Athens and Corinth, Greece – Thursday, December 23
December 23, 2021
Ancient Corinth & Canal
Discover one of the most powerful cities of antiquity during a visit to ancient Corinth. Vestiges of its importance can be seen in the many archaeological sites that dot the old city. Join your knowledgeable guide on a walking tour to see iconic landmarks such as the monolithic Doric columns of the Temple of Apollo, the 15,000-capacity ancient theater and the imposing Acrocorinth, a hilltop fortress that had protected the city from antiquity to the 19th century. Afterward, board your motor coach for a short drive to the famous Corinth Canal; plans to build a canal through the Isthmus of Corinth predate the Romans, but the 4-mile long waterway carved through steep limestone was not completed until the late 19th century. After a short stop for photos, you will continue back to your awaiting ship.
Today is our last day in Greece. We were scheduled to visit ancient Corinth today. Alan and I were both excited to see where Paul spoke to the Corinthians. Unlike many of the other ruins we have visited, Ancient Corinth dates to the Roman period. The bus was scheduled to leave at 8:15 am, so we were up early to eat breakfast in the World Café. We collected everything, we thought, and headed to the bus. When we arrived we realized we had forgotten our QuietVox, that allows us to hear our guide in our ear without other visitors at the site hearing. Not to worry, Viking takes good care of us and had extras we could borrow for the day at the bus.
The trip to Corinth was expected to take 1 ¼ – 1 ½ hours, but with our bathroom stop it took closer to 3 hours due to traffic congestion and an accident. Finally, we cleared the congestion and continued along the Saronic Gulf of the Aegean Sea. Ancient Corinth derived its prosperity from its position on a narrow isthmus between the Saronic and Corinthian gulfs connecting the mainland of Greece to the Peloponnesus peninsula. Transporting goods across this isthmus, even before the canal was built, provided the shortest route from the eastern Mediterranean to the Adriatic and Italy. Founded in Neolithic times, the city was razed in 146 BC by the Romans, who rebuilt it a century later.
Our guide was very interested is setting the stage for what we would see, so she started with the archaeological museum. There was an interesting display of feet, legs, hands and other body parts excavated from the temple area. Made of clay the replicas were given in prayers for healing to Apollo. Several statues and frieze were also displayed, also from the temple. We also saw open crypts with the bones and skull partially exposed. While interesting, most of the information presented we had already heard from previous tours. Our guide tended to get sidetracked, indulging in more details of the story/ myth she was telling, or to stop and talk to and pet one of the dogs living at the site which she appeared to know by name. The combination of late arrival due to traffic and the extended mythical history, began to shorten the time available the view the ruins, which was disappointing. We were able to visit the agora, or marketplace, where Paul spoke to the Corinthians and where the Jews of Corinth accused Paul of sacrilege. Due to time constraints we walked through then area of the Temple of Apollo on our own on the way back to the bus. As we walked, we took pictures of the descriptive signs to look at later with the pictures we hurriedly snapped. There was no mention of the theater that was also on the site. The Acrocorinth, was mentioned by our guide as the Acropolis of Corinth, but we were not able to visit as was stated in the description of the excursion. Some 4 km (2.5 miles) above the main city, Acrocorinth contains some of the most impressive ruins of ancient Greece. It was held and refortified by every occupying power in Greece since Roman times and became one of medieval Greece’s most important fortresses.
We made our way back to the ship, which with less traffic, took about 1 ½ hours. We grabbed a bite for lunch before the World Café closed. Since the ship is leaving Athens today at 5:30 pm, there was a mandatory safety talk we listened to in our stateroom, then watched the safety video on our TV. The port talk about Santorini was given in person, but also, due to COVID-19, could be watched on our stateroom TV, which we elected to do.
Doris, a single lady we met on the Classic Greece pre-extension, turned 73 today. We remembered her stateroom number, so we called her and asked her to eat with us to celebrate birthday. She accepted, bringing along the cake and champagne Viking had given her to celebrate her birthday. We had a pleasant dinner sharing about our families and where our travels had taken us.
We finished the evening with a live performance of Beatles music from the 1960’s preformed by the Viking vocalists. They ended the performance with ‘Hey Jude’ with the audience waving their phone flashlights in time with the music as the open flame of lighters are discouraged on ships.
