At the end of our Eurail trip, we caught a flight to Athens for our Mediterranean cruise and we
entered a very different world than Italy. It’s much drier and the language is much different. Read about our experiences
at our B&B and our day in Athens here.
At the airport, none of the metro info boards made any sense. We were heading to
Monasteraki, which I thought was a major metro intersection, but couldn’t find it listed anywhere. We finally found our way to the metro ticket station and when I said
Monasteraki, it was obvious to the attendant at least that this was a simple destination. He pointed us in the right direction and we got on the only train there. Inside, there was a nice map with our destination on it. I usually prefer to see my destination indicated before I board, but things worked a little differently here. At
Monasteraki, I amazingly picked the right metro exit without and we easily found our B&B.
We walked down the street to a little gyro restaurant and watched them cut meat off a heated rack to build the most delicious gyros ever, with sour cream, onions, tomatoes, French fries (yes, fries inside the pita wrap) and lots of meat for a price that seemed so small we felt we weren’t paying our way. Lots of fun. That evening we walked around the base of the Parthenon in the pleasant evening air and we were in love with Greece.
Gyros
We allowed a day in Athens before our cruise, so the next morning, we had the pleasure of not being rushed.. I planned an assault on the Acropolis by coming up through the Agora. We stopped at Hadrian’s Library, the Roman Agora and the Ancien Agora, which were pleasant, but it was hot. We then climbed up to the Parthenon in the heat of the day and joined the throng of tourists. Not on my list of fun things to do and I was so glad I had the pleasant experience the evening before. Similar to Rome, these sites are best visited in the evening when the temperature is better and the crowds are gone. We should have gotten up earlier that morning.
Erechtheion, besdie the Parthenon
After the Parthenon, we made our way on foot to the Athens Acropolis
Museum, which was not only interesting, but air conditioned. This museum is built over ruins at the base of the Parthenon and they’ve built a see-through glass floor so that you can walk over the ruins and look down. A very cool experience, especially if you have trouble with heights. The third floor also has see through glass, so on the main floor you can look down at the ruins or up at the legs/skirts of those above you. Very unusual. The museum has some great exhibits, but the plaster casts of statutes from the top of the Parthenon are a sad reminded that the British Museum holds the best treasures of Greece and won’t return what Lord Elgin removed. Another trip to gyro heaven was barely enough to revive us.
Athens Acropolis Museum
In the morning, we took the metro to Piraeus and then had more adventures as cab after cab turned us down for the trip to the ship. Most said no English and one indicated we were on the wrong side of the street. Eventually we found an expensive and short cab ride to our ship. What a relief.
CECIL HOTEL
Too bad that the Cecil Hotel
wasn’t a great place to stay. It had been recommended to us. The place smelled of a mix of smoke and room freshener, which got worse in the room. The bathroom door filled the whole bathroom and the shower had a kind of an umbrella shower curtain that could never quite cover the area that was exposed to water spray, so the floors got very wet. Obviously it was supposed to work that way, because there was a drain right in the middle of the bathroom floor. The room also had a warning that toilet paper should never be put in the toilet. No idea what they are thinking in Greece, but we ended up with a work around that involved being out a lot. I also noticed a faint rumble like distant thunder, but soon realized it came in a pattern of three minute intervals. Although we were 3 blocks from the metro, the underground subway was still close enough to unsettle our building. The breakfast at the hotel was lack lustre and way behind what we’d come to expect in Italy.
The elevator at the hotel was an adventure too. It was encircled by a spiral staircase and exactly fit the two of us and our two bags. It was a mesh elevator with a manually controlled mesh door. When you get in, they warn you to keep your hands back as it’s open and you can get your limbs and clothing caught between floors. It was eerie and fun.
Cecil Hotel B&B
Cecil Hotel B&B
Can't get past the door into the bathroom. Shower drains over entire
bathroom floor.
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