Athens, Greece and Home

Once we got into the Port of Piraeus we were entertained on stage by these Greek dancers who came on board.  They were accompanied by a four-piece band and changed into three different native costumes during the performance.  We loved them and the music.

Once we got checked into our hotel we went on a guided tour of the major sites in and around Athens.  Here is the Greek Parliament Building.

This was our tour guide, Roula.  She spoke excellent English and made the tour entertaining as well as educational.

This was Hadrians's Arch.

We went, of course, to the Acropolis and the Parthenon.  It was amazing to see up close.  Acropolis means "high place" and it can be seen from all over Athens.

The original Acropolis was destroyed during some of the wars here.  The ruins of the one above were rebuilt around 500 BC.

We visited the Acropolis Museum near the ruins.

Photography was restricted in many areas, but these goddesses were allowed.  One of the originals was taken to Great Britain many years ago and never returned to complete the set.

 These surviving treasures of the original Acropolis are about 2,500 years old.  

This is the World's only all marble stadium.  It was built to hold the first modern Olympics in 1896.  Sporting events are still held there.

About one out of every ten cars on the Athens' streets are yellow taxis.  Most are built by Mercedes Benz.  Traffic here is crowded and crazy.  Parking is at a premium.

 We are posting this last "Selfie" before we head home to Michigan tomorrow.  The weather has been absolutely perfect except one cloudy day in Venice.  People have been friendly and helpful and we never saw one mosquito!  Holland America is a first-rate cruise line.   Thank you for spending some of your time with us while we traveled on an excellent Mediterranean cruise and adventure.

We hope to see you again the end of December as we head to the Southwest U.S. to find out what is happening out there.

Bill and Karen

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Sailing Toward Athens, Greece On Our Last Day At Sea

This was sunset during our last Gala Night on Tuesday.

Here are Andy and Eddie, our waiters at each dinner.  They were both from Indonesia and did a great job of taking care of us each evening.

Here is some of the proof of their fine service.  Shrimp cocktail - yum.

This was sunrise this morning at our last day a sea as seen from our small ship balcony.

We will see Athens this afternoon.

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Cabin Room Art From Our Cabin Boy

Almost every evening of our cruise we found a new " critter" in our room when we returned from dinner.  We simply admired a few until we realized each was different.  After that we took a few pictures that you will see below.

Each creation was made from a simple small bath towel and a couple of flat beads for eyes.

Usually the animals were on our bed.

Some critters were hard to distinguish.

But all were soft and friendly.

The artistic talent is apparent.

Little perks like this have impressed us with Holland America Cruise Lines.

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Zakinthos is A Beautiful Old Greek Island to Explore and Admire

This is the town of Zakynthos on the southwest part of Greece.  Tuesday was another beautiful warm and sunny day so we did a "journey ashore."  Here we are on a bus going into the countryside above the port.

Like our last port - we had to take a ship tender to come ashore.  Here is the Prinsendam anchored out in the bay.

The landscapes were wonderful to experience.  In the middle of the picture above, far off on the hill is a memorial Cross dedicated to the "undesirables" that the Nazis threw over the cliff there during their occupation during WWII.

We visited this old monastery that was built in the 1400's.  Much of it was destroyed by an earthquake in 1953.

Many monks were buried in the cemetery of the monastery.

 We were surprised that some areas of the island were covered with thick forest.

This hillside was burned off by one of the many fires the island experienced this summer  due to extremely hot weather and also a few arsonists. 

This Olive tree was more than 5000 years old.  There are approximately  2-1/2 million Olive trees on Zakinthos.

We got a tour of this olive factory.

Here is the factory with old equipment on display to show how the olive oil processes have evolved over the years.

Inside we got a guided tour from this man.  He spoke very good English.  We learned that today the olives are heated first, and then the oil is extracted by centrifuges. 

The end of the tour included virgin olive oil tasting.

Besides olives, grapes are grown on the island.  The grapes are black and not used for wine.  They are made into raisins and most are sent to England.

Our bus tour ended up at the port town of Zakynthos where we saw this statue of the town's most famous citizen.  His name was Solomos and he wrote the Greek National Anthem that is played at the beginning of all Olympic Games.  He wrote 36 stanzas but we learned that only four are usually sang by the Greek people.

On Monday We Get an Extra Boat Ride To the Beautiful Greek Town of Itea

For the first time on our Adriatic Explorer Cruise we stopped at a town with no deep port at which to dock.  Therefore our lifeboats (tenders) were used  to shuttle us to and from the town as our ship was anchored out in the bay.  Above you see one tender coming and one going to Itea.

Here is what a tender looks like up close.

This is the inside of our tender.  Note the driver up above the passengers.

The weather was sunny and warm and we found this Greek Orthodox Church that was rather ornate.

Itea, Greece was laid back and the people were friendly.  It is near the Delphi Archaeological Site but we did not take the excursion trip to climb up the mountain to see it.  These white rocks in this town planter were unique.

The citrus trees and plants around the small town were impressive.  

Bill found this Greek Restaurant and liked the name.  The owner could speak English and came out to talk to us.  The town was really fun to visit and we found it hard to go back to the ship until we saw as many sites as we could.

Here is the local scooter repair garage.

After lunch we returned back to our anchored ship.  The water here was very clear and we hit a terrific day to visit an outstanding little town.

Sunday Was Another Full Day at Sea heading South so........

Because we have been on a Holland America Cruise before, we are considered "Navigators" on this voyage. Therefore we were invited to a Captain's Lunch on Sunday.  This is Captain Steve, above, who is filling in for the normal captain who was sent back to Amsterdam from Venice for training.

Bill took his fourth short class on Windows 10 in the Digital Workshop.  He loves this new feature on the Prinsendam, and has learned a few new tricks on the PC.

In the Showroom we heard a London singer named Penny Mathisen.  After that Karen headed over to one of her favorite rooms on the ship!  The casino opens only when we are out to sea.  She has been having fun there but we are not getting any richer - so far.

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On Saturday We Stop at the Croatia Port of Rijeka on Our Way Toward Greece

Rijeka is the busiest sea port in Croatia as you can see from the shipping containers sitting on the dock next to our ship.

Holland America provided complimentary shuttle buses into the downtown area so we went in to take a look.  As usual, the weather was warm and sunny.

In Rijeka we found the modern (here is McDonalds)......

...mixed in with the old parts of the city....

.... to the ancient areas of Rijeka.

This is part of the ruins from really ancient times.

The walk up to this castle was more than we could handle.

Saturday evening was our complementary night of fine dining at the Pinnacle Grill on the Prinsendam where we enjoyed surf and turf.  The food was terrific.

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Sunday is a full day at sea as we head south in the Adriatic Sea toward three stops in Greece.