A magical Mediterranean vacation COMPLETED - Page 25 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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There are other changes as well.
Why? Well, the world has changed. And change with it, we must. The lyrics to "We Go On" for IllumiNations say it best:
We go on to the joy and through the tears
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Moving on with the current of the years.
We go on
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To a new day, we go on.
It's time to move on and move forward.
PassPorter is a small business, and for many years it supported our family. But the world changed, print books took a backseat to the Internet, and for a long time now it has been unable to make ends meet. We've had to find new ways to support our family, which means new careers and less and less time available to devote to our first baby, PassPorter.
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So we are retiring this newsletter, as we simply cannot keep up with it. Many thanks to Mouse Fan Travel who supported it all these years, to All Ears and MousePlanet who helped us with news, to our many article contributors, and -- most importantly -- to Sara Varney who edited our newsletter so wonderfully for years and years.
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So we encourage you to stay in touch with us and your fellow community members wherever works best for you!
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Those shots of the sunrise are quite amazing! Well done Cheryl! I would certainly have to agree with you that Pireus isn't exactly the most attractive port! It looks pretty gritty here and reminds me of Marseille once you get away from the harbor a bit.
That is some deal you got on the excursion and seems well worth it so far with the guide and extra amenities. I'm sure you could have done without the heat!
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October 6, 2017-Enjoying an amazing dinner at Victoria & Albert's with PP's Dot and Drew
My TR from my most recent trip is now underway. Includes: Universal Studios Florida, Disney World and Sea World Orlando Trifecta TR -Updated December 10th! TR is now COMPLETED!
I thought the bus would just let you off somewhere central and then let you fend for yourselves. They really did plus this experience. Nice to be lead in the direction of the Acropolis before being on your own. Over the years the approach to the Acropolis has changed. The first time I went, in 1964, you could take a city bus that got you most of the way up the hill. That must have been a very long walk uphill in the heat!
Oh wow, the bus journey would definitely have been preferable!
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That tour really was such a great deal! I'd like to see some deals like that on other itineraries!
I don't know if they have similar prices for do-it-yourself itineraries, as I've never looked at them before..
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You are right, that seems like a very low price to see the Acropolis, and with their financial troubles, they would do well to increase it even a little - with the number of people who visit each year, even going to $25 per ticket would likely mean a substantial increase to the government coffers.
It amazes me how both Greece and Egypt fail to capitalise on tourism, as I'm sure they easily could....
Those shots of the sunrise are quite amazing! Well done Cheryl! I would certainly have to agree with you that Pireus isn't exactly the most attractive port! It looks pretty gritty here and reminds me of Marseille once you get away from the harbor a bit.
Interesting you say that. We literally only did the city tour when we docked at Marseilles, and I thought most of the city was pleasant and not really gritty...
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That is some deal you got on the excursion and seems well worth it so far with the guide and extra amenities. I'm sure you could have done without the heat!
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Interesting you say that. We literally only did the city tour when we docked at Marseilles, and I thought most of the city was pleasant and not really gritty...
Marseille is a bit gritty to say the least, but you have to get a bit away from the harbor to see it. Probably, about a mile or so north of this part of the city and you'll certainly see it as we did last year. We entered the city from the north and saw quite a bit of it. Around the harbor and a bit north of it is quite nice as you saw as well.
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October 6, 2017-Enjoying an amazing dinner at Victoria & Albert's with PP's Dot and Drew
My TR from my most recent trip is now underway. Includes: Universal Studios Florida, Disney World and Sea World Orlando Trifecta TR -Updated December 10th! TR is now COMPLETED!
The price of this excursion would have made it my choice, too! I'm very impressed to with all that you got for that price. The parliament guards are definitely dressed in an interesting fashion.
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The price of this excursion would have made it my choice, too! I'm very impressed to with all that you got for that price. The parliament guards are definitely dressed in an interesting fashion.
They're well known for their outfits, so I was really pleased we got to see them.
We headed into the entrance of the Acropolis and through the turnstiles. We immediately found some stunning views over the city below, but as none of it was in the shade, I took some very quick photos, then we moved on to find some shade.
