Twenty Four Days by Land and Sea in Europe - Port Call: Piraeus, Greece

Day 4 of our cruise - third port call in three days - really excited to see Athens for the first time.  

While clearly a tourist town, Athen's place in history is undisputed and thus somewhere we had to visit.  After docking at Pireaus, we walked out of the terminal looking for a way we could get to the streets outside the terminal to negotiate with a taxi driver for our short tour of Athens' highlights.  

First though, we talked with the taxi drivers inside the terminal area to find out what their prices were ($125 Euros for 5 hour tour).  Once we knew this, we went hunting outside the terminal, but on the way there, Valerie chatted up another driver who was sitting having a coffee.  When we told him what we wanted, he told us he would meet our offering price - 80 Euros - but that he'd need to meet us outside the terminal area.  So we set off walking to left, past the big tour buses until we passed through the terminal area out into the bustling streets of Pireaus.  Guess it isn't that hard to pick 4 Americans out among the Greeks when one is silver haired and 6' 2" and the two ladies are 5' 9'' blondes.  Jorge (his name) picked us up and off we went towards Athens, taking side streets and getting to know Jorge and his story.

Jorge had been a taxi driver for 20 years.  His English was perfect and his patter along the way was both informative and witty.  Turns out he had also done several years aboard a cruise ship so he had a very good idea of packaging the limited time we had ashore to show us the highlights his ancient city has to offer.

On the way to our first stop - the Acropolis - we saw some of the venues created for the 2004 Olympics.  Jorge dropped us off at the bottom of the Acropolis hill in the bus/taxi stand and said he'd be back in 90 minutes to pick us up.

So we walked up the hill a couple of hundred yards on a left diagonal to stay away from the hordes of people congregating on the right side of the hill.  Turns out we needed to buy tickets to enter the attraction; fortunately, the ticket office turned out to be on the left hand side so we had headed in the right direction.  

The line though was another story -- there were at least 50 people in line and it was moving really slowly.  After checking to make sure that this was the line we needed to be in, we figured we'd be waiting for a while -- until a young lady with an official looking card walked up and offered to take us on a guided tour -- oh, and she had someone in line who would buy us tickets - 30 Euros per person (the tickets alone were 20 Euros) so the additional fee for our own guide was only 10 Euros per person.  

As an aside, this -- guides offering to sell you tickets as a shortcut to long ticket lines at popular attractions are not unusual (the Vatican for example) -- but make sure you know how much the tickets are beforehand so you can figure out how much you are paying for your guide and spend a minute or two talking to them to make sure you can communicate with each other.  The other thing you may be able to do ahead of time is to buy them on-line - Museu d' Orsay is a perfect example - to short cut the line.  Unfortunately, you can not buy Acropolis tickets on-line so you either buy them at the Acropolis ticket office, or you buy the "Special Package Ticket" for 30 Euros that gives you the Acropolis and the other highlights of Athens.  Here is a link... Athens City Pass

Here are just a few of the 100+ pictures from our visit.  Our guide was exceptionally knowledgeable and did a great job explaining both the history and on-going modern restoration efforts.

After the Acropolis, we raced down to see the changing of the guard at the Hellenic Parliament building.  Jorge had timed it perfectly - we got there with about 15 minutes to go and got perfect front row positions to watch the preparations.  Here's a great link that explains what happens and why - Changing of the Guards - Enough to say that we thought our time spent watching this ceremony was very well spent.

Current Guards are in the shade of each small building 

Here comes their relief with the Sergeant of the Guard who commands the change over

Statue commemorating Olympic competitors

On the way down to the Plaka for lunch, we stopped and took a snap of the statue above, perfectly framed by wispy clouds and trees.

