{"id":3752,"date":"2015-09-16T12:39:23","date_gmt":"2015-09-16T12:39:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/?p=3752"},"modified":"2019-05-16T06:41:55","modified_gmt":"2019-05-15T20:41:55","slug":"ancient-corinth-and-beautiful-korfos-greece-2015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/?p=3752","title":{"rendered":"Ancient Corinth and Beautiful Korfos, Greece. 2015 \ud83c\uddec\ud83c\uddf7"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Travelled: 290 klms by ferry from Chios to Piraeus, Greece, then 132 klms on to Korfos.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n


Visited: Chios Town (again), then the Corinth Canal, Ancient Corinth and Korfos in the Peloponnese.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n


Stayed: Blue Star Ferry, deck 5 for the Hymer and a suite for us. Then on hardstand adjoining\u00a0a small restuarant\/marina in Korfos, power and water available if you have a meal N37.76544, E23.12622<\/a>. \u00a0Dinner for two+ 2 rounds of drinks \u20ac34<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We drive around the quay and into the port gate around 10.30 pm, it’s a hive of activity. A very bored gateman waves us through, but we have no idea where to ? We turn past a line of trucks and find a line of cars looks like we may have found the queue. Locking up the Hymer, we walk along the line of cars. It’s a mixed assortment of very flash BMWs and Audis, then there’s the old Renaults and Peugoets. A old Renault in front has a dog in a wire cage on the roof rack and a large bird cage with yellow canary on the back seat.  There are at least 200 young Arabic men waiting on the quay as well as several police.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Suddenly the ferry appears and the scramble begins. The ship enters the small port and expertly swings 180 degrees and the ramps are down.  Large trucks emerge from the ferry and in turn large trucks disappear back inside.  Passengers queue to embark and finally the cars and one motorhome are given the OK to roll up the ramp.  We are no sooner in our suite and we feel the ferry pull away from the quay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We booked this passage from the Blue Star office in the port a few days before.  Long story short I asked the booking agent for a double bed (obviously) and she had said the room all have single bunks.  Eventually she said look she can arrange a double bed for an extra \u20ac6 each, I said do it. As we left she said it’s the best room on the ferry.  It was a lovely suite, much bigger than we have travelled on when cruising, in fact the bathroom was bigger than rooms we have stayed in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anyway we arrive in Piraeus on time a 7 am and drive down the ramp into the morning traffic a few minutes later.  It’s not a cheap passage from Cesme to Chios then on to Piraeus but it saves 1500 kilometres of driving, we have already experienced.  Nothing has changed in Piraeus since our last visit in 2013, litter everywhere and graffiti slogans on most walls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We take the tollway to escape the morning rat run, soon enough we are \u20ac6.50 poorer but 60 kilometres away at the Corinth Canal having a coffee and curried bake beans on toast.  If you keep a look out in the supermarkets you can still get Heinz curried bake beans in England and France…mm. Lovely with cheese on a toasted baguette !<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"The<\/a>
The Corinth Canal, constructed to provide a shortcut for shipping passing around the Peloponnese. Too narrow to be any use for modern shipping, it’s mostly used by tourist boats.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\"Most<\/a>
Most bridges go up to allow shipping to pass under, but this bridge on the Corinth Canal goes down. We waited for a while but no boats came along. Life’s too short to wait for a bridge to sink !<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

We are now in the Peloponnese and plan to spend a few weeks driving much shorter distances, exploring little villages, swimming, snorkeling and relaxing after 5 weeks of long drives.  However the Lonely Planet recommends a visit to Ancient Corinth, a Museum and Archeological site just west of the canal so we head off to do a little exploring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Ancient Corinth is divided into two seperate areas, the museum and the excavation site.  The site has been occupied since neolithic times through to the middle ages.  The main fountain dates to the 5th century BC.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Apart from the fact the museum was air-conditioned, we found it very interesting.  There were some fabulous sculptures such as this one, of two larger than life figures. They were originally pillars for the entry portals of th temple.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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The mosiacs taken from floors of the houses in Corinth are so finely detailed.  Held by the Greeks until the city was sacked by the Romans in 146 BC.  According to the information provided Julius Caesar took a shine to the place in 44 BC and it prospered from there.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Pam asked if I could copy this mosiac in the backyard at home.  I said it would be a lot of hard work and immediately thought this would be a good project for Jim, so we’ll suggest it to Denice when we get back.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Despite there being a few bus loads of English and American tourists, the site is so big it’s easy to just wander about reading the information boards.  Haven’t seen any Koreans since we left Turkey, it must be the result of the recent decision by the Greek parliament to ban the selfie stick.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Pam says ‘I should grow my moustache again’, she loves the Pancho Villa in shorts look.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Maybe not !<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Just below the Agora in Ancient Corinth, the place where Saint Paul spoke to the Corinthians in AD 52.  As we have driven around Italy, Turkey and Greece it is amazing to note how many churches, cathedrals and ancient cities mark the spot where Saint Paul once stood and spoke.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Another stoney beach.  Pam and I went to a little sports store in Chios and each purchased a pair of those water shoes.  Possible one of our better purchases, no sore feet and you don’t need to worry about treading on sea urchins.  The water in crystal clear and just a refreshing temperature.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Our Korfos swimming and napping spot for the afternoon.  We moved back into town in the early evening for drinks and dinner.  The tavern owner offered us a parking spot adjoining the restuarant, within range of his wifi and water in the morning.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Another hard day for the co-pilot draws to it’s inevitable white wine conclusion.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Michael and Pam<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Travelled: 290 klms by ferry from Chios to Piraeus, Greece, then 132 klms on to Korfos. Visited: Chios Town (again), then the Corinth Canal, Ancient Corinth and Korfos in the Peloponnese. Stayed: Blue Star Ferry, deck 5 for the Hymer and a suite for us. Then on hardstand adjoining\u00a0a small restuarant\/marina in Korfos, power and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":3744,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[79],"class_list":{"0":"post-3752","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-greece","8":"tag-greek-villages","9":"czr-hentry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3752","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3752"}],"version-history":[{"count":30,"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3752\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17738,"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3752\/revisions\/17738"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3744"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}