Today, we made use of the public bus. A special route named X80 is exactly designed for cruise passengers. We were a bit slow in getting ready today and didn't get out to the bus stop near this terminal until about 9:40 am. One bus had just left with standing room only. Fortunately, there was a ticket booth selling the €4.50 day passes, so we found seats on the next bus which arrived twenty minutes later.
In a bit more than a half hour, we were in Athens. The route offered just two stops in Athens: near the Acropolis and Syntagma (Constitution) Square. We disembarked at the first but mistakenly walked in the wrong direction to the site of the Olympian Zeus Temple. We saw pricing but rather than directly buying the €30 combo ticket, we walked towards the famous hill.
We entered the theatre side of the area and wandered hither and dither for a few hours. It was hot by 11:15. In fact, it was too hot and too crowded to attempt the top of the Acropolis. We decided to return to the ship for the afternoon and take another trip out towards evening.
Our day passes worked just great on the evening bus downtown too. This time we went to Syntagma Square directly. We were in time for the changing of the guard at the Parliament. The square and pedestrian-only streets were packed with colour and people. We spent quite a lot of time seeing the sites and watching the people. We noted the rail station near Monastiraki and came back to Piraeus by Metro. Of course, that meant a fair bit of walking on the port end. The MS Westerdam was in Port area A. We walked nearly a half hour to get back to our floating hotel, walking more than 13.4 kilometers today.
