Today is Thursday, 1 October. It is hard to keep track of day and date – it just becomes a blur in your mind. We are
starting our tour with a bus ride through Athens. Actually our tour started yesterday, but
because of the varied arrival times of the rest of our travelers, the only
thing we did yesterday was the welcome dinner at the hotel. There are two groups of 24 travelers and each
group has its own Trip Leader. Or leader
is Alan, and like Goran (the other leader), is from Zagreb, Croatia. He has been with Grand Circle for about 11
years. The first thing you notice about
him is how tall he is – he would have made a good basketball player. He has a very good command of the English
language. We will get to know the other
22 members of our group tomorrow on the bus (each group has their own
bus). There are still two couples who
have not arrived – they are expected about midnight. They are going to have a long day tomorrow as
our luggage has to outside our rooms by 7:30 AM.
After
breakfast we boarded our buses where we met our local guide Sohpia. She had quite a sense of humor – I just wish
I could remember all her jokes. We drove
through the center of Athens, stopping first at the site of the stadium built
in 1896 for the first modern Olympic Games.
Marathon races end in the Stadium – after the Athenians defeated the
Persians in the Battle of Marathon, they marched the 26 miles back to Athens to
tell the Athenians of their victory.
Marathons commemorate the troops who defeated the Persians.
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| National Library, Athens |
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| Honor Guard at Parliament Bldg |
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| Stadium for Modern Olympic Games |
We
then went to the Parliament House where we began our walking tour. In front of the Parliament House was the tomb
of the Unknown Soldier. It is constantly
guarded by 2 ram-rod straight, serious, and motionless guards attired in their
ceremonial uniforms. They must stand
perfectly still for 1 hour and every hour they have a changing of the guard
ceremony. There is also another soldier
(in his regular uniform) who makes sure that passersby do not harass or annoy
the guards. It is permissible to have
your picture taken next to the guard, but only one at a time and you cannot
engage him in conversation.
Sophia
pointed out three buildings built in the neo-classical style – the Academy of
Science, the University of Greece, and the National Library. They are side-by-side on the street. We then walked through a shopping area where
there is a Greek Orthodox Church. The
unique thing about this church is the little church to honor Mary adjoining it
– it is made out of marble from other ruins.
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| Church of St Mary |
We
walked on Tripodon St, the oldest street in world (built 2500 years ago) until
we came to the little square near the Acropolis. There is a monument here to the Theater. The unique thing here is that this is the
place where tomatoes were first grown in Greece. Our tour ended here and we were free to
explore the Acropolis, the Acropolis Museum, or the shops. We had about 2 hours free so Bill and I
headed for the Museum. It is new, built
in 2007, and houses statues and relics from the Acropolis. The 3rd floor is dedicated to the
Parthenon, has the remains (and sometimes copies of the remains) of the statues
and frescos that adorned the Parthenon. It was quite interesting.
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| Waterfront where we ate lunch |
After
getting back on the bus, we drove to a restaurant in Athens port city of
Piraeus. We had a lovely meal of salmon,
sitting by the waterside. We then drove
to the port and boarded our ship, the MV Athena.
About
an hour after boarding, we set sail. The
winds were up and it was a little rough at the beginning. About 2 hours after leaving Athens we entered
the Corinth Canal. It is only 4 miles
long and was cut through a narrow isthmus that linked Peloponnese to the
mainland. Periander (625-585 BC), the
tyrant of Corinth, first had the idea of cutting through the isthmus. He did not succeed, but he did construct the
so-called Diolkos, a paved road with two parallel ruts in the middle, which ran
overland across the isthmus. Ships were
positioned on a mechanism called “olkos” and were dragged across from one sea
to the other by people or animals. Emperor Nero in 67 AD attempted to dig a
canal, but he only succeeded in digging a mile-long moat and twelve wells on
the trail that the canal was to follow.
When, after 4 months Nero was recalled to Rome to deal with a revolt,
work on the canal stopped. It wasn’t
until the 19th Century, following the success of Ferdinand de
Lesseps in building the Suez Canal, that the Greek government signed a contract
with the French to build a canal across the isthmus. However, it wasn’t until 1881 that the work was
assigned to a company under the control of the Hungarian General Tur. Unfortunately that company went
bankrupt. The canal was finally finished
in 1893 by the Greek Company of Corinth. The highest point from the bottom of
the sea is 276 feet and the width is 80 feet.
