First ports of call: Kotor and Athens

1. Kotor, Montenegro

Waking up the first morning and pulling back the blinds in our little cabin was wondrous: the ship was in a bay closely surrounded by mountains on three sides and we were in a country that few have heard of and that we had never planned to visit!

See the Great Wall of Kotor going up the mountain side?

While others took planned tours to the tourist hot spot, we walked past and viewed the outside of the old fortress-which seemed to snake its way up the steep mountain-on our way to a little beach in the hot sun. We really enjoy swimming in the ocean! The beach looked straight out to the ship with its backdrop of mountains and we questioned ourselves what it would be like (or what would happen to us!) if we swam right up to our enormous ship. Would we have a thrilling moment...followed by silence...if the wind changed direction against the floating behemoth...? We decided we would just swim near the beach and not try anything too daring before the expensive world trip we were paying for was over.



2. Athens, Greece

After the over-priced tour groups had left the ship, we leisurely picked out our choice of breakfast from the buffet and exited the ship via the exit of choice for the day (a gangway this time, not a tender boat). We were looking for a local tour company to show us - in one day - this famed town of Gods, Greeks and Romans.

A local Greek hop-on-style bus vied for our attention with its group of sales people waving flyers, while the international hop-on bus salespeople cried out equally for our attention a bit further up. We scoped out the pitch and decided to think globally but act locally for this one.

A friend had told me that riots are practically a right of passage for Greeks and I couldn't help but notice that Athens looked like it may have still been reeling from the 'millennia before'.

On reaching the highlight-the Acropolis-we stepped off the bus and walked up toward the ticket booths. The estimated line waiting time was near two hours and, hey, we had seen plenty of similar ruins before... so we explored a great city look out, which was the famous Mars Hill (more later), before we finally smacked ourselves in the head and remembered that we were in Athens...how could we not go to the Acropolis!? Our grandchildren's stories wouldn't make the cut if we said we had not been bothered to go in to the Acropolis!

Looking out over Athens from Mars Hill

We climbed down from the slippery marble crop of Mars Hill remembering that it was here that St Paul responded to the people of Athens with their multitudes of gods stating"Men of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. What you worship as something unknown, I will now proclaim to you." He went on to say that God desired a personal relationship, unlike the other gods they worshiped, and that by repenting of their pride and rebellion they could stand on judgement day covered by grace.

Leaving this place of historical significance we set our sights on the larger tourism magnet. Putting our smarts together we recalled another entrance that most tourists don't know about, which was just a short walk down. A ten person line awaited, then we were in to the Acropolis precinct!

Up on the Acropolis mount

A funny moment was when a body builder took his shirt off for a photo and a lady rushed over, whistle shrieking, saying it was "not appropriate to do that here!" and forced them to delete the photos taken. What a joke! The stone art work of the place practically venerates sculpted bodies, sometimes they are wearing even less! But there's no point arguing with a whistle, so the boys covered up and went on their way.

At the Acropolis lookout point over Athens the Greek flag flys; but when the Nazis took over during WW|| the flag pole flew the feared swastika. Two brave young men decided to make a statement that would reverberate through the nation. As the first sign of rebellion from the stricken nation, they climbed the steep cliff, and tore off the Nazi flag. Incredibly they lived to tell the tale, despite the fact they were sentenced to death (in absentia) by the Nazis.

We left the Acropolis plateau and bussed our way through the sights of Athens. Unsticking our skin from the melting plastic of the bus seat (up top of the bus) we felt that one day in Athens was sufficient for us. Then we smiled as we returned to our air conditioned floating hotel.

Amanda