it’s taken me over a week to get around to our final day of this cruise and disembarkation…..the reason being we both picked up “Cabin Cough” on the cruise and it took us a week to get over it….I often seem to get it cruising, it’s the air conditioning which brings it on and this time we had an inside cabin….a never again scenario…….The evening before we had put our cases outside our door before midnight….a much better time than cruise lines which want them before 9.00 pm….When we got up in the morning they had bern magicked away. We had to leave our cabin by 8.00am and we went down to the restaurant for breakfast. We then sat in a lounge. We had requested a late disembarkation. The ship for the first time all cruise was relatively quiet. At 10.00 am we wandered off the ship and down to the baggage collection …our suitcases looked a little lonely all on their own in area 21….but hey they were both still there, so that was good news.
We ad found out, onboard that the ship did offer an airport transfer at 2.30 pm which would really have suited us but it hadn’t been advertised on their excursions or transfer so I don’t know how we or our travel agent were supposed to know about it…it would have been a great deal cheaper than our excursion was, which we booked through DialaFlight who had booked it through Viator.
Anyway ….we sat outside waiting for our driver for our excursion to Cape Sounia & Temple of Poseidon. We had selected this excursion as it was an area we hadn’t seen near Athens and also it was advertised as between 4 and 5 hours so we wouldn’t have to spend as long at the airport. On the dot of 10.30am a smart gentleman carrying a sign with our name on arrived and introduced himself as John. He quickly went off and bought the car around. It was a Mercedes’ cream coloured taxi. …..Off we went along the coast which was full of pretty coves and mariners occupied by some very fancy yatchs and pleasure cruisers.
We stopped off at a “hidden gem” …a large lake which was filled with from hot water springs attached to an intricate cave system…..it was quite fascinating, a bit smelly but we soon got used to the slight rotten eggs aroma you often get with hot water swims…we wished we’d known we were stopping here as we would have kept our costumes and towels out.
We stopped again for a view of the Temple Poseidon across the bay on the top of the headland.
We continued to the Temple car park. Although it’s an easy walk up some shallow well spaced steps I didn’t feel up to it, so John went on his own. He paid €10 at a kiosk and up he went.
The Temple of Poseidon is approx 70 Km away from Athens. It is deemed an important sight aprt from the archaeological remains, Cape Sounion is also famous for its beautiful sunset and the great views of the Aegean Sea…….it is the last point you see as you sail away, on the southernmost tip of the Attica peninsula. In the past, sailors revered the sea god, Poseidon to grant them safety and fortune on their long voyages.
Made entirely of white marble, it was erected in the middle of the 5th century BC and built to honour Poseidon, god of the sea.The first version of the temple was built during the Archaic Period but it was destroyed by the Persians in 480 BC. It was rebuilt around 440 BC. The temple was 13 columns long and 6 columns wide. Unfortunately, not all columns stand until today. A 5-meter-tall statue of Poseidon used to stand inside the temple. Nowadays, the only part of it that has survived is displayed in the Museum in Athens.
John returned raving about the views and how unbelievable it felt to be amongst something so old. We had a drink and returned to Driver John and the car. We had now seen everything included in our tour so Driver John took us to the airport….unfortunately our tour had only taken just three and a half hours…..we could hardly ask to go around the route again ….we had enjoyed the tour but we were a little disappointed that it was so short…there had been a lot of tours for this length of time at a much cheaper price but we had selected this one to use up some of the time before our flight.
We arrived at the airport at 2.00pm and fortunately found two of only a handful of seats….and there we sat…..we couldn’t do anything because we had our large suitcases with us as well as our hand luggage…the desk for luggage drop didn’t open until 6.00 pm …We sat out the 4 hours … at about 5.00 pm a queue started at the baggage check in for Easy Jet ….we didn’t get in it straight away as there were two flights going out before ours….but as they didn’t open the check in until 6.
John eventually joined the queue and after and hour and a half I joined him for the last 15 minutes. By now we knew the flight prior to ours was 2 hours late and ours was 30 minutes late…..what seemed like forever and a day passed and eventually we boarded the plane and had a further 50 minute delay….Thankfully immigration, baggage and customs were quick at Gatwick and we our driver Albert was waiting for us…we walked through our front door totally and utterly exhausted at spot on 2.00 am…….what a journey …..no wonder we were both ill for a week !!!!!…”Avoid Athens airport at all costs” is the reminder engraved firmly on my brain…..never, never again…..and as for the actual cruise….well, I’ll do a good and bad points follow up to this blog shortly….thanks for travelling along with us hope you enjoyed the tour…
2 J's World of Adventure 