Panoramas.......
Trip Start
Sep 13, 2010
1
36
87
Trip End
Feb 02, 2011
Dhrimonárion, Peloponnese, Greece
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Barb asked if I had anything drying on the balcony overnight besides the underwear she had rescued off of the banister. Oh, oh, now I am down to one pair of socks! We mounted a search to find my airborne socks in the old town….no luck. We located one of my socks that had been run over about two hundred times, the rest of my socks were missing in action. None of the shops carried socks, just fashion attire or tourist goodies. Oh, well, Greece calls.
We walked through the old city, took pictures of the castle and found some pastries for breakfast. Around noon we headed for the Ancient City of Corinthe, conveniently located outside of the modern city of Corinth.
Corinthe has always been a strategic site due to its location at the mouth of the former six kilometer isthmus that connected the Peloponnesian peninsula with mainland Greece. Somewhere around the 1890’s the Corinthian canal was cut linking the Aegian and Ionian Seas. However the modern city is still the gateway between mainland Greece and the peninsula.
The Ancient City of Corinthe is more of a Roman ruin than Greek. Apparently, Julius Ceasar rebuilt the razed Greek city around 50 BC as a place for retired Roman soldiers. It gradually became the seat of the provincial government and the ancient version of Las Vegas, their sin city of the time. Over a thousand “sacred” prostitutes provided a way to worship at the temple of Aprhrodite/Venus, a temple of love, as it were. Finally, earthquakes did the ancient city in around 500 a.d., “wrath of god” perhaps? Which god? Ancient Corinth is a large site of Greek and Roman ruins, with another temple to Apollo, aquaducts, paved main street leading to the harbor, all under the shadow of a medieval castle up on the acropolis. The archaeological dig and the construction of the museum were done under the auspices of some professors from Chicago and there progeny. A connection to the old US of A.
We drove down to the new city to view the canal. Modern Corinth is an industrial port town with a lot of traffic. Not much to look at so we headed up the coast back toward Patras, where we started and will end the road trip around the Peloponeese.
We took the small coastal road through a series of beach resort areas. The whole coast appeared developed into weekend retreats. It was slow going, dropping down to second gear through the heart of the main towns and speeding up past the boarded up condos and cottages. Not much traffic as most everyone else was taking the “freeway” between Corinth and Patras.
Around 6 p.m. we followed a sign to Hotel Panorama on the water. When we walked in , I asked the price of a room for two. The young man at reception said 35 Euro, Barb responded, “45 Euro?”. “No 35 euro“, Barb responded, “Okay, 45 euro“. That’s when I stepped in and said, “35 euro is fine, but, let’s look at the room.” I’m supposed to be the one with the hearing problem!
The room was great. It, again, had a balcony with a view of the water. Dinner was prepared and served by the young man from Bulgaria who checked us in. The dining room seemed more like a family room with soccer on the big screen, computer chess being played in the corner and the old men from the neighborhood hanging out. We scored on finding a comfortable, clean place (with view) once again.
Comments
Wonderful and Lovely!! Thank you for taking the time during your trip to write!!! This is absolutely wonderful!!!