Holland America Line’s Nieuw Amsterdam: Katakolon and Athens
A Mediterranean Cruise and Four Days in Ireland
Introduction
Planning
US Airways Business Class (Envoy) Philadelphia to Venice
Two Magical Days in Venice
Boscolo Venezia Hotel in Venice
Holland America Line’s Nieuw Amsterdam: Introduction, Itinerary, and the Pinnacle Suite
Holland America Line’s Nieuw Amsterdam: Katakolon and Athens
Holland America Line’s Nieuw Amsterdam: Istanbul, Mitilini, and Kusadasi
Holland America Line’s Nieuw Amsterdam: Santorini and Argostoli
Holland America Line’s Nieuw Amsterdam: Sailing into Venice
Holland America Line’s Nieuw Amsterdam: Cruise Review
Ryanair Economy Class Venice-Treviso to Dublin
Two Days in Dublin
The Aran Islands and Galway, Ireland
Driving the West Coast of County Clare, the Cliffs of Moher, and Bunratty Meadows B&B
Aer Lingus 757 Business Class Shannon to Boston
Join me as I chronicle my journey through the Adriatic, Mediterranean, and Aegean Seas on our 12-night “Mediterranean Empires” cruise aboard Holland America Line’s Nieuw Amsterdam. The next few blog entries will detail the various ports of call we visited during the cruise…
We sailed out of Venice in the middle of a thunderstorm, forcing us to relocate from the open decks at the top of the ship to the our balcony. Though it was dreary out, we still had some beautiful views of the rooftops of Venice as we sailed out of the picturesque city.
May 3 – At Sea
The first full day on the ship was spent at sea. After a breakfast of eggs Benedict on the balcony, I headed off to the gym and then to explore the ship with my girlfriend. The rest of the day was spent lounging around while she enjoyed her spa treatments. This was the first formal night, and we dined in the Pinnacle Grill — one of two specialty restaurants onboard. The Pinnacle Grill is an upscale steakhouse serving prime cuts of meat and amazing appetizers. I ordered the rib eye, which was excellent. Others ordered the filet mignon, and I go to have a few bites. It was simply perfect — one of the best filets I’ve had anywhere. The cost of the meal is $29 per person, and this is WELL worth it, as a comparable meal on land would run well over $150 each. We were pretty much beat after dinner, so we headed back to the suite after a couple of drinks in the piano bar for some good rest before the barrage of ports ensued the following morning.
May 4 – Katakolon, Greece
We awoke to breakfast being delivered in our suite just after the sun came up. As the fog burned off, we watched as the Nieuw Amsterdam docked in the port of Katakolon, Greece. This town is a small fishing village that serves as the hopping off port for Olympia – the site of the ancient Olympic Games. Though several tours were offered through the ship, we opted to head to Olympia on our own. We bought a round-trip train ticket from Katakolon to Olympia for €10 each and arrived in Olympia 40 minutes later. Olympia itself is a cute, clean Greek town with a number of sidewalk cafes, restaurants, and shops. We walked through the town in the middle of a light drizzle to the entrance of the Olympia archaeological site where entrance was €6 apiece. Here, we viewed the excavated ruins of the ancient Olympic Games. The highlight of this site was the original Olympic Stadium where my girlfriend and I ran a lap on the original 440 meter “track” which more resembles a couple of dirt football fields back to back.
We were done viewing the ruins after about an hour. Unfortunately, we still had about two and a half hours before our scheduled train was to leave. So, we did the only logical thing – we hopped a bus that we thought may go in the right direction.
The driver spoke pretty much no English, but the only thing he could say was “Pyrgos.” We knew Pyrgos was a city a little more than halfway between Olympia and Katakolon, so we hopped the bus to see how that would work out – the price was right, at about €1.20 each. About 35 minutes later, we disembarked at the bus station in Pyrgos – a large, somewhat dirty town about 10 kilometers from Katakolon. There was another bus to Katakolon an hour later, but we opted for a taxi, who thought he was Sabastian Vettel. This guy was flying down the road at over 140kph, and had us in Katakolon in no time. This was a great adventure to get us back to the ship, and was much more fun than the standard bus tour shore excursion offered by Holland America.
Upon arrival back into Katakolon, we found a nice restaurant called “Arhipelagos Fish Tavern” (this is directly from their business card, which may or may not have had a typo) right on the harbor where we enjoyed a lunch of gyros, fried cheese, greek salad, and a few beers (as well as free wifi). This made for a great early afternoon before we headed back to the ship. We enjoyed champagne and beer in our private hot tub on the balcony as the ship set sail from Katakolon — not a bad way to spend an afternoon!
May 5 – Piraeus (Athens), Greece
I awoke to the hustle and bustle of a very industrial port swarming with ferry activity. This port – Piraeus is the port neighborhood of Athens. Athens is a seemingly never-ending metropolis, and Piraeus is where the sea of white rooftops ends at the Aegean Sea. We again opted against taking a ship-arranged tour, and set out on our own. A cab driver approached us and offered a €20 ride to the Acropolis, which we thought was more than reasonable for the three of us. After about a 20 minute ride through the lightly congested highways and streets of Athens, we arrived at the south entrance to the Acropolis. We ascended the stairs to overlook the amphitheater, and eventually made it up to the famed Parthenon. We walked all around the Parthenon and Temple of Athena, taking dozens of pictures of the recovered ruins and stunning vistas of Athens that were aided by picture perfect weather and blue skies.
Once we deemed that we’d seen enough, we walked down the north side of the Acropolis, stopping at a café for a few beers in the Anafiotika neighborhood on one of the steep, narrow streets lined with cafes and restaurants. This shady and picturesque street (Mnisikleous Str.) made for a great place to rest the legs, relax with a drink, and check up on e-mail with wifi. We really enjoyed ourselves at Anafiotika over these couple of hours. After this, we headed down to the main shopping area in Athens before stopping for a quick gyro lunch. We decided to take the metro back to Piraeus since it was a straight shot (about 4-5 stops) and only a couple of euros a person. The train station is about a twenty-minute walk from the ship, but that wasn’t a problem at all. Upon arriving back in the room, we all crashed for an hour nap before enjoying the sail out of Piraeus into the deep blue Aegean Sea from the comfort of our balcony.
Next port of call: Istanbul, Turkey…