Ah, eating in Greece...  We had headed for the Plaka for lunch because there are so many restaurants in the area and it is close to the Acropolis and Hellenic Parliament.  We had a specific restaurant in mind and thought we'd ask one of the restaurant folks where we could find it.  Here is my Trip Advisor report on Arcadia

"We were heading to another restaurant in the Plaka and stopped by Arcadia to ask directions. Tasos patiently explained how to get there and by the time he'd gone through it two times, we knew we'd found the right place to eat. What can you say about a place that's been in the family for three generations and your host guarantees you'll like the food or you eat free. Not long after sitting down we realized we were the only tourists in 7 tables - the rest occupied by one extended family and friends celebrating a birthday - so we ate late lunch with the local Athenians. Great start to our meal; followed immediately by complimentary draft beers. We took Tasos' recommendation of a family recipe cabbage salad (with pomegranate, blueberries, and chopped apple) - excellent - followed by their mixed appetizer plate (yum) one order of stuffed zucchini, one of spinach pie, one grilled squid, and one moussaka. All four of us loved every thing we ate. When we were truly stuffed, Tasos brought us out complimentary after dinner drinks and a small piece of cake to share. Our total bill was 75 Euros - 11 Euros less than we'd paid the previous day for lunch on Corfu - yet we ate more (and better) food, three extra large draft beers, and the aforementioned after dinner drinks and cake. We'll be back on our next visit -- in the meantime, if you are in the area, you should try it."

https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g189400-d1501262-r376105989-Arcadia_Restaurant-Athens_Attica.html#

The food was truly excellent

Toasting another fine dining experience

Tasos is in the lime green shirt

After lunch, Jorge whisked us back to Vision of the Seas in time to catch our afternoon entertainment - acrobats in the Atrium.  One of the things we truly enjoy about cruising is how much there is to do on the ship and entertainment aboard "Vision of the Seas" was even better than usual.

Athens and Mykanos are on back to back port calls - the Royal Caribbean folks have got that right - you are still reflecting on today's wonders when you start thinking about tomorrow's beauty.

Twenty Four Days by Land and Sea in Europe - Port Call: Corfu, Greece

Our next stop after Kotor was our first stop in Greece -- Corfu.  Corfu is located in the Ionian islands and just about as far north as you can go in Greece.  When you look at the island on a map, about half the island is north of the Greece/Albania border.  

We docked at Corfu city and we headed off on foot to see the "New Fortress" and old town Corfu which is a World Heritage site.  The walk up the hill to the New Fortress was pretty easy -- finding the entrance though was a bit challenging.  We walked into 

Zucchini Flowers on sale at the Corfu Fresh Food Market adjacent to the New Fortress

the market and were impressed with the variety and quality of the seafood and vegetables.  We were even more impressed by the proprietor at the Popular by Christoforos, a small coffee bar/restaurant in the market place -- he noticed us looking around like we might be lost and asked if he could help.  He pointed us to the cleverly hidden -- and completely unmarked -- entrance to the New Fortress.  Really appreciate locals who take the time to help folks that are visiting their town.

Once we got into the fort, we were happy we'd made the climb - the view of the harbor and surrounding area was beautiful.

View from the New Fortress

Looking up at the New Fortress

As you can tell from the pictures, we were once again blessed with amazing weather -- a trend that had started on the first day of our road trip, and would continue throughout our cruise.

From the New Fortress, we headed down the hill for Old Town Corfu.

Lots of shopping 

Walk down the hill from the New Fortress 

Our Lunch Restaurant - Mike really liked his Seafood platter

Old Town Corfu was charming -- lots of shopping and restaurants, cobblestone streets, and colorful buildings.  We bought a couple of Greek style shirts (15 Euros each) and some soap made with Greek olive oil.  We were fascinated by the cars we watched traversing the narrow streets, made narrower still by cars parked on both sides of the street.  It seemed there was some kind of informal agreement that cars coming from the right hand side of the intersection would back up to allow cars entering on the left to pass through the intersection.  After watching this for 15 minutes, we were glad we weren't driving through Old Town.  We ate our first lunch in Greece at a pretty decent restaurant (pictured above) before walking back to our ship along the waterfront which took about 25 minutes or so.  All in all a very nice stop -- and I feel the three hours or so that we spent walking, shopping, and eating lunch was the perfect amount of time for our Corfu visit.

