Mediterranean Iconic Shores Ocean Cruise

Day 11: Sunday, November 09, 2025 - Athens, Greece

The day's statistics:
-  Weather: rainy, upper 50s
-  Steps: Linda: 13,454; Steve: 17,412

This morning's routing was a tiny bit different. We didn't have an excursion until 10:00, so we took our time and had breakfast in The Restaurant. Linda had the egg benedict, and I had a veggie omelet with a couple sides.
As this was a transition day - a day when most passengers were leaving the ship at the end of their cruise - we were surrounded by tables with travelers that had luggage with them as they bode their time until they had to leave. We actually arrived, ate, and left while they were all still sitting around.
We returned to the room, washed up, and relaxed for a little until it was time for our excursion.

Today was the third (and last) of three days in a row that we had two excursions in one day.
First up was A Taste of Athens (when planning this trip, I made sure that the time between the end of the first excursion was long before the start of the second so that we wouldn't have the same problem we had when we were in Berlin on the Elegant Elbe cruise.
This tasting excursion was at least planned and organized around lunch - so we had that going for us.
Our guide was Annis, and our driver was Andreas.
The Athens Marathon was happening today. The race is named for the runner, Philippides, that ran from the battle of Marathon to Athens, Greece, in 490 BC, to announce "we won" the war. And then he, sadly, dropped dead from exhaustion. The distance between the two locations is 42.2 km - or 26.2 miles. This is what the race is named after, though pretty much all the participants survive afterward. We were advised that some of our travels may be impacted by road closures.
We drove into town to the main square, passing a futboll stadium and an arena used during the Olympics, some sights, as well as the government building.



















The bus dropped us off and we headed to the first stop across the main plaza.
We arrived and had a treat of koukori, a semi-sweet sesane covered bread. We shared one.



We crossed the crowded plaza again, in front of the government building we saw earlier, and covered some more ground.

The next destination was Santé for a custard filled dough called bougabs. Again, we shared a tray.





This snack was over, and we headed out to the next stop, weaving through the city for some more sights, including a very popular bakery, and some ruins - in the middle of the city that was built around them.










We briefly entered the Metropolitan Cathedral of Athens.








Then we stepped far enough away to get a decent shot of the front and its facade.



And we continued on with the route taking us to a "remote area" of the city where there were more ruins.








Eventually our journey brought us to our third eating destination - this time for our entree.

The tables were already set with with Greek salads - vegetables, but no lettuce, with a slab of feta on top - and wine.

Plates with large portions of gyro (pronounced e-row) were served, with big plates of tzatziki sauce to put on.


These gyros were SO good.
Before leaving the restaraunt, most of us made use of the facilities. Which were upstairs. On the second floor there was an opening that provided a view to the dining area below.

The restaurant - along with a number of others in the area - had some outdoor seating. Next door (or maybe a couple restaraunt down) there was a trio playing music as well.

I am so glad we did so much walking...
After lunch, we continued on, also viewing more ruins and other city sites.











Dessert was served at a location that first served the dessert called (spelt better in all caps due to the Greek letters) LUKUMAΔEΣ (I didn't get a picture of our serving, but borrowed one from their website - and ours looked pretty much just like this).


This eatery served gelato that was made with... Philadelphia Cream Cheese. Yeah, go figure.

We had our snack at the end of a busy street.

The snacking was over, and we traveled whence we came.
After making our way to the bus, we drove back to the ship.


The bus arrived back at the port, we passed through security, and made eventually made our way to our cabin.

After shedding our excursion items, and headed to the Living Room bar for some coffee. At the end of the bar was the display with afternoon snacks in it.

On the third floor of the atrium were some Nordic dresses on display.

Tonight we were heading into the hills for dinner four our Greek Heritage, Traditional Dinner & Folk Show excursion at a location called Zafiro Experience Greek Show.
Our guide was Alainy and our driver was Aturo.




At Zafiro, they gave a brief outdoor olive oil manufacturing demo, and then we went inside for an olive oil tasting followed by a buffet dinner with folk music and dancing.

On the buffet, there were quite a few "local dishes", including Greek salad, "grandma's" meatballs, baked eggplant, a pasta dish, and a couple others. Dessert had fresh fruit and some cakes.


The food was very good.
There were two primary musicians, and an emcee and various dances appeared for different performances. Some of the travelers were invited to participate as well.


I had the camera on a monopod that I tried to brace against the table for stability, and to film over the heads of the people sitting on the other side of our table.

After the performance, but before we left, we headed to the patio area that overlooked the city for a video landscape pan.

Then the group boarded the bus and headed back to the ship, passing the Olympic Statdium, and some other sites.

Today was, by a factor of almost an entire half-day, one of the latest days we had on the trip.
After returning to the ship and our cabin, we relaxed for a little, washed up, and went to sleep.

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