Aegean Day 1: Athens

I have long dreamed of cruising the Greek Islands, so when Steve saw an ad for one at a good price, we jumped at it.

After an exhausting 3-flight trip through Reykjavik and Copenhagen, we arrived at the Athens Gate Hotel 23 hours after leaving home. It's a classic old hotel with tiny elevators that fit the two of us with our luggage but barely. A 10-min walk from the Acropolis, the 8^th-floor restaurant where we breakfasted gives a fabulous view. 

After breakfast I went for a walk around the archeological park across the street. Traffic is heavy, so getting there was challenging with multiple crosswalks at the corner. (That's the acropolis through the arch.)

 

Our driver picked us up a little after 11. We had understood this was a medium-sized ship. Not so. It is one of the largest that exits--3-4,000 people in a holiday resort. (Someone complained last time that I didn't include enough pictures of the ship, so...)

This is the small, adults-only pool, but we never even used that.

Through the center of the ship is a promenade, mimicking the main street of a resort town with shops and bars.

It was multiple stories high. I definitely would not have wanted one of these rooms overlooking the noise.

Exploration led us to this small lounge on the 14th deck at the back of the ship. It was the only indoor place to sit out of the sun and view what we were passing. Everything else was geared toward the pool area with its live music and belly-flopping competitions.

We thought we couldn’t board until 1PM, but we could. We just couldn’t get into our rooms until 1. I was unimpressed with the steamtable buffet lunch.

“Our Danube cruise spoiled us,” Steve said, and he was right.

Dinner was in this elegant dining room, but with so many people to serve, it still wasn't hot. I resisted the temptation to ask for a microwave.

But our stateroom was lovely and spacious. Steve had ordered a room with a balcony. We were on the port side--landward for our clockwise voyage, so it was a great place to get away from the crowds.

 

We ended the day watching the sunset from our balcony. Very pleasant.