Tuesday April 22
Today is a sad one for us as our Canadian friends, Bruce & Margaret-Anne are leaving the ship to fly to Istanbul. Fortunately their flight leaves late in the afternoon so we have decided to do one last shore trip together.
The Rotterdam docked at Piraeus (the port for Athens) at 7.30am and leaves at 5.30pm so we have decided to go out to Corinth and also see the canal. We have all been to Athens before and seen the sights there so Corinth seems a good choice.
We agreed to meet on shore after Bruce & Margaret-Anne had formally disembarked where we began "negotiations" with local taxi drivers. For once we were unable to better the price of the ship's similar excursion however we were able to get a new Mercedes with a very "easy on the eye" young Greek driver - Dimetriou, and a considerably longer time to explore the area.
We headed out of Piraeus and onto a fabulous new freeway to Corinth, about 100 kms away. It was great reacquainting ourselves with the Greek way of life and our driver kept us amused and informed. We were all rapt when we saw Corinth. It is not as impressive as Ephesus but was still fantastic to see. The whole site is dominated by the remains of the Temple of Apollo. Around it the commercial, cultural & religious side of life could be seen in the remains of the agora, shops, Christian churches, etc and also the Lechaion Road that led the 3kms to the port. Al & I were excited to see the speaker' stand where the Apostle Paul addressed the Corinthians along with the Bema (tribunal) where he also spoke and, at one time, was tried.
We were fascinated to watch archaeology students working amongst the ruins painstakingly removing small amounts of dirt and then sweeping the area with small brushes to ensure anything of value unearthed was not damaged.
Archaeological students looking for more treasure
Also at the site was an excellent Museum containing finds yielded from excavations at the site. Because the site dates back to the Neolithic period, many of the items were thousands of years old - and in amazing condition considering the earthquake zone the site is in.
Museum courtyard of headless (disobedient??) women
The weather was perfect for exploring but we were all pretty hot & hungry by the time we finished so we stopped and bought some of the most beautiful strawberries we have ever had and sat on a seat overlooking Corinth to eat them. Some of these experiences make you pinch yourself that you are really in such a place and this was certainly one of them.
From Corinth, Dimetriou drove us to the Corinth Canal - another amazing feat of engineering! It was then time for us to head back to the ship and our friends to the airport. After fond farewells at the dock and the promise to stay in touch and hopefully travel together again in the future, we boarded the ship and Bruce & Margaret-Anne continued on to the airport.
Truly a day of mixed emotions but one not to be forgotten!
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