We arrive in Piraeus for our last day and overnight on our ship. It was a beautiful morning to enter the harbour and definitely ferry heaven. WH counted 16 just that he could see off our balcony let alone what was on the other side.
The beautiful sun rise also meant there were huge storm clouds with thunder and lightening so needless to say our bike tour around Athens was cancelled. We take ourselves as fortunate when we join a panorganic Athens tour instead and the guide tells us that in central Greece they got a years rainfall in a day and there are huge floods. We do a drive by around the city and pass things like the Olympic stadium and ruins of this and remnants of that.
We hop of the bus and meander a while and then decide to return to the ship and wile away the afternoon by ferry watching and pack our bags for tomorrow’s departure.
I can’t go though with out telling you about these guys. They guard the tomb of the unknown solider and every half hour they do this walk thing, that is so in time even when they aren’t facing each other. They kick their leg up and sometimes just lift it half way and hold it there. They go away from each other, come back, go to the side and then the front and meet in the same spot at the same time. They start from their little hut, one on each side of the tomb and end up back there when finished.
Once finished a grumpy army guy in normal army clothes come over and inspects them. Flicks their tassel to the front and whispers something quietly by their ear. I don’t know what it is but I guess its not, well done bloke, its hot out here and you did good. It is of course very old and it was fascinating to watch as well as a fitting tribute to all the unknown soldiers.
PS. There shoes weigh 3 kilos each and have 16 nails in them to make the sound of army marching. They also have a razor blade in the pom pom in case they need to kick someone. Maybe grumpy:-)