This is the final note on our Greece trip. We travelled from Naxos back to Piraeus on one of these. They are large, vehicle carrying catamarans with seating for about 1200 people in 3 different classes - again fast smooth ride (about 4 hours with one stop in Paros). The only beef is that these allow smoking in the rear compartments, but the smokers seem free to puff and wander through the non smoking areas as long as they don't sit down! This type of vessel is actually built in Australia.

We arrived in Piraeus, the port for Athens, to find no transfer vehicle waiting for us (yet another black mark against Nolitours - the company organizing that part of the trip). We eventually caught a cab to the hotel - we should have realized that the fact the cab driver had to ask us for the address was not a good sign (fortunately due to prior research, we had the address; the tur company never provided that level of detail). The Kaningos 21 hotel was one of many thrown up quickly for the Olympics and shows it, flashy decor but poor workmanship throughout, now running on a skeleton staff with not the best standards of service, cleaning or maintenance. It is close to the student quarter around Strefi Hill, made infamous when the military junta massacred protesting students there. The neighbourhood is still covered in graffiti, but there is one small corridor of cafes around an open air theatre and we found this delightful little taverna right at the top of the hill. It was Sunday evening and the clientele consisted of large Greek extended family groups which all the tour books recommend as a sign of a good place to eat. They are probably right.

We spent our last day in Athens wandering around, with a leisurely visit to the Museum of Cycladic Art, which is a somewhat deceptive name as the museum houses a series of private collections from the Cyclades, Cyprus and mainland Greece, and sponsors a pretty eclectic range of temporary exhibits - currently one on relationships between ancient and modern sculpture that is very well done, and in an adjoining small mansion, a display of the life and times of Caravaggio, including examples of his work and painters that he influenced - again very well done. The picture is of one of the many groups of street musicians on the Ermou, the street that defines the Northern edge of the Plaka area of Athens. You can find groups doing every type of music and most of them are pretty good.

Our last picture - the wine bottle at Kuzina, the restuarant on Adrianou, below the Acropolis where we had lunch and dinner on our last day. Classy way to do an ice bucket!
copyright 2006 Malcolm Ogborn