Day 12 – August 17th, 2006

We woke up this morning to the boat docking in Athens! We’re back in Greece. This trip is incredible! We woke up bright and early at 6 a.m., had some breakfast, and then met our tour. Luckily our first stop on our tour, the Temple of Poseidon, was an hour and a half bus ride away, so we had a chance to get a bit more sleep. The temperature today was scorching, reaching what we think we converted to 104 degrees!!

We got off the bus at the Temple of Poseidon. After climbing to the top of the big hill, we saw the ruins of this grand temple, built 2500 years ago. We are absolutely amazed that these buildings remain from so long ago. It is unfortunate to hear that the reason why parts are destroyed is due to people, not to natural causes or weathering.

We stopped at the gift shop on the way down, where Amy found some books and posters that she wanted for her classroom, then back on the bus for an hour to reach the city center of Athens. We toured through the city on the bus, seeing Olympic stadiums and the homes of the President and Prime Minister. We then climbed our way to the Acropolis. Unfortunately the bus couldn’t take us too far, so most of the climbing was done by foot. It was hot!

Reaching the top of the Acropolis, we saw the magnificent Parthenon. Again, an incredible building still standing after 2500 years! It’s just hard to believe we were looking at something that old. We were blown away by the Greek’s knowledge of architecture and building materials. Again, it was another building that only saw destruction by the hands of people, not by natural causes. After standing for about 2200 years, it was bombed about 300 years ago as part of a holy war.

We spent time atop the Acropolis, then walked with our tour group to the Plaka (or flat lands – relatively speaking), which houses a large shopping district. We had lunch at a local restaurant. It was a traditional Greek lunch – pretty good. We sat with a nice couple from Nashville. They seemed to be pretty worldly, telling us about all of the cruising and traveling they had done. We were a bit skeptical of their worldliness though when they had no idea where Cleveland was, thinking Ohio was underneath Indiana! Oops!

After lunch we had some free time to explore the shops. We were a bit worn out from all the shopping at this point. There are only so many stores selling the exact same replica merchandise that we could handle – especially in the heat. We were happy to get back on the bus to continue our tour of the city and head back the boat.

Upon returning to the ship, we went out to the pool for a while. The sun cooled down big time and it was much more comfortable being up on the deck. Unfortunately, the main pool was crowded with a bunch of mischievous kids, so we headed to the adult pool. The adult pool was completely in the shade of the nightclub overhead, which is suspended over the top back of the ship like a spoiler on the back of a car. For this reason, the pool was frigid. After watching Amy’s teeth chatter away like it was February in Cleveland (note: it’s August in the Mediterranean), Seth decided it was time to get out of the pool and warm up under the sun. We relaxed for a long time, before heading to a late dinner at 9:30 p.m. Amy was so excited that crab legs were on the menu tonight!! Yum! Sittting one table over from us was that rude family from the Italian restaurant – they were at it again. It appeared as though they were having a heated conversation with the waiter, asking to talk to the head chef or something. They got up and left, and our waiter came over to fill us in on what just went down (apparently he could read us well and knew we were into gossip!). Apparently, the food was not up to their standards and they wanted to complain to the head chef that his food wasn’t any good. Keep in mind we just had king crab for dinner tonight. We’re glad we’re not the type of people who can’t enjoy a 12-day Mediterranean cruise because it’s not good enough for us. We’re loving everything about this cruise and would not change a thing (except maybe the length – only 2 days left?!?!). This is the perfect honeymoon. After dinner we went to see the Movie under the Stars – Over the Hedge, and then headed to bed. We’re looking forward to our day at sea tomorrow!