I cannot begin to tell you how hot it was. I have never been to Florida in the summer months because of the heat, but I’m guessing it’s probably similar to that, and later on in the day, a number of people told us this was actually worse!
From here, you also had an excellent view over the Theatre of Dionysos, which is cut into the southern face of the Acropolis. It was the first theatre to ever be built of stone. Famous names who had their plays performed here included Sophocles and Aristophanes. What you see today though is from Roman times, and can seat up to 17,000 people. They of course used it as a gladiatorial arena, complete with marble flooring.
We headed towards the steps up to the Acropolis and annoyingly, a lot of the tour parties were stopping there. I appreciate that it’s in the shade, but even so… Mark said you don’t realise how annoying tour groups are while you’re part of them, but we certainly knew about it today…
This is the Propylaia, the entrance to the Acropolis, and work began on this in 437 BC. It was originally a rectangular building, divided in two by a wall. There were rows of Ionic and Doric columns, and the vestibule would’ve had a blue ceiling decorated with gold stars. One of the two wings of the building was home to an art gallery, and it went through a number of different uses, including a residence for the archbishops, a palace and a Turkish fortress and armoury.
From here, we climbed up a bit more and then we were there and there was literally no more shade anywhere. You could see how slippery the ground was by how it was shimmering in the heat, so we very carefully made our way around.
Let’s backtrack to some history at this point… the history of Athens as a city dates back around 7,000 years, and it’s widely regarded as the birthplace of European civilisation. It flourished in the fifth century BC, when the Athenians controlled much of the Eastern Mediterranean. That’s when the buildings on the Acropolis date back to.
Of course, the big draw here is the Parthenon, one of the world’s most famous buildings, which was started in 447 BC. It was made to primarily store the 12 metre high (40 feet) statue of Athena Parthenos, and the temple took nine years to complete. Although it was built as a temple, like many of the other structures here, it’s had a number of different uses, as a mosque, a church and an arsenal for weapons.
During the 1687 siege of the Acropolis by the Venetians, General Francesco Morosini bombarded the Parthenon with cannon fire. The Turks, as you can probably guess from what I said earlier, were using it as an arsenal, and you can see what’s coming next… you got it. That was it, the ensuing explosion demolished much of the Parthenon, including the roof, the inner structure and 14 of the outer columns. Such a shame!
The little temple of Nike just above the Propylaia is my favorite building on the Acropolis. They used to open the whole site for free until 1am on full-moon nights and we would to sit under the columns right at the edge to look at the city and hills. I'm very glad they're maintaining the site, but it's sad to see the scaffolding everywhere. And you can't walk into the buildings any more. All that white marble reflecting the sun makes it even hotter up there.
This is one of the historical sights in the world you would never want to miss, but I can only imagine how distracting the heat might have been. It is still amazing.
I was there in September, and fortunately both the temperature and crowds were lower.
The little temple of Nike just above the Propylaia is my favorite building on the Acropolis. They used to open the whole site for free until 1am on full-moon nights and we would to sit under the columns right at the edge to look at the city and hills.
Oh wow - I bet that was amazing. I'll have to see if they still do that, as that's something I'd love to do whenever we get back to Athens.
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I'm very glad they're maintaining the site, but it's sad to see the scaffolding everywhere. And you can't walk into the buildings any more.
Interesting, as I did assume that once you could walk into the buildings. It's a shame you can't now, but I understand why.
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All that white marble reflecting the sun makes it even hotter up there.
This is one of the historical sights in the world you would never want to miss, but I can only imagine how distracting the heat might have been. It is still amazing.
I was there in September, and fortunately both the temperature and crowds were lower.
I would certainly never visit in the summer months again.
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I would certainly have to agree with you that Pireus isn't exactly the most attractive port! 
It looks pretty gritty here and reminds me of Marseille once you get away from the harbor a bit. 
I'm sure you could have done without the heat! 
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I'm very impressed to with all that you got for that price. 
Mark said you don’t realise how annoying tour groups are while you’re part of them, but we certainly knew about it today… 
You could see how slippery the ground was by how it was shimmering in the heat, so we very carefully made our way around. 
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