He Came From Greece He Had A Thirst For Knowledge.

We went to Athens on a cruise once before, and did a full day tour where we saw too much in too short a time and decided.... never again!

Yet for some reason we came back. This time, with the help of George The Famous Athens Taxi Driver, (I kid you not, that's his name, look him up on tripadvisor), we were hoping to exorcise ourselves of the bad Athens experience and replace it with "fun Athens".

Before we came, we looked at the places we visited last time and decided which ones were our favourites and must sees and which we could miss. George reluctantly agreed to our plan, and although we told him to miss out the Olympic Stadium, he managed to accidentally on purpose still drive by it slowly twice!

We started with The Parthenon and the Acropolis. It was much better than last time, much cleaner, fewer cranes and less scaffolding. After that we sat in the car for ages while George explained the history of Athens and the buildings and all the mathematical equations that went into it's architectural design. Things being curved, things being narrower but looking wider, things being wider but looking longer, and the golden mean, by which times my eyes were glazing over because of the bonine I'd taken.

Next up was the Agora with the Tower of the Winds, followed by the Ancient Agora, which I'd missed last time as it was too hot to leave the air-conditioned Archaeological Museum there. This time we got there earlier and cooler and had a great time exploring.

One last stop at the Library of Hadrian, another quick drive by of the Olympic Stadium and it was time for lunch. George wanted to take us to a "local restaurant for local people", but we asked if he'd mind taking us to a tourist restaurant on the Plaka instead as my stomach was lurching all over the place and I just wanted soup and bread, and Tom wanted a souvlaki. George said that Greeks don't usually have soup on the menu at this time of year, but he knew one restaurant that did, Vyzantino, (Byzantino to us), and sent us there. In the end we had fish soup, bread, taramasalata, moussaka and souvlaki. Not bad at all.

After lunch we broke the news to George that we were really tired and would just like to see the Temple of Zeus and the panoramic view of Athens from one of the hills before heading back to the ship.

By now it was 1pm and the Temple of Zeus was really hot, so I sat under a tree while Tom explored. Our final panoramic view of Athens from the overlook was amazing. Athens really is a huge city.

George is a great character, has travelled a lot and previously lived in Sydney and in The Bronx. He asked us whether he spoke english with an australian accent or an american one. We said no, he spoke it with a greek accent!