Plateria to Athens: Day 20 Topdeck Mega European Tour

Today we left our yachts in Plataria to continue our Topdeck Mega European Tour by hopping back on the coach for what was another long drive to our next destination, the capital of Greece, Athens. Today we don’t really have the opportunity to see much of Athens as it is more of an overnight stop for our trip to Mykonos the next day however we do get to come back in a few days after spending two nights on the Greek party island to see more of Athens.

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MAY 20, 2012 – Plataria to Athens

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On the way to Athens we stopped off at the famous Corinth Canal which was built to link the Gulf of Corinth with the Saronic Gulf in the Aegean Sea. It was a great feat to construct the canal given how deep it is to get down to sea level from the surface and it really gets put into perspective when a boat sails on through the narrow passage.

The canal is 6.4 kilometres long and only 21.3 metres wide so not many modern ships can use it, the canal doesn’t use any locks with it all being dug down to sea level. It was amazing to learn that the Greeks wanted to construct a canal here since the 1st century, but construction only started in 1881 with many construction complications.

We continued onward to Athens, we checked into our hotel called Hotel Novus for the next night and were given the option to be driven straight away into town to go and see the Acropolis. Surprisingly only about 5 of us caught the bus in, everyone else wasn’t quick enough and we left without them, another handful caught the train in and met us there.

It was 3pm so you would think a major tourist attraction like this would still be open, but no the curse of the crazy Greek time hit us again with the site closing at 2pm that afternoon. So with plenty of time until our driver took us back to the hotel we walked around the entire base of the Acropolis and checked out the front of the Acropolis Museum. We weren’t too disappointed that we couldn’t go in as we would be spending another night in Athens when we returned from our two nights in Mykonos.

That night we had dinner in the hotel restaurant and after dinner we had the night to ourselves with a group of us deciding to catch the train into the old town and walk around the streets. Athens hasn’t really got much going for it, but it’s an impressive city to walk around at night with a lively atmosphere.

Tonight we had to pack our backpacks with enough belongings for two days as we were not taking our bags to Mykonos with us. Our main bags would be left behind in the hotel as we were coming back to stay at the same place on our return. Tomorrow we are on another long ferry trip, after the last ferry we were not exactly looking forward too it.

DOWNLOAD: Topdeck Athens City Guide

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