Athens/Pireaus & Corinthian II
Arrived in Athens after 6pm on 6/5 (our 36th anniversary). Darlene & Vivian were waiting for us along with our prearranged driver at the airport. We headed west to the port city of Pireaus, where we were dropped at our hotels. We are staying at the Phidias Pireaus Hotel which we found was #1 traveller rated hotel (on tripadvisor.com) in Pireaus. We were very happy with our choice & would recommend. Very clean, friendly staff & very reasonable price.
Decided to take a stroll down by the port closest to our hotel (this is just the small part of port that has the personal yachts). The guy at the hotel desk gave us a couple of restaurant recommendations and we walked until we found one. We had just placed our order when Vivian & Darlene strolled by & saw us & joined us for dinner.
We shared a half liter carafe of local red wine, split an order of Drunken Shrimp & then had the Mixed Grill for 2..... Oh, my, very good but couldn't finish.... I want to fit in my clothes at the end of our trip here!
We spent Wednesday morning exploring some of the port and side streets ( read lots of walking! ;-)... and grabbed lunch at Kali Pita (another recommendation) just down the street from the hotel. Had a wonderful "Bella Salad" & some cool rose.... Perfect for a very warm day!
Our hotel arranged for a free driver to the port from our hotel ( included with cost of room) & they happily stored our luggage for us while we had lunch.
After arriving at the cruise terminal, we were stuck in a huge line for a least an hour waiting to go through security. We were the only ones I saw with luggage. Everyone else was returning to one of the several mega ships in port.... Another reason never to go one one of those huge ships... Not my idea of a true vacation!
We located our ship very quickly, the only small ship there and were greeted very very warmly. They rushed to grab our luggage, gave us a welcome glass of champagne, had our photos taken for our ship cards( so they know when we are aboard or not) & were taken to our lovely room (#330). The room has a sitting area and a window and is basically bigger than either of our rooms in London or Pireaus!!!!
Bonnie, Vivian & Darlene to the drill!
We almost immediately met the four people that are on this tour through the Rice University Alumni and also met the nice man from New Bern, NC. All are very nice & this certainly looks to be a wonderful cruise. Apparently, many of these people have been on the Corinthian 11 numerous times. One of the mother/daughters we met told us of the trip they took last year on this same ship around the Black Sea...sounds like a very interesting trip.....
We had dinner and almost all at our table ordered the lamb chops which turned out to be very very good. They had two types of mint sauce that you could have with the lamb... I had both!
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Just before we were going to leave the dining room to go up to see the ship entering the Corinthian Canal, we were surprised when several of the waiters brought a cake with a spouting candle to us as they were singing " Let me call you sweetheart"! They did that in honor of our 36th anniversary the night before..what a treat!
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The Corinthian Canal at dusk
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