The view from our breakfast table on the top floor of the Hotel Grand Bretagne is spectacular – with the acropolis outlined against the morning sky. It is nice to take time and enjoy a leisurely breakfast. While we have enjoyed all of the excursions on our cruise, it was a busy ten days, with something new to see or visit every day. Today we are on our own schedule, though the things we intend to tour are the result of recommendations from our guide of yesterday.
We decided to walk from the hotel to the Archaeological Museum – this is the museum that holds the treasures found at many of the sites that we visited on our cruise. It was a long walk but the weather was perfect, and this was one way to see more of the city. We walked along the busy shopping streets, passed some of the important buildings, then turned up the street to the museum.
Treasures in the Archeological Museum in Athens
This is a fabulous museum – the most important museum in the world devoted to ancient Greek art. The golden Mask of Agamemnon is there as well as the finest treasures of the ancient Mediterranean.
We spent several hours there, then met friends from the ship who were also staying at the Hotel Grande Bretagne, for dinner. Later we walked through the Plaka and the busy streets surounding our hotel. The Grande Bretagne looks out over the Greek National Parliament and the Monument to the Unkown Soldier. We observed the changing of the guards, – such an odd marching style, but lovely to watch – and then witnessed the beginnings of a protest, something which seems to happen with regularity in front of the parliament buildings these days. No violence or anything, just massing of people, chanting of slogans and lots of cheering and booing. Thankfully our room in the hotel is blissfully soundproof.
In the morning we will board a bus for the airport and our Voyage to Antiquity will officially be over.
Heidi, Editor-In-Chief
