Athens on Sunday

One of the stadia built for the 2004 Olympics

The Parthenon is the highest point on the Acropolis

The female columns in the Temple to Athena and Poseiden

The marble stadium built for the 1896 Olympics and today's starting point for the hemi marathon today

Statue of discus player opposite the 1896 stadium

You can see the white replacement blocks of marble among the yellowish original blocks

Two things hit me when we sailed into Piraeus harbour at 8am this morning:  the chiming of Sunday church bells and the smell of diesel fuel.  I could do without the smell but the bells were hauntingly beautiful.  We enjoyed a leisurely breakfast up on deck because our tour was starting quite late.

This was because the HMI, Athen's hemi-marathon race effectively closed down the city all morning.  Also, being a Sunday,  a weekend with nice weather AND the Sunday of a long weekend (Friday was Labour Day), meant that there were few people about (after the race) and traffic was quieter than usual.

Our itinerary was straightforward:  leave Piraeus by bus for Athens by 11:30am, visit the Acropolis until 2pm, admire city sights from the bus until 3pm, then indulge in some retail therapy at a recommended store before returning to the ship for a very LATE lunch on the pool deck.  We COULD have returned to Piraeus - or taken the train back to Athens until the evening but frankly there seemed little point in it.

However, if the city was quiet today, the Acropolis was packed with tourists.  Our ship had arranged nine busloads for this tour alone and there were countless bus loads of other nationalities there too.  Taking photos was fraught with problems: jostling for position and getting a clear shot.

But for all the long lines and photographic hassles, the Acropolis is magnificent and the views over the city are second to none.  My favourite part was the Temple to Athena and Poseiden with its columns shaped like women. I was disappointed to learn they are not the originals, as they are stored undercover in a museum in down town Athens - not counting the one that Lord Elgin whipped off to London 200 years ago along with the marbles he removed from the Parthenon, which are in the British Museum.

Athens has been working towards a tourism led economic recovery since winning the 2004 Olympics. It seems that opinions are divided about whether the games actually helped or hindered the process.  Given that 40% of Greek businesses went broke during the GFC, it's an interesting point.

What the Olympics did achieve was fix the infrastructure and to clean up the city, but it was an expensive task.  The jury is still out if tourists are going to start visiting here in large enough numbers.  The other focus has been on restoring the Acropolis and other archeological sites to make Greece a more appealing o tourists.  It is clear that there is a fine line between restoration and renovation but the Greeks seem very comfortable walking that line, and they do it well  Our guide showed us the yellowish original marble and the brilliantly white replacement sections dotting the ruins.  It was all very interesting and marvellous to see these amazing structures up close and personal.

Tomorrow is a sea day, so it will be very relaxing.  Our next port is Corfu.  Stay tuned for that one.