The depth is about 25 feet. When
you look at the sheer rock cliffs that line the canal, you can understand why
it took so long. There are two low
bridges on either end of the canal for local traffic and when boats come
through, they lower the center section of the bridge so the boats can pass over
them. Once through the Canal, the winds
picked up again and it became a rough sail.
I started eating dinner, but the restaurant is in the back of the ship
and the combination of the boat’s rocking, the smell of diesel, and watching
the wave action out the window was too much for me. I went back to our cabin to lie down. I finally fell asleep.
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| Entering the Corinth Canal |
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| In the Corinth Canal |
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| Water in the Canal |
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| Sunset in the Canal |
Our first stop was the little Greek fishing/port
village of Itea which lies at the bottom of the mountain where Delphi is
located. Since we had just been to
Delphi several days ago, we decided to just walk around the town and its
waterfront promenade.
I was feeling much better this morning. Our ship actually docked at Itea around 11 PM
last night so it was very stable this morning.
However, our room must be by one of the anchors because there were about
three instances of very loud noises as they engaged the bow thrusters. After that I slept well until it was time to
get up for breakfast. They have a very
good breakfast buffet – much better than the St. George Hotel which charges 22 Euros
for its buffet!
After everyone departed for Delphi, Bill and I left
the ship and headed for Itea. We walked
to a beautiful Greek Orthodox Church in the center of the town. We then walked along the waterfront
promenade. The water was crystal clear
and you could little minnows, small black fish, and even a small gar. All along the promenade were little cafes
where the Greeks would sit and have their coffee. After walking the promenade, we crossed the
street and found a typical Greek open market (it is only open on Fridays so we
were lucky). There were fruit and
vegetables vendors, venders selling bath and bedroom items, vendors selling
clothes and household goods. You could
buy just about anything. It was filled
with Greek women and men doing their weekly shopping. Bill saw some peaches which looked very good
so we decided to buy one. We put it in a
bag and gave it to the vendor. When he
saw it was only one peach (and that we were not Greek), he just gave it to
us. The people in this town are very
nice and laid back. Not like in Athens. Here you can actually cross the street
without taking your life in your hands.
We then stopped at a shop that is run by an American (Alan had told us
about it). We had a nice conversation –
he is planning to visit the US in November to see his son. We bought a nice book on the Greek sites we
had visited and he gave us some traditional Greek coffee. It was good, but different than US coffee –
stronger (you needed sugar) and the grounds were still on the bottom (you are
told not to stir it). We then headed
back to our ship to take showers while the ship was motionless. After leaving Itea, we sailed for about an hour until we came to he Rio-Antrion Bridge that connects the Peloponnese peninsula with the mainland.
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| Greek Orthodox Church, Itea |
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| Our Ship, the MV Athena |
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| Farmers Market, Itea |
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| Little Fish in Water by ship |
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| Olive Tree, Itea |
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| Lounge in our ship |
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| Venetian Fortress near the Rio-Antrion Bridge |
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| Sailing under Rio-Antrion Bridge |
Our next port was the Greek island of Corfu. It is
the most northern island in the Ionian Sea.
It gets a lot of rain from November-March and is the greenest island in
Greece. We arrived early in the morning and
there was a brilliant sunrise as we cruised into the port. As we sailed by, we were able to get
beautiful views of the old fortress.
Throughout the years, Corfu has been inhabited by the Corinthians,
Romans, Ottomans, Venetians, French, Russians, and British.
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| Sunrise in Corfu |
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| Fortress in Corfu |
After breakfast we departed for a bus trip to the 19th
Century villa (Achillion) of Elizabeth (“Sisi”), Empress of Austria and Queen
of Hungary. At the age of 16 (in 1837)
she married Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria.
She first visited Corfu in 1861 when she was suffering from TB. Elizabeth felt a kinship with the island and
she visited it as often as possible. In
1890 she commissioned the building of the villa after the suicide death of her
only son Rudolph. It was completed in
1891 and she came back to it every spring and fall. It has beautiful gardens and two statues of
her favorite Greek hero – Apollo. From
her gardens one can look across the bay and see Albania. On 10 Sep 1898, at the age of 60, she was
assassinated in Geneva, Switzerland.
The Palace was then bought by Wilhelm II of Germany. During WWI it was used as a Headquarters and
hospital by the Serbs, and again in WWII by the Germans. Then it became a casino – the James Bond film
“For Your Eyes Only” was filmed here.
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| Achillion, Corfu |
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| Statue of Sisi |
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