Travel Tuesday: Wayback to Athens

Cruising is not for everyone.  It is slow, the boat only moves 20-25 miles per hour, so you have to be prepared to move slowly. The ship is less than .25 miles long, and can feel small. At rush hour, it can be crowded.  The food is good, but you are limited to what is offered - I would love a bag of cheddar and sour cream potato chips (crisps.) The ship will rock from side to side. Even in good weather there is some roll and pitch to the ship.  

I am rather enjoying crossing the Atlantic by ship.  I enjoy the quiet days at sea. Making the five hour time change over 14 days is much easier. I am an early riser, and things are not crowded when I am in the prime of my day. And when things are crowded, I move to another deck, or the other end of the ship.  Only once in the first 9 days have I gone back to the cabin, because every place I wanted to be was busy. I like the service, the cabin stewards are attentive and do a great job of keeping the rather small stateroom in order.  The room is small, but comfortable and nicely appointed.  I find the rolling of the ship soothing.  At night I close my eyes and the ship gently rocks.  The menu in the main dinning room changes from day to day. We have found the food on Holland America Line to be good, some of it excellent.  There is another couple at the table, a pleasant couple about our age.  There are several great places to walk.  I nice gym. Two pools and they turned up the water temperature making the pools very pleasant.  

Things that don't work.  The WiFi at sea is spotty with lots of dropped connections and things that don't work. What works and what does not work on the WiFi seems to change from day to day and hour to hour.  The bartenders lack consistency, the same drink from the same bar, is seldom made the same way twice. The live television options are very limited. 

If those three things are the most I can find to complain about, things are pretty damn good. 

Back to the past. 

Back in 2006, we spent 10 days in Athens, exploring the countryside with dear friends. It seems like a long time ago, it seems like just yesterday.