Twenty Four Days by Land and Sea in Europe - Port Call: Kotor, Montenegro

We were greeted with Chamber of Commerce weather for our first visit to Montenegro.

Getting there aboard Vision of the Seas was just amazing...  Look at the map below and you can see the maneuvering we had to do to get from the Adriatic to Kotor all the way over on the right -- including that narrow passage where we turned right on our final approach to Kotor.  

The next 5 pictures were taken along the route into Kotor - great sailing by our Capitan and crew.

Starting the run in...

Making our first big turn...

At the narrowest part of our passage...

Made the turn, heading to our anchorage...

What a backdrop - looks like it could be in Alaska... We tendered in from our anchorage

Welcome to Kotor

The town is completely charming - Cobblestone streets, small churches, and sidewalk cafes.

And if you want some serious exercise, you can climb the hill in the background

This is the south entrance of the old town's castle

Map of the town, castle, and fortifications on the hill above the old town

It is quite a hike...

Kotor is famous for its cats

Our port call in Kotor was half a day - plenty of time to wait for the tender lines to slow down, go ashore, walk from one end of the old town to the other, do some shopping, stop in a cafe for a local beer, and still get back to the ship with plenty of time before we left.  It was an easy walk from the tender load/unload point to the old town -- no need for maps or guided tours if the old town is your ultimate objective.  If you are feeling spry and full of energy, climbing the hill behind the town which takes more than an hour up and 40 minutes or so back down is a great way to burn off some of that energy.  I expect the view from up top, particularly on a clear, warm, and sunny day like the one we enjoyed, would be a pretty awesome reward for your effort.

We left Kotor when the sun was hiding behind the mountains surrounding the city and sailed back to the Adriatic - rewarded this time by the lights of the small towns along the way reflected in the water as we glided past - a perfect first port call aboard "Vision of the Seas".

Twenty Four Days in Europe by Land and Sea - Embarkation Day in Venice on Vision of the Seas

Embarkation in Venice - just has a nice kind of ring to it...  After 5 days of running around Italy on the land, time to take to the sea on Royal Caribbean "Vision of the Seas".

Mike and Liz are big time RCCL cruisers so we were really looking forward to them showing us the ropes on our first RCCL cruise.

We arrived at our dock right after 11:30am -- very uncrowded curbside and unlike Fort Lauderdale or Miami - you pull your own bags from the taxi to the security screening point - its a short pull - 20 yards or so.

Embarkation check-in was quick and easy - helps to travel with Diamond level friends :) and even though this was our first RCCL cruise, our status on sister cruise line, Celebrity, was acknowledged as "Platinum"  on our cruise cards.  We walked directly on board after check-in and immediately bought our 7-night wine package for dinner - 7 bottle package - in "Vision's" beautiful central Atrium - have to get your priorities in order after all.  

The Florida 4-some is already sporting a fab tan...

Pulling our into Giudecca Canal  

Cruising past the waterfront we'd walked the previous day

Rush Hour

Saint Mark's from the water

Toasting Departure

Close up of St Marks

As you can tell from our pictures -- and that we were taking them from the rail (and not over someone's head), finding a port side (ship's left side) rail on one of the top decks is a must for your departure from Venice.  Since we'd boarded early at 11:30 and able to get into our rooms by 1:30, we headed upstairs about 30 minutes before our scheduled 4:30pm departure (we actually left at 5:30 due to ship traffic) having already unpacked our bags, explored the entire ship, and changed our table in the main dining room - thank you Maitre'D Jose Martin from Portugal!  Our original table was right in the middle of the dining room and a little pinched room-wise -- never one to settle for "good enough" when "perfect" may be available -- we ended up in the only four-person window table in the entire dining room -- created specifically for us before dinner each night.  RCCL really stepped up - Bravo!

