for a red eye flight) We like to use a tour in most cases because of the insights and knowledge that can be gained from an experienced guide but many people prefer to set out on their own. If you do you can get a lot of information from the purser’s office on where to go and precautions to take. The purser is available 24 hours so if you want to avoid the long lines that are usually there it is best to go late at night, between 12:00 and 6:00 AM or even call from the comfort of your cabin. After touring the Acropolis our bus took us to the Olympic Stadium. The structure there was built in 1896, for the first modern Olympics, on the site of the ancient stadium. From there we went to the tomb of the Unknown Soldier where we were lucky enough to catch the changing of the guard ceremony. The bus next took us to Hadrian’s arch in downtown Athens where we went out on our own to shop and site see for a couple of hours.

One thing we have learned on a cruise, to avoid the high fees for internet service on board ship, is to look for internet cafes when we are in port. We also set out for my traditional Hard Rock café t-shirt. I always like to get a t-shirt in the places we visit and I have found that that buying it at Hard Rock it doesn’t shrink 2 sizes when I get home and wash it, until now. The t-shirt I bought in Athens shrunk the first time I washed it, very disappointing. After lunch there we found an internet café and for one Euro for 20 minutes we were able to contact home and let everyone know how we were doing. We met our bus back near Hadrian’s arch and headed back to the ship for a relaxing evening, entertainment and dinner before our next stop in the morning, Turkey.