Tuesday, August 23rd, we arrived in Piraeus, the port of Athens. The previous night the Captain advised that we would have "moderate to rough seas". We slept very little. We kept thinking about how we would get out if we capsized and what we would use for flotation since all the life jackets were stored on the top sun deck in a locker. We were scheduled to dock at 6 a.m., but it was almost 8 a.m. before we docked.
The two OAT groups split up as we disembarked. We are scheduled to meet up again in Athens for dinner on the last night of our trip. Since our time in Athens was very short, our group decided to spend a couple of hours at or near the Acropolis, on our way to Arachova. We decided to walk around the Plaka since we had been to the Acropolis in 2002. We sat down at a sidewalk cafe' and enjoyed a delicious chocolate and banana crepe. Yum!
Afterwards, we drove about 2 hours to Arachova (after lunching at a quaint roadside restaurant in the country). Arachova is about 2500 feet above sea level and is a beautiful little mountain village. Its high season is during the winter ski season. It reminded us of Murren, Switzerland. Our hotel (Hotel Anemolia) sits on the side of the mountain with a spectacular view of the mountains. This is a completely different atmosphere than the Greek isles. After checking into the hotel, we walked back to the village to explore. There were lots of photo opportunities around each corner you turned.
That evening we were given a Greek cooking lesson from the chef at the hotel. We learned to make Moussaka (layered eggplant, potato, zucchini, ground beef/sausage, topped with a Bechamel sauce that made an excellent crust), Spanakotiropita (cheese and spinach pie), and Tzatziki (yogurt, garlic, cucumber, oil and vinegar). Our reward was that this became the appetizer for our dinner. After dinner we managed to Skype with folks at home. With an 8-hour time difference and poor internet connections, communication with home has been rare.
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