PAGES OF US: Eastern Mediterranean Cruise: Piraeus {Athens}, Greece

{Piraeus is where the port is located, but it's very close to Athens}

We Aaron and I woke up early today because we had to meet with our excursion group at 8. Aaron was able to workout and get ready all in the time it took me to get ready and our bag packed for the day. Connor must have been exhausted because he was the first to go to sleep last night and the last to wake up this morning.

All sprawled out.

We went to the dining room and had a quick breakfast. All the waiters and waitresses loved Connor. They always complimented his hair and gave him high fives.

"Here's a pastry daddy."

We arrived in Piraeus at 7:30 and then went to meet our group in one of the lounges. We followed the guide to the bus and were greeted by another guide. She was an older woman who explained all the sites while we were on the bus tour. Unfortunately we could hardly understand or hear way in the back of the bus.

View of Athens from our balcony.

Connor kept himself occupied with his iPad.

{The next 7 pictures were taken in a moving bus, through a window.}

Harbor for personal boats and luxury yachts.

Homes/apartments overlooking the harbor.

Two stadiums. I believe she said the one on the left is for football.

Old Royal Palace with tomb of the unknown soldier in front.

{Next 3 pictures are famous for their use of neoclassic architecture.}

Athens Academy

Athens University

National Library

Our first stop was to see the Panathenaic Stadium. This stadium is where the first International Olympic games was held in 1896.

Left: A statue of George Averoff, the man who funded restoration of the stadium, is in front of the stadium. Top Right: A tiny gift shop for the stadium. Bottom Right: I liked how the bathrooms had Greek symbols for the restrooms.

We got snacks at the concession stand for the bus ride.

Our final stop allowed us to shop or sight see for a little over an hour. We listened to our guide talk, and then we took off.

Olive trees where everywhere, which is why olive oil is the main product of Greece.

When we left our group, we were right in front of the steps leading up to Acropolis. Aaron really wanted to go to the top, but I was iffy. Connor wasn't light on my back and I didn't want Aaron to hold him because of his healing clavicle. After Aaron kept talking about it, I decided we would try. About halfway up we realized we had to buy tickets and the line was too long. {Darn! ;)} The pictures from the bottom of the steps would just have to do.

The Panthenon

Acropolis Museum

Arch of Hadrian

Remains of Temple of Zeus.

We did a little shopping after exploring. There were tons of shoe stores and I am kicking myself for not buying any.

Left: Huge sandal in front of a shoes store. Right: Traditional wool shoes.

Our bus picked us up in front of this statue of Merlina Mercouri {a Greek singer, actress, and politician}.

Connor made friends with this sweet man from Australia.

When we got back to the ship, we ate a quick lunch and then all took a nap. We were tired from constantly being on the go.

He fell asleep fast!

When we woke up, Aaron brought us a snack to the room.

Goodbye Athens!

We spent about an hour at the pool and then got ready for dinner. We took a few pictures with one of the photographers that we thought were going to come out really cheesy, but they were actually quite cute.