Goodbye Sea Cloud & Hello Pireus - Port of Athens

Wednesday, July 13 - Trip Day 14

And so, today is our day for debarkation from the Sea Cloud.  We were due to arrive at the port of Pireus this morning around 4:30 AM.  I was awake at 5:30, but we had stored our luggage up against the door and I didn't want to move it all to take a morning walk.  So instead, I went through the photos I'd taken in the last few days and sent copies of photos to our new friends as I found ones of them.

The crew picked up our suitcases, as promised, at 7:30 AM, and we went down to breakfast and sat with Skip and Kris  We learned from them that our sister ship, the Sea Cloud II is in port, right behind us.  That's exciting!  We all had a leisurely breakfast and Paula airdropped our slide show from last night to us.

Sunrise at Cruise Terminal docked in Pireus

Looking good up there!                

Our sister ship, the Sea Cloud II, parked behind us at the dock

The Odysseus and the Orpheus docked in port - not the luckiest names for ships

Goodbye to our Sea Cloud

Farewell, Sea Cloud 2

Most people were going right to the airport, but we had booked our return flight for tomorrow.  Our new friend Connie, is also staying until tomorrow and she had booked a tour of the Acropolis through Lindblad.  She had gotten permission from them to add us on the tour.  And, lovely surprise, our guide for the day would be Effie - who has been on the boat with us these last 2 days.  Connie, Effie, Michael and I left the boat at 8:30 and climbed in our awaiting Mercedes black van, with our driver Harris.

We traveled through Pireus, which Effie told us was already an important port in the 5th century BC.  It's a very big and commercial port now, but it's actually a number of smaller marinas all linked together.  There is one large section for cruise ships.  Effie was surprised to see only one large mega-ship in port - and thought that would mean we are lucky, as the historical sights would be less crowded today.

We saw the mariner's church of St. Nicholas, and two sports arenas and a stadium that had been used for Olympic beach volleyball.  Effie said at one time Pireus and Athens were separate cities, But they merged into one large suburban mass some time ago.

Saint Nicholas - mariner's church