One note we hadn't thought about with respect to fixed dining times and cruiser demand.  Having done January and April cruises in the Caribbean this year, we found that "Early Fixed Dining" is the most popular time; in Europe with a greater proportion of Europeans aboard, "Late Fixed Dining" is the most popular time.

Waterfront dining each night

We met our waiter - Ante - from Croatia and his assistant Nadya - from Russia - when we were seated at our table.  Ante and Nadya were a perfect team and made us look forward to dinner with them each night.  Once they figured out we liked wine and bread -- we had nice big wine glasses and a fresh basket of bread waiting on our table each night.  Little touches like these make you feel special and truly add to your travel experience.  Our food in the main dining room was varied and very well executed - we left each evening after our 2+ hour dining experience laughing and happily full. 

With a sea day following our departure from Venice, we were able to get into the swing of our cruise, explore the incredible artwork in the stairwells aboard Vision of the Seas, and come to appreciate the cruiser friendly layout of the ship.  We also remarked on the great location of our rooms Deck 2 - 2572 and 2574 - Starboard side, midship.  Two floors up to the the main dining room, three to the Central Atrium show room, and away from the typical ship noises (anchors, thrusters, and main engines) you hear during docking or anchoring if your cabin is too far forward or aft.  

This was also our first "Ocean View" (vice Balcony or Mini-suite) cabin in 10+ years -- after spending our first day and night aboard we looked at each other and remarked, "Spending half as much on our cabin than we usually do means we can cruise twice as often for the same price..."  We loved our cabin - it was everything we needed -- and what we didn't have, our cabin attendant took care of, perfectly, each and every day (we didn't have a fridge so he filled up three ice buckets for us twice a day to keep a bottle of white wine and two bottles of water chilled).  Also have to note that we had a nice bottle of Moet Chandon Champagne waiting for us when we got to our cabin -- courtesy of American Express Cruise Privileges Program (which we also found out included a free 1 hour massage in the spa).

As it turned out, we needed our sea day to store up energy for the next 5 days  - a different port each day - Kotor, Montenegro;  Corfu, Piraeus, Mykanos, and Agrostoli in Greece - then another sea day to recover before arriving back in Venice.  Our next posts will focus on our port calls....

Twenty Four Days by Land and Sea in Europe - Renting and Returning Rental Cars in Venice

As noted earlier, we drove from place to place in Italy, utilizing rental cars we'd reserved through Auto Europe.  I was very pleased with Auto Europe's pre-departure coordination through their service desk and our cars were ready and waiting at Fiumicino airport and Venice Mestre Railway station as promised.  The cars were exactly as advertised and were sized to fit 4 adults and their bags.  I did not intend to pick up our car leaving Venice at the Mestre Railway station but it was what my reservations said.  As they say, you learn more from your mistakes so this was a learning experience.

As mentioned in an earlier post, I dropped off our first rental car in Venice at the central rental location adjacent to Piazzale Roma, about 1/3 mile or so from the cruise ship docks.  This was a great drop off point, but if I had paid more attention, dropping it off at the Mestre Railway station would have been better since we were staying in Mestre.  Ditto for our pickup at the end of our cruise, it would have been better to pick up the car at the Piazzale Roma location rather than the Mestre Railway station.  In either case though, both of these locations would be preferable to picking up/dropping off at the Venice airport which is farther away and more complicated to get to via public transportation.

Hertz Map - but other companies are in all three places

These are the addresses from the map

So with perfect hindsight, here are our recommendations:

1) If returning a car on day of the cruise embarkation, drop it off at Piazzale Roma.

2) If you are picking up a car on the day of cruise debarkation, pick it up in Piazzale Roma.

3) If you are staying in Mestre pre-cruise (which we did) drop it off at the Mestre Railway station (Stazione Ferroviaria Mestre above).

4) If you are staying in the Venice area for a couple of days post cruise and then flying out of Venice, pick it up at Piazzale Roma and drop it off at the Venice Airport (Aeroport Marco Polo).