July 16, 2012: trip to Athens

July 16, 2012: The day arrived when we had to leave Siros. We bade the hotel staff farewell, took the bus downtown, and boarded the high speed ferry that returned to Athens in three hours. Here are some pictures from our ferry of sites on the way back:

arrival at Piraeus

From the dock a bus took us to our hotel, the Metropolitan. After we settled into the hotel, we were taken out to dinner at a restaurant that had a great view of the bay in Piraeus:

view of Piraeus from restaurant

During the dinner, we were treated to Greek's famous liqueur, ouzo. This drink is similar to palinka popular in Hungary except the predominant flavor is licorice. After dinner we returned to our hotel to get a good night's sleep for the following day. Originally the plan was to have a tour of the Acropolis just after we got off the ferry from Siros, but the weather was so hot (I hear 120 degrees F) that the Acropolis was closed to tourists. This meant that we had to combine the Acropolis tour with the following day's tour to Corinth. At any rate, we were ready for a good night's sleep.