9 March 2010 (Tuesday #1) – Argolis day, Corinth Canal

Well, good grief. It's taking me many times longer to do these posts than the whole trip lasted. I must pick up speed!

This post is about the Corinth Canal in the Argolis region of the Peloponnese peninsula in the western part of Greece.

Today we did the “Argolis Excursion.” We went from Athens in the Attica region of Central Greece (which I would call Southern Greece) to the Peloponnese peninsula region, which is Western Greece. Well, technically the Peloponnese has been an island since 1893 when the Corinth Canal was constructed. Whatever it is, it’s covered with mountains, too! It’s sometimes called Peloponnesus, because the Greeks have serious spelling issues.

This map shows the regions of Greece, with the Attica and Peloponnese peninsulas indicated:

As I said, Athens is on the Attica peninsula. It's about where the word “Attica” is.

Today we went to three places in the Argolis region of the Peloponnese—Corinth, Epidaurus, and Mycenae. This map shows the three locations:

(Those arrows do not indicate our bus’ exact path.)

Conrad really knows how to set up a trip! I’d either join a tour group (like one of Rick Steves’ groups) or show up in a foreign country and be clueless about what to do. On the other hand, Conrad got with a travel agent in the States, told her basically what we wanted to do/see in Greece, and let her set up a number of day tours for us to choose from.

All we had to do each morning was to show up in our hotel lobby at 7:35 a.m. We had a morning routine. First, we gorged on that free breakfast buffet in the hotel restaurant, and then we went to the restrooms off the main floor lobby, where I apparently couldn’t tell the difference between the signs on the doors (they're exactly the same as in the United States; go figure) and generally went into the wrong restroom, except the day I ended up locked in that stall . . ..

After the potty break, we sat in the lobby and tried to avoid the tour group that assembled in our lobby that must have been from some National Lampoon movie. They were convinced we were part of their group, and they introduced themselves loudly and repeatedly.

At 7:35 a guy would enter the lobby and more or less say, “Gibson.” (He had a strong accent.) Without saying another word, he’d turn and go outside. We followed him onto the street (good thing he wasn’t an ax murderer or something!), where he’d stop next to a bus, which we always hoped was our bus for the day. One time he walked about two blocks away from the hotel before stopping at a bus. We followed him anyway.

Here’s our name caller, as seen through the bus window:

We called him Ponytail Man for obvious reasons:

The bus would make several stops around Athens before setting out for the tour. We knew when the last people of that day’s tour group had been picked up, because Ponytail Man would stand on the sidewalk next to the bus, remove the band from his ponytail, flip his hair around a few times, and walk off. I so regret not getting a video of that.

On this day we left Athens via the National Road. Actually, we left Athens every day but one via the National Road. I thought that National Road was one heck of a highway until I learned all the major highways are called ~The National Road~ with a number added. For example, there is Greek National Road 1 and Greek National Road 8 and GNRs with other numbers, too.

It always seemed to take nearly an hour to get out of Athens (lots of those 5,000,000 people are on the city streets at the same time). Once on the National Road, we left behind the massive congestion but retained the massive hills and mountains that are Greece.

Here we have just left Athens and entered the countryside. This photo was obviously not taken from our hotel . . .

because you can see the Parthenon!

It amazed me the number of billboards, signs, and store names that were in English. Some were a mixture of the two languages, like this one:

From the first day of our touring, I told Conrad we had to sit on the right side of the bus so we could see and photograph The Important Sights along the way. If you sit on the left, it’s hard to take photographs across the people sitting on the right. I acquired my Where-to-Sit-on-a-Tour-Bus knowledge from my earlier, extensive traveling through Europe. (That was a joke.)

For the record, almost EVERY SINGLE important thing to see in Greece was on the left side of every bus on which we rode. Nevertheless, we stuck to that right side, because I was sure Important Stuff would eventually show up on our side. I was wrong.

Another problem we had on the tour buses was limited visibility. Almost EVERY SINGLE time a tour guide on a bus pointed out something important, we couldn’t see it because it was surrounded by trees. See; here’s Conrad looking out the bus window at something important:

Since I can’t see it in the photo, I can’t remember what it was.

Here’s another view from the bus:

Since stuff is visible here, you can be sure it was nothing of significance. However, the Greek shipping industry is hugely important overall. Without it, the Greek economy would be even further in deep doo-doo.

Here is something else that was important, as evidenced by the covering of trees:

The blurring is due to the speed of the bus. Greek bus drivers know no fear. We were often right on the edge of a narrow road with a sheer drop-off next to us. We didn't always have guard rails either. Scary.

One day on one of the bus tours I got a tad frustrated with the view-blocking trees and said, “Well, give me a match, and I’ll burn down all the trees!!” Perhaps I said that a bit too loudly, because everyone on the bus turned to look at me. Conrad loved it when I did things like that.

At last we reached our first stop of the Argolis Excursion, the Corinth Canal. It’s about 55 miles west of Athens. Here I am (with some strangers) after I got off the bus and was about to cross the highway:

After looking at the canal, we returned to the shops in the background where I obtained postcards (bought some and accidentally stole some others) to send to family and friends in the States and in Italy.

Here’s the Corinth Canal:

Notice anything? Like its ridiculous narrowness? It’s only about 70 feet wide and about 26 feet deep.

Check out the sign by the canal:

It does not look like the best place to take a cruise, but it’s used mostly by tourist ships, since freighters certainly wouldn’t fit.

The canal connects the Gulf of Corinth with the Saronic Gulf, both in the Aegean Sea. It separates the Peloponnese peninsula from the Greek mainland, making the peninsula an island. The canal was built between 1881 and 1893, although it was first conceived in the 7th century BC. The problem with constructing the canal was that it had to be cut through heavily faulted sedimentary rock in an active seismic zone.

More photos of the Corinth Canal:

The above photos give a closer look at the sedimentary rock.

(I'm so glad I didn't learn until after the trip that Greece in on an active seismic zone. My broken leg, Conrad's broken arm, and the national riot provided plenty of drama, without the additional worry of an earthquake.)

Conrad smiling and leaning on the railing on the highway over the Corinth Canal:

From the Corinth Canal we headed to Epidauras. See the next post.