Tuesday – Posh Minerva and Unkempt Piraeus

We very nearly missed breakfast. Following our long journey to Athens yesterday, and all the travelling inbetween, the alarm going off at 8am barely raised a groan. Consequently, when we finally crawled out of bed at 9:15am, knowing that breakfast finished at 9:30am, it was with a certain amount of expediency.

Fortunately, we made it to breakfast, and I can tell you that the Minerva instantly won a massive double-brownie point by having BLACK PUDDINGS on the breakfast menu!…

With no particular plan for the day in place, and knowing that we would have to be back on board by 12 noon (so a trip into Athens was out of the question – luckily we’ve been there before), we opted for a leisurely stroll into Piraeus

To be honest, our expectations weren’t high. Piraeus is very much a poor cousin to Athens in terms of visitor attractions, but being a port, it does have its fair share of tourist-ey nounce.

To say it’s a little bit unkempt is being kind to the place. Piraeus looks like a city that has grown exponentially, with high-rise apartments built upon high-rise apartments. At some point, however, whatever money was being spent upon the place clearly stopped; old buildings have fallen into serious disrepair, and the small number of ancient inner-city remains have become overgrown and inaccessible (as have many of the public parks). It’s a shame, but by the same token, it is also one of the things that makes Piraeus vaguely interesting. Whichever way you look at it, Piraeus is a city; large and sprawling, with a serious traffic and parking, problem, and graffiti on every available wall space. Trees continue to grow, however, in some of the most unexpected places, and I couldn’t shake off the image of of a post-apocalypic world similar to that portrayed in ‘I am Legend’ or ‘The Walking Dead’ (but without the zombies, of course). Many of the snapshots I took of the city are just that; modern, but un-maintained high-rises, with greenery creeping up around their foundations…

On our way back to the ship, along the waterfront, we did come across a large catherdral of particular magnitude and opulance, which stood out almost sore-thumb-like against the backdrop of decay. Its interior was quite magnificent…

We set sail a little later than scheduled, at around 12:30pm. Regulations state that all new embarkees attend an emergency lifeboat drill, which happened at around 12:40pm, after which, the restaurants opened for lunch and the voyage proceeded.

It’s been a lazy, relaxed afternoon aboard the Minerva, as we passed several Greek islands on our way towards Cannakkale, where we are due to arrive tomorrow.

Tonight was formal night.

Unlike most of the formal nights we’ve witnessed of late; you wouldn’t be seen dead out of your cabin in anything less than formal gear… dress code is something that is adhered to, it seems, quite religiously.

Not only that; when we turned up the Verandha Buffet restaurant, we were informed that dinner was being served ‘a la carte’… so no getting out of that then…

On the plus side… wine was courtesy of the Captain. I’m really starting to like the Minerva… and its high standards… I think we’re definitely talking 4-star cruising here…