DAY 132- DAY 126 CRYSTAL SERENITY

4/26/2019

WELCOME TO ATHENS, GREECE

These are the dinner menus from Waterside from last evening.

We hosted a dinner/party in our room for some mid-level officers and senior staff as a thank you for all they do to make our stay on the ship very enjoyable. Many of these people were unable to attend another function we hosted on the Cape Town leg of the cruise. We say this often but in the end it is the people who make cruising special and who touch our hearts.

Special thanks to Rao for organizing this. He personally extended invites to each person, planned the food and drink, organized, set up and cleared the buffet.

Also thanks to the Butlers that assisted Rau, including Jose, and to the Food & Beverage Team under the direction of the Hotel Director and Food & Beverage Manager.

We slept well as Serenity sailed to Athens, Greece which is the final port of call on this voyage.

BREAKING NEWS - LOL

For the first time of this cruise Keith skipped an early morning workout deciding to get more sleep since we went to sleep fairly late last evening. He did manage to do the laundry. We enjoyed coffee and breakfast in our room.

After breakfast, Keith attended an indoor Cycling Class while Anne Marie walked inside the ship. The class was the last one taught by Fitness Director Charlotte who will be leaving at the end of this cruise. It has been a pleasure getting to know Charlotte on this cruise and Anne Marie appreciated the effort she took to prepare and lead her in the personal training classes.

Since we didn't arrive to Athens until Noon, the morning was a sea day. We took advantage of the time to pull items that we plan to ship home at the end of this voyage. The more we get done ahead of time the less time consuming it will be just before we depart Serenity on May 4.

The enrichment program included two lectures:

Destination lecturer Marcus Sherwood spoke about Athens.

World Affairs lecturer Ken Walsh spoke about how USA President's become prisoners of the White House. We have seen this talk before so we didn't watch it.

We have visited Athens several times. The first time was in 1998 on the Grand Princess with our family. Our next visit was in 2005 on the back-to-back 24 day cruise we took from Rome to Athens on our first Crystal Serenity cruise. We have visited Athens on three subsequent sailings.

Athens is the Capital and the largest city within Greece. Athens history spans 3,400 years.

Major attractions include:

Acropolis which contains the remains of several ancient buildings of great architectural and historic significance.

The Agora which is an archaeological site located beneath the northwest slope of the Acropolis.

Plaka which is Athens' oldest neighborhood and is home to many restaurants and cafes. Several of its streets are closed to motor traffic.

Olympic Stadium which is the only stadium in the world built solely out of white marble. It is part of the Athens Olympic Sports Complex.

Syntagma Square which is also known as Constitution Square and is located in Central Athens. It has been used for some of the biggest political rallies seen around the world.

Archaeological Museum which is the National Archaeological Museum.

Metropoli Cathedral whose construction began on Christmas of 1842.

With a noon arrival to the port of Piraeus and this being when Easter is celebrated and Athens being a 30 minute drive from port we decided to stay on the ship. WE recognize that many places will be closed for the Easter Weekend.

We have not decided what we will do tomorrow. We have been here many times so we might focus on Piraeus. We will decide in the morning.

We enjoyed lunch at Marketplace. With the ship arriving to port shortly before noon the dining venue was very busy. Keith played singles Paddle Tennis while Anne Marie packed. Singles is a hard workout but it was a lot of fun even though I lost all the games to one of officers. While we were playing a bell was ringing non-stop from a nearby church. It might have been due to the Easter Holiday.

This port always has lots of ships in port and today was no exception