Monday 5 December – at sea
A very lazy day at sea recovering from the three previous days. I woke early so decided to have breakfast and go find a steamer chair on the sun deck and that is what I did virtually all day. 
Tuesday 6 December – Piraeus
I was up at 7am to watch the sun rise over Piraeus and to see the other cruise ships in port – Louis Crystal, Louis Majesty, Ocean Queen and Thompson Spirit.
My tour didn’t leave until 9.30 so I was able to have a fairly leisurely breakfast before leaving on a coach to Cape Sounion and the Temple of Poseidon. It was about 1½ hour drive from Piraeus through seaside towns to this wild and windswept area of Attaca. The temple was built on a high cliff on a peninsula. It was quite a climb up but the views were magnificent and the walk worth it. It was bright and sunny but the wind, though warm, was strong and we kept getting grit and sand blown in our faces.
Back in the coach we stopped off for wine and mezzes before arriving back at the port at 2.30pm. By mid-afternoon the bells from the Greek Orthodox Cathedral were ringing and all the ships in the harbour were sounding their sirens in a cacophony of noise as it was St Nicholas Day – the patron saint of the navy (On our way to Sounion we had been briefly held up by a St Nicholas Day procession with a priest chanting, followed by two men holding a large icon of St Nicholas and then a band.). In the harbour were two warships and a submarine. Add to that the muezzin in the mosque and you have this great mass of sound.
We left just after sunset at 5pm. Commodore Burgoigne is now in command and we are flying the commodore’s pennant. W had a good dinner, but I have reached that point in a cruise where I don’t want any more food for a while. Having caught the sore throat and cough bug that is sweeping the ship, I went to bed early.
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