Athens, Pireaus port

Rick Steves, travel guru, says you only need one day to look around Athens and then get out! He is quite right but more on that later. We decided to look around Athens on our return trip and get out to the islands first.

We decided to see three Greek Island: Aegina, Poros, and Hydra (pronounced Id-dra). We choose these because they were close by Athens by ferry and they were not islands that most tourist choose. They are island that Greeks go to when they go on vacation. We also are going at the end of the season. We risk that many shops and places to stay are closed. Weather-wise, it is lovely, less humid, warm and still sun-kissed.

Syntagma Square is the center of the new subway hub of Athens and is the easiest way to get to the port to take a ferry. We hop on a train bound for Pireaus and see glimpses of the Acropolis and the Temple of Diana. However, I couldn't get good pics from the train. Here is a picture of the apartment balconies. They look a little French and then you can see bits of the Mediterranean.



This is the train station at the port.





Interesting iron work.






And this is me on the ferry watching the scenery!



The shades of blue and aqua are not adequately shown in this picture! The camera cannot catch the amazing colors our eyes can see. I will spend most of the trip unsuccessfully attempting to catch the colors of aqua and turquoise I see.



Aegina in the distance