And so it rained!

Wednesday, January 20, 2016

Hello!

As it turns out, after picking up some snacks at the local grocery store (or what we believe to be a local grocery store, but being all in Greek, it was hard to know for sure …) we weren’t even hungry for dinner, so decided to stay in and watch movies instead.

The forecast for today was RAIN, as apparently there is a very strong cold front blowing in from Russia or the Baltics bringing colder weather, lots of rain, and even snow in the mountains above us.It started sometime in the night, but was definitely raining fairly hard when we woke up this morning.  The forecast is for it to stop around 3 pm – which, you may remember, is when all the sites and museums close.  How convenient!

Acrocorinth Mountain ... in the fog!

Public fountain in Ancient Corinth

 

We have been SO incredibly fortunate in our weather, both here and in France.  It has been really cold at times (although not so cold that I’ve needed my silk long johns…) but so often the forecasted rain never transpired, for which we are thankful.  So today, here it is!

(Hotel note:  Our bathroom has a wonderful “rain” shower head, which I used this morning.  The problem is that the water is so forceful that it’s not going down the drain nearly fast enough, and Robert figured we were about to flood out the second floor!  So: tomorrow, either less water pressure, or use the hand-held shower instead!)

Temple of Apollo

Temple of Apollo

We went down to breakfast around 8 am, and it was fine.  Good scrambled eggs, and an assortment of cold meats and cheeses.  Then, on the road and heading to Ancient Corinth, which has a museum.  We went over the deep end of the Corinth Canal, and there was actually a smallish boat in the channel.  I also forgot to mention that there is a built-in Bungie Cord jumping area at the end of the channel…UGH!

Then, a very convoluted route to Ancient Corinth.  Arrived about the same time as a tour bus, parked and walked to the entrance.  Notice:  Museum closed until March 1, 2016!  Oh boy!  (At first, R read the notice, which said CLOSED UNTIL 1/3/16 as January 3 … but in the European format, that of course means March 1.)  So, in we walked … or should I say slushed, as the rain was coming down.  We did a walk through of the site, which stretched across both sides of the local road.  

It was interesting to see the various building periods, which were marked out nicely on explanatory signage.  One color for the ancient Greek settlement.  Another color for the Hellenic (Greek) period, and a final color for the Roman occupation period.  According to the Bible, St. Paul visited Corinth and was held in the main agora for trial, but was acquitted by the proconsul of the time, and was able to continue his journey.  There is also a small odeon and a larger theatre.  

Stone floor in agora

Another temple

Odeon

Odeon

By this time, we were thoroughly chilled and decided to drive to Akrocorinth (place above Ancient Corinth that acted as the fortification for the city in times of trouble.) but once we got there, realized that we were really in the fog on the mountain, so decided to hold that over until tomorrow.  Instead, we went on to the Isthmus Museum that we’d missed on Tuesday, arriving as we did, at 3:01 pm.

Interesting place.  It turns out that the ancient site at Isthmia was a religious sanctuary dedicated to the sea-god Poseidon, and along with Olympia, Delphi and Nemea, Isthmia made up the four Panhellenic sites revered by all Greeks. At some point the sanctuary was burned, and much of the contents of the museum came from excavations of the debris that was buried after this destruction.  The museum also contains archaeological finds from excavations in the Isthmia area, including the ancient Harbour of Kenchreae.

How'd you like to throw that discus?

Restored glass from Corning NY

Stele listing sports victories

We did see a reconstructed Greek bathtub, which was fun (but not nearly as deep as the Hittite bathtubs) and there was a very interesting display of glass that had been restored by the Corning Glass Museum in the US.  The other thing that we both found interesting was the burned discus – made of IRON -- that was uncovered here.  How’d you like to fling a thing like that around?

By now it was lunchtime, so we decided to head back to Loutraki for lunch.  We found a parking place along the coast road, and even a pizza restaurant that was open and serving food!  Our young waiter talked us into splitting a large pizza, so R’s side had pepperoni and mushrooms, and mine had ham.  Robert won – his was much better!  But the truly amazing thing to us was that Robert spotted a man SWIMMING the harbor!  It’s SOOOO cold out – and not only that, but he was still swimming away when we were heading back to the car after lunch!  Talk about the Polar Bear Club …. Brrrrrrr…

More Corning NY restored glass

Greek bathtub reconstructed!

Pretty good pizza!

From the restaurant we headed back to the hotel and spent the afternoon reading and napping.  Very enjoyable!  The rain seems to have stopped, (hopefully!) and the snow line has come way down the face of the local mountains.  Tomorrow, we’re heading back to Acrocorinth and then on to Mycenae and Nafplio (which I have read is the Greek town that has the most variations on spelling of any!  Won’t that be fun to find in the GPS!)

More later!

m

xxx