Time and tide may wait for no man, but neither do Greek ferries. With all boats to Santorini full on the day we’d planned to depart, Andy and I had a bonus day and night in Athens.

We made the most of our pitstop by visiting the colourful Athens fruit and vegetable markets. By lunchtime the number of stallholders was small, but that didn’t stop them from staging a festival of colour and fresh produce.

Olives were abundant.

Ripe, red tomatoes were a pretty enticement.

Summery nectarines, peaches and cherries sat plumply in their containers.

What better evokes fresh Mediterranean produce than grapes?

Now we know why the stuffed eggplant is so good here.

After our market shopping we had lunch in a basement restaurant opposite the market called Diporto Agoras. There was no menu as the restaurant only served a fixed number of dishes daily. I was taken over to the chef to point to our lunch.

The chef was bemused that I skirted over the popular sardines in lemon and meaty stews in favour of the chickpea soup and fresh salad… sadly I had forgotten the Greek word for vegetarian and couldn’t explain my choice. We washed down our lunch with a glass of white wine from the large barrels lining the restaurant wall, a fitting end to an uplanned, but fun, Athenian day out.

Vegetarian in Greece: More posts on Greek veggie food

• Shhh! Greek food is vegetarian friendly
• Cheap vegetarian food in Greece
• Food and wine Santorini style
• Cretan food: not food for cretins
• Central fruit and vegetable markets, Athens
• Filistron mezedes restaurant, Athens

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