Athens, Greece

Wednesday, October 30th, 2013

We were in Athens today for the 2nd time on this cruise.  We went into town on a "Hop-on, Hop-off" bus and had a great time.  We got to see a changing of the guards at the Parliament building's tomb of the unknown soldier and that is always fun.  There is so much pomp, so much show to the way the guards march on and off duty.  The shoes they wear are hilarious, with pompoms on the toes.  High leg kicks, a kilt with 400 pleats and exaggerated strides. 

There was either a strike or a protest march in town today.  We saw dozens of riot police with guns, batons, helmets and shields massing on street corners.  We did not see any violence.

We found the shop and shop owner that sold us our first carpet in 2005.  He and his wife both claim to remember the carpet we bought.  He had nothing in the shop today that equaled what we bought back then.  Kinda fun.

Notes:  All over Europe they have these corner roadside decorations that look like red lollipops on sticks.  They have writing on them and have eight sides.  They must be decorations since they are completely ignored, even by tour busses. 

Motorcycles have extra rights it seems. They go on sidewalks, across sidewalks.  They zip between cars and busses and trucks.  At red lights, they all wriggle their way to the front.  (Women pushing baby buggies do the same thing at crosswalks!)  Horns honk 2 seconds after a light changes from red to green.  It is amazing that we haven't seen any accidents.  There is zero traffic enforcement.

Just after midnight tonight we will dock in Mykonos, Greece.  When we were here a couple of weeks ago it rained like crazy.  Hope tomorrow is as pleasant as the weather has been the last week or so.  It is a wonderful small town to walk around.

Colleen and John