Adriatic Trip Day 12: Temple of Poseidon and Orion Embarkation

Saturday, June 21, 2025

This morning, we checked out of our hotel and boarded a bus that would eventually take us to the National Geographic Orion, our ship for the rest of the trip. We had a bit of a drive to the ship, and things were timed so that we would arrive when the ship was ready for us (the previous guests disembarked this morning).

Our bus ride took us to the south of Athens, following the coastline to the Temple of Poseidon. The temple was another classical Greek structure, smaller but considerably less crowded than the Acropolis. Poseidon was, of course, the Greek god of the sea, so the temple’s location on a high outcropping overlooking the sea was particularly appropriate.

Continuing on the bus, we visited Papagiannakos Winery to the southeast of Athens. In contrast to the winery we visited in Italy, this winery was very modern and had LEED (energy efficiency) certification. The vineyards in this area look very different from what we are accustomed to seeing: the grapes were pruned to low bushes rather than trellises. Our lunch and a wine tasting were at the winery, and the wine was excellent and relatively inexpensive. We wish that we had room to take some home.

After lunch, we continued to the port of Lavrio to board the Orion. As we boarded the ship, we were greeted by several of the staff, including the Hotel Manager, Fran. We had met Fran on our Kimberley expedition last year. She took good care of Kenna when I had Covid on that trip, and we remember her (and much of her staff) well. We exchanged hugs as we boarded.

We met in the ship’s lounge for the opening briefing by our expedition leader, Karla Pound. Karla was also the expedition leader for the Kimberley trip, and when we raised our hands in response to her question, “Who has been on the Orion before?” she looked at us and said, “I remember you!” We felt very welcome.

The day closed with the requisite lifeboat drill, followed by a delicious dinner in the ship’s dining room.

This article is part of a series about our recent trip to Italy, Greece, Albania, and Croatia. To see the introductory article in the series, click here.