Monday 15th May 2017
Another blue sky morning and breakfast on deck, as we sailed the remaining distance into the new-to-me Greek port of Nafplio.
It looked picturesque, with wide promenades fronting a town beneath a castle on the mountainside behind the town. We had to disembark from CELESTYAL NEFELI and take final pictures of this delightful little ship as we walked towards the bus station.
Swallows were flying around the buildings, as they had in the other ports, and we could see small groups of people on vertical-seeming paths up routes to the castle entrance. We did wonder if they might be excursion folk from our ship!
We bought numbered seat tickets for the 10 a.m. bus from Nafplio to Athens, and were soon in air-conditioned comfort. The long journey was over local winding roads between mountainsides until we eventually joined a dual-carriageway new road leading west to Patras. I had read that a new section of this route had recently been opened, so that speeded up our journey as we drove over the Corinth Canal (I had my eyes open and saw the Canal below us) and headed for Athens. We discovered that the bus stopped at a new Metro station so got off there and were soon buying tickets for the short journey, with one change, down to the port of Piraeus.
Soon we were walking through the heat and sunshine into the busy port, where we could see lots of ferries and a couple of cruise ships. It was such a shame to know that even if we had wanted to take a ferry somewhere, we would then be unable to go anywhere else, so it was a wise decision to go home to the UK, however reluctantly. Our compensation today was to take a local ferry to Salamina, knowing that we could catch another ferry back again to the Great Harbour of Piraeus after lunch, before heading to the airport this evening.
That's what we did, enjoying the wonderful sea air and views of ships arriving or departing all around us.
We saw many vessels that day, including the lovely little LOUIS AURA, looking perfectly ready to sail. It was good to discover on our return to the UK (thank you JB in Singapore) that she has been chartered by ETSTUR cruise line, and should be sailing again later this summer.
Ships seen: Celestyal Nefeli, 2 Way Ferries Acha, Adamantios Korais, Nissos Mykonos, Speedrunner III, Nissos Samos, Elyros, Kriti II, Festos Palace, Prevelis, Costa Neo-Classica, Ariadne, Superfast XII, Phivos, Terrajet, Theofilos, Ierepetra, Medstar, European Highway, Dionisios Solomos, Rasa Sayang (ex-Bergensfjord), Caribbean Galaxy, Aqua Jewel, European Express, Kalli P, Louis Aura, Nissos Rodos, Laton, Superferry, Vitsentzos Kornaros, Ionian Sky, Corse, Ionis, Salamis Express III, Spongebob Squarepants, and the two little ferries we took to and from Salamina island
It had been a really enjoyable few days in Greece at sea on a delightful small ship, with many happy (even euphoric...) memories to take home.
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