Docked early this morning in the port of Piraeus, the chief port in Greece, the largest passenger port in Europe and the second largest in the world. As the crew needed to clean the ship and get ready for the next cruise we were offered a trip to Cape Sounion.

We drove through the city which was surprisingly pretty. I had simply thought of it as a place that ships dock but there are many historic landmarks, churches and neoclassical buildings which would be worth looking at. The area around the marina contains lush green parklands and the views along the coast are quite spectacular.

As we headed down the Attiki Peninsula we could see the villages and countryside as well as fantastic views of the sea. Cape Sounion is the southernmost point of continental Europe. On a hill overlooking the sea at the very tip of the Attiki Peninsula on a spot that could not be more perfect for an ancient site of worship is the Temple of Poseidon, God of the Sea. Construction began in the early 5th century BC and remarkably quite a bit of the temple has been left standing today unlike the Temple of Athena on a lower level which was destroyed by the Persians.

We got back to the ship mid afternoon and was greeted by the crew with a red rose for each of us. The mandatory passenger safety drill was undertaken at 1700 before we set sail for the second leg of our cruise.