Athens, Greece - July 24

Corinth Canal

Temple of Apollo at Corinth

37 degrees, but there’s a breeze and little humidity – not saying that it wasn’t blazing hot, but we weren’t drenched

There are 2 major cities on our itinerary this year and today we are in the first – Athens. Actually not really IN, but outside of. As we spent a few days here a couple of years ago we opt to go out of the city for our touring. We get off to a bit of a late start this morning as the port is very busy, so docking is delayed by about half an hour – no big deal.

cicadas

city of Corinth

We first visited an area called Argolis – this is in the northeast corner of the Peloponnese (the peninsula attached to main-land Greece.) The main attraction is its archaeologically. As we travel from spot to spot today we are on major highways. So far this trip the travelling has been on smaller, less major roads – mostly because we’ve visited small spots where there are no major roads.

Our first stop today is the Corinth Canal. This is a short photo stop and we are on our way once again. To view this canal we go to the middle of a bridge 200 feet above the water. The canal is four miles long, 75 feet wide and 26 feet deep and was only built in the 19th century. To me the numbers don’t mean much until we are out in the middle of the bridge. The canal is very far down and seems very narrow – it doesn’t look so narrow when a ship is inside it.

cheese course after dinner

Next on the itinerary is a visit to ancient Corinth where St. Paul lived and worked for a year and a half. The Temple of Apollo is a main attraction of the visit - seven of its original columns still stand. All around this part of the world we hear cicadas. These insects are like crickets that make a kind of buzzing sound, not like a bee, but more like a machine and it’s loud. It’s obvious right away whenever we get to an area with them. I got a not great picture of one. Lastly, we walked around the remains of Corinth’s Agora or Market Place.

Next is a visit to the ruins of ancient Mycenae. One of the cool things we see here are shaft graves and a Beehive Tomb, sometimes called the Tomb of Agamemnon. It is HOT, there’s little shade and the walk is a very steep and uphill – some people don’t bother.

Next is lunch of typical Greek foods. After a long day we return to the ship for a shower, a couple of drinks and a casual dinner.

considering bungee jumping

Speaking of dinner...last night we ate at the ship's French themed restaurant. It was good, but LOOOOONG.For a lot of the time we had to remind them we were there. Not that we had anywhere to go, but 2.5 hours is a bit long. Anyway...for desert you can choose cheese which comes on a wheeled cart  quite delightful!

ancient city of Corinth