Melting (Down) on the Acropolis

Our next-to-the-last port of call on the cruise was Athens.  Again we sprang for an all-day excursion so that we could see as much as possible in the time available; the transportation was via a bus with aqua-tinted windows.  This was one of the most challenging days for photos on the entire trip.  Everything I shot from the bus came out too blue; the Acropolis Museum has entire floors where no photography - even without flash - is allowed; and by the time we got to the Acropolis itself, the sun was so directly overhead and so fierce that nothing I did in the way of camera adjustments could keep it from washing out the details in the things I snapped.

At any rate, we had lunch - mostly mixed appetizers plus fabulous lamb - at a small local restaurant, walked through a charming older part of town, watched a video on how lasers are used to clean stained ancient statuary, and witnessed an Ugly Australian tourist berate an Acropolis guard for not allowing her to take her baby's stroller to the top of the hill.  We were amused half an hour later to see that he'd finally allowed the shrieking mother to take her stroller in, only to find (as the guard had tried to tell her) that the uneven, slippery rocks paving the area prevented her from using it anyway.  We were pleased that for once the most obnoxious tourist to be seen (and heard) wasn't an American.

This was one day we were extremely grateful for our hats, and for the bottles of water and wet washrags the crew had waiting for us when we returned to the ship.