18th September - Start of our Grand classical tour of Greece

 We checked out of the Tempi hotel and waited outside for our tour guide to pick us up at 8:10am. He introduced himself as Konstantin and walked us to the tour van where we were introduced to the driver (can’t remember his name) and two other passengers Caroline and David from London, England. We only had one other passenger to collect, Sue from San Diego, USA. Once we collected Sue from Syntagma Square we set off for the Corinth Canal.

The Corinth Canal was completed after the Suez Canal and links the Gulf of Corinth and Ionian Sea with the Saronic Gulf and Aegean Sea. Next we headed for Loutraki and the Sanctuary of Hera Akraia-Limenia but we only got to view it from above as the clouds rolled in and large raindrops started to fall just as we headed back to the van.

We set off for ancient Corinth and by the time we arrived the rain had stopped. We visited the archaeological site and Museum. The site contains 3 famous places, the temple of Apollo, The fountain of Peirene and the spot from where the Apostle Paul spoke to the locals.
Temple of Apollo 

The fountain of Peirene

Top of the Rostra where St Paul spoke to the Corinthians
The Rostra (Bema) of the Roman Forum
We had lunch at a lovely local restaurant in Nemean, the village where Hercules fought the lion before setting off to Ancient Mycenae, another UNESCO  world heritage site and one of the most popular archaeological sites in Greece. We first stopped at the treasury of Atreus which is a tholos or beehive tomb built between 1350 and 1250BC.



Just up the road was the citadel where they found many of the artifacts we saw in the Archaeological Museum in Athens. Including the gold mask of “Agamemnon”, and many more amazing gold finds. It is considered the most important and richest palace of the late Bronze Age. We had an hour to wander around the site and visit the museum. The citadel is built with huge slabs of stone cut to fit without the use of mortar and known as Cyclopedean walls as only the cyclops could have built with them.

Lion Gate


Last stop of the day before being dropped off at the hotel in Napflio was the Palmidi Fortress. From there we had a panoramic view of the Argolis plain, Napflio and out across the water.






We ended the evening with a lovely walk along the waterfront and stopped to have a drink in a harbour side restaurant before walking back through the old town.

Today was the first cloudy day and rain we have had on our trip so far, but luckily everything worked out ok. 

 


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