American Mom in London: Greek Isles Cruise: Port of Athens

The forth port of our cruise was Athens. Athens was a great city for a cruise port. There are some pretty amazing sights in the city, but you can easily cover them all in one day. We got an early start off the cruise ship and were planning on taking a taxi into the city center and seeing the sights on our own. However, we were able to negotiate a private tour with a taxi driver for a reasonable price which ended up being an efficient way to see the city, especially with a toddler in tow who could care less about the ancient sights of Athens.

We started out our tour by stopping to see the Temple of Olympian Zeus, the remains of the largest temple in Ancient Greece. Our next stop was the Athens must-see, Acropolis, the most important ancient site in the Western World, where the Athenians built their ancient masterpiece; the Parthenon. The trek up Acropolis hill to get to the Parthenon was incredibly hot and crowded but well worth it. Seeing the Parthenon in person was yet another bucket list item that I can now cross off thanks to all of our European travels. After the Acropolis, we made a stop in the Plaka (Athens shopping district) for lunch. We tried some traditional Greek souvlaki, meat and vegetables grilled on a skewer served with pita bread and cucumber sauce. We then concluded our tour by stopping at the Panathenaic Stadium, the stadium which hosted the first modern Olympics in 1896.

We were able to see more in our four hour tour of Athens than most of the cruise excursions saw in a full day. Plus, we were able to get back to the ship early and enjoy a nap and then some pool time while everyone else was still in Athens. Colin spent some more time in the nursery this night while David and I dined at the specialty steak restaurant. Another great day of cruising!