On tour with grey power and a couple of Aussies

Thursday morning I said goodbye to Athens and hopped on a bus for a quick tour of the Pelonponese, Delphi and Meteora.  As I type, I am sitting on the bus outside a souvenir shop just out of Olimpia where we have tasted wine, olive oil and smoothed my hands with olive butter.  There are an interesting assortment of people on the bus which is fortunately half empty.  There's an Aussie couple from Brisbane who are about my age.  The other 10 are pushing 70.  There is a small spanish speaking contingent, a couple of Canadians one half of whom is a physicist from some facility at UBC, a couple of American guys one is an english professor and the other a psychairatrist, and a couple who I have not yet ascertained where they are from.

Grandma told me that the Corinth canal looked like a drain.  She was right.  However, Nero started its construction in 1 AD and then, according to Yannis our guide, gave up and went home and burned Rome.  We stopped for a few photos before heading to Epidaurus theatre.  It is still largely in tact and is one of the few that didn't have the circle of the dancers destroyed by the Romans.  The acoustics are amazing from the circle.  Napflion was a bit of a drive by to get a photo of the three castles.  There is one that covers most of a wee island out in the harbour.  A chain from that fortress to the mainland prevented enemy ships from entering and made it one of the safe havens for ship owners to harbour their fleet over the winter.

I have always thought that Greek culture started with the Ancient greeks that you hear all of the myths and legends about.  But the area has a very lively pre-history and Mycenae which is 34 centuries old is a fine example of this.  It was vaguely reminscent of the ruins in South America.  I had the obligatory photo at the Lion's gate and then we went exploring down to the spring that Yannis had specifically told us not to try and see.  The aussies had a torch on their iPhone and about five of us ventured down by this one tiny light. Ashley made it all the way to the bottom but wasn't impressed with the muddy pool so the rest of us just looked from above.  A nice surprise was the very intact tomb of Agamemnon (or whatever his name is) which is just below Mycenae. 

We then embarked on a very long drive to Olimpia where was stayed in a 'first class' hotel.  I don't think it has been refurbished since 1983 and the beds were as hard as a slab of rocks.  The food and service were great though.

Thursday: Athens - Corinth canal - Epidaurous - Napflio - Mycenae - Olimpia
Friday: Olimpia