Lost on the Acropolis, in Athens

I had booked an excursion for when we docked in Piraeus, the latter being the port of Athens. As a first-time visitor to the Greek capital, I was determined to view the city’s most famous site, even though tens of thousands of other visitors to Athens are as equally determined. I am talking about the Acropolis, and the Parthenon, the two monuments from antiquity, that are sited on a hill overlooking Athens, and the two structures that everyone associates with the city.

The trip I booked was a half-day one, departing at 8 am, and returning at around 12.30pm. There was also an afternoon trip, but my reasoning was the morning one would the cooler of the two. This might well have been the case, but as I discovered a 1,500-foot-high hill, offers little in the way of shade. Consequently, I made sure as much of me as possible was covered, and I sensibly wore a wide-brimmed hat, but despite my precautions the top of a small mountain is not the place to be if you want to stay cool.

It was quite a hike from our ship’s berth at Piraeus to the fleet of waiting coaches, but one onboard I settled down in my seat to enjoy the journey from the port into the Greek capital. Being an organised tour, we had a guide looking after us, in the form of a pleasant and quite feisty young lady. I can’t remember what her name was in Greek, but she told us to call her "Shorty." She wasn’t that tall, in case you haven’t guessed – something that proved awkward, later on!

Our journey out from Piraeus took us along a very busy motorway and into Athens, passing on the way the Greek National Stadium, along with another sports arena belonging to some Athenian football club or other, whose name meant absolutely nothing to me. We also passed an attractive marina where a number of very expensive looking yachts were moored up. The coach then began ac climb up towards the mountain where the Acropolis is situated, before eventually turning into a car park where a large number of coaches were already parked. This was not a good sign.

Before leaving the vehicle, Shorty gave us all a quick pep-talk, advising us to stay close to her, and not to wander off. She said that if any of us, at any time, felt unable to carry on we were to let her know and she would make arrangements for that person to be escorted back down. She boasted that she had never lost a tour member and had no intention of doing so on this occasion. To aid communication, we were all given a Blue Tooth device that clipped over our right ear, in order to hear the commentary and follow any instructions she might give us. So far, so good!

We set off towards the entrance to the monument, where there was already quite a queue. Shorty warned us that as many of the steps, and walkways were paved with marble, and thus could be quite slippery, so not for the first time that day I was wishing that I’d brought my fold-up walking stick along with me. Although it is quite a climb to the summit of the Acropolis, there are several flat stages along the way, so apart from taking the care that was obviously needed, I found the ascent quite easy. It was quite an ascent though as we discovered once we eventually reached the summit.

The main difficulty was the sheer number of visitors, and whilst the upward and downward paths were supposedly separated, in reality they weren’t, and this led to all sorts of confusion as tour parties, of all sorts of nationalities mingled and became entwined with one another. It was at the summit, and close to the Parthenon temple that I became separated from our guide. I could hear her talking, via my Blue Tooth earpiece, and as I could also see the red flag she had hoisted, in front of her, I thought was on the correct path, but as her voice became fainter, and started to break up, I realised that perhaps something was wrong. I pushed forward, as fast as conditions and crowds would allow to what I thought was our guide, only to discover it was a different tour leader, with a very similar looking red flag.

Panic set in for a while, as I realised that I’d lost the guide, but looking at the situation rationally, I thought that in the unlikely occurrence of not finding Shorty and the rest of the group, I could make my way down to the entrance gates and ask a member of staff to get in contact with her. In the meantime, I continued my look around, marvelling at how high we were, above the city, but also somewhat gobsmacked at the sheer numbers of visitors scrambling all over the flat, rocky and rather uneven summit. Fortunately, I recognised a fellow Brit from the Queen Vic tour party, mainly by the colour and design of the lanyard he was wearing and was soon reunited with the rest of the group.

Shorty hadn’t realised I was missing, along with another member of the party, but she did, quite sensibly, give out specific times for departing from the summit, and also for meeting at the exit gates, two thirds of the way down. This still didn’t work, as after most of us met, as instructed, two people were still missing. I’m not sure how she found them, but eventually we were all reunited and re boarded the coach.

On the way back to the ship, our guide revealed a lot of further information about the Acropolis and its famous temple, along with a potted history of the area, the various figures from Greek mythology involved with the story, and how the temple ended up as a ruin. All this was whilst we were driving through the centre of Athens, looking at several other important buildings, including the Greek Parliament, the former royal palace, the stadium constructed to host the first modern Olympic Games, and several other sites of interest.

We eventually returned to the where the Queen Victoria was berthed in Piraeus and said farewell to ur vertically challenged guide. There were some shops, close to the boarding point, so I treated myself to a T-shirt, along with a few goodies for both Eileen and Matthew. Athens was the halfway point on this particular cruise, with some passengers leaving the ship there and new ones joining. We all had to pass through the obligatory bag and personnel scanners prior to boarding, but as luck would have it, I received a text from Mrs PBT’s inquiring of my whereabouts.

I called her and arranged to meet at the restaurant for lunch, where a was able to regale her of my visit to the Acropolis, and how I nearly got lost. Despite all this, I’m really glad I undertook the tour and was able to view the sights of this historic and world-famous monument.