Russian Ships in Piraeus

Saturday January 10, 2009

Image of ancient Greek ship, greece travel, nautical museum of Piraeus, Greek islands, Greek nautical history

No, that's not a Russian ship; it's an ancient Greek ship in the port of Piraeus during the 2004 Olympics.

If you're in Athens this weekend, you have a unique chance to visit Russian ships docked in Piraeus on January 11th and 13th. The Russians are joining with Greece in joint military exercises, and the ships will be open to the public. They include the oiler "Sergey Osipov" and the "Nikolay Chiker" salvage tug. The "Admiral Levchenko" torpedo boat will also be in Piraeus from January 12 to 15. They are all part of the support ships for the aircraft carrier "Admiral Kuznetsov".

If you do go to Piraeus to take a peek at these ships, you probably love nautical history and you won't want to miss the Nautical Museum of Piraeus. The very fine and usually overlooked Archaeological Museum of Piraeus, with its outstanding collection of massive ancient bronze statues is of more general interest and is also well worth a visit.

By the way, the Greek and Russian military exercises will take place in waters off of the Greek islands of Crete and Rhodes, so if you're staying on one of these Greek islands and you see something unusual going on offshore, don't panic.