54 Days on the Moon

[drron]

Kaiseki dinner menu. It was the last night with the couple from Florida we met at the IC Lisbon before boarding the Moon.
The wine.



Lobster soup.


King crab tempura.


Waygu kushiyaki.

Surf and turf - waygu plus lobster tail



Furkake rice.


Passionfruit creme brulee.


A much better meal than we had on the Dawn 6 months ago at Kaiseki.

 

[drron]

Friday and the third segment of our nearly grand voyage is over. I take the in transit tour. Nearly didn't happen as only 20 in transit guests. I had not known about this until a couple of days before sailing in to Piraeus. This was because the cruise was booked as 2 cruises. First Lisbon to Athens and a little later Athens to Cittavechia so officially we were not recognised as being in transit. The other 9 on the tour were lucky as when I signed up it reached the minimum of 10 passengers for the excursion to take place. Rojaan decided on staying aboard as the tour said there were more than 100 stairs.

A bit of a worry as later that day we got the form for passengers disembarking in Venice. Hopefully now sorted.

So as usual some scenes from the Moon. It is obviously a busy cargo port and lots of ferry movements.


Out to see many ships waiting. I counted over 30.





And a hydrofoil ferry sets off.


Then it was on the bus to Mt. Lycabettus.

 

[bPeteb]

Several other ships with us.But no very large ones. Vantage tours Vasco da Gama and Windstar's Star Pride plus 2 smaller expedition ships.

The older, smaller, HAL ships were nice looking ships. Their newest ones bloody awful like so many of the large ships now

 

[drron]

It was a very slow drive through Athens.






The football stadium and one of the olympic stadiums used for Athens second Modern Olympics in 2004

 

[drron]

We arrived at the Parliament building a minute before the changing of the guard.




The crowd parted.

 

[drron]

 

[drron]

Next a photo stop at the ancient arena used again in the first Modern Olympics in 1896.





With views to the acropolis with the Parthenon.

 

[drron]

Then it is Mt. Lyabettus and you can walk up but for the typical SS guest it is the funicular which is underground. Now there are no views in the tunnel but that didn't stop a bun rush for seats in the first row. Fairly soon we were atop the mountain and had fabulous views across Athens.





There is a small Greek Orthodox chapel at the summit with quite a few icons. The faithful go around and kiss each one.

 

[drron]

We then had a coffee in the cafe there. Great views and interesting tables.

 

[drron]

Great views of the buildings on the Acropolis.

 

[drron]

The National Art gallery.

Time to leave the Mountain and get back on the bus to the ship. We passed the War Museum.



Now some random buildings.

 

[drron]

Back on the ship.

 

[drron]

Dinner in Atlantide. Didn't take the daily menu this time maybe because mrsdrron was upset because her favourite waiter was moved to La Terraza. Turned out he was only in Atlantide because of a rather difficult couple who would only deal with one waiter otherwise it might mean fireworks. They left in Athens so he has gone back to his usual place in La Terraza.

So at present I am going through various South American reds that Karolina had left in the SALT restaurant after the Moon's Grand Voyage around South America. Tonight a bottle of Malbec.







Tonight Mrsdrron had her usual fare of Beef Tartare and a lobster tail. So here are my dishes. Salmon carpaccio, a mushroom and cheese tart with gorganzola sauce and rare prime rib. All great including the wine.

 

[drron]

An unwelcome bit of news before we left Athens. The weather forecast for Crete and Agios Nikolaos in particular was bad with high winds predicted that would prevent the Moon docking safely so now the first day of the cruise was to be spent at sea before the scheduled second day port of Mykonos.

So after a few laps of the deck it was off to lunch in Atlantide. First the menu.



The wine.



This time a malbec blend from Mendoza that was pretty good.
I had the crabcake and the baby squid whilst Mrsdrron had the beef short ribs which she loved.




Then I had the cheesecake whilst Mrsdrron had the Greek yoghurt. Both were nice.

 

[drron]

Trivia team still powering on. Got 19.5 points but came second. But equal first in the putting.

Which brought us to diner again in Atlantide.

The wines began with a glass of the house red for the night which was fine but then Karolina bought me my wine for the night. Another Peruvian wine but this time a petit verdot. It was very nice.









Mrsdrron began with the asparagus whilst I had the crab and watermelon starter from the main menu. It was very nice.



Then I had the pumpkin soup. I think Mrsdrron's version is better.


Mrsdrron then had the lime king scallops and I went back to a rare fillet steak. We were both happy.





Now in view of expanding waistlines we again declined dessert.

 

[drron]

Sunday and we arrive in Mykonos. We had spent over a week here about 40 years ago so had been to Delos and most of the villages so we just wandered around town on our own. Very little had changed apart from new names on jewellery stores and restaurants which were charging eye watering prices. A dish virtually the same as the salmon carpaccio as we had had onboard the day before was $A60.
The only major new thing was the new port where we won the spot at the dock. The other ships that had to tender in were the Azamara Pursuit, the Star Pride and the Seven Seas Splendor.

Views from the Moon.

 

[drron]

Now we take the shuttle bus to the bus terminal just outside the old town.





The water was very clear.

 

[drron]

 

[drron]

 

[drron]

We travelled virtually all the laneways except those that were just stairs going uphill.

A boat had just landed their catch. They were quickly purchased.