The Peloponnese

On Thursday night we departed Lesvos on the Hellenic ferry Nissos Chios for Athens. The ferry departed at 10:00 PM and arrived in Athens at 06:30 AM. As I mentioned in an earlier post, these ferries are very nice with sleeping cabins, staterooms, lounges and airplane type seats. Yiannis took us to the dock and we parted with fond farewells and promises to return to Lesvos. He presented us with a beautiful cup and saucer set from Lesvos as a remembrance. We will certainly miss the family and the nice times we spent on the island.

Upon arrival in Athens, the ship was parallel parked in a tight space at the dock in Piraeus which is pretty amazing when you consider the ship is 462' long, has a capacity for 1715 passengers and 418 vehicles! Piraeus is the largest port in Greece and the third largest in the world servicing approximately 20 million passengers each year, so ships are docked very close together. After our arrival we found the metro, paid our 14 Euros and rode to the airport where we rented a car. We rented the car from the airport to avoid driving through Athens since a major motorway leaves from the airport and goes directly to Corinth on the Peloponnese peninsula.

The Peloponnese peninsula history goes back at least 5,000 years with many major archeological sites including Ancient Corinth, Mycenae, Ancient Nemea, and Ancient Olympia among others. It would be easy to spend weeks exploring these archeological sites and museums. We started at Ancient Corinth which had a population of 750,000 and was very important as a shipping port
for the Romans. The Peloponnese peninsula is connected to the Greece mainland by a strip of land only 4 miles long. In ancient times sailing around the southern tip of the peninsula was dangerous because of frequent storms so ships would often be unloaded and hauled over land along the narrow strip of land. Nero wanted to dig a canal along the strip but it was not until the late1800's that the French dug a canal 75' wide to connect the Aegean and Ionian Seas. Now, the canal is only wide enough for smaller ships.

Excavations at Ancient Corinth and Acrocorinth have yielded significant finds from the past 2000 years. Acrocorinth is a fortified citadel perched high above the city, on a mountain contains three miles of walls and has been occupied by successive occupying powers since Roman times.
Excavations at the ancient city of Corinth have revealed the vast extent of the city destroyed by earthquakes in Byzantine times. St. Paul wrote two Epistles to the Corinthians criticizing their licentious living practices.

Our next stop was Ancient Olympia, one of the most important cites in all of ancient Greece where Zeus was worshiped, and for over 3500 years athletic games were practiced. Although the site was inhabited in 3000BC, the establishment of the Olympic Games in 776 BC is traditionally treated as the first certain event in Greek history. The Roman Emperor Nero competed in the events in AD 67 unfairly rescheduling the games and 'won' the most prizes. The modern revival of the games came in 1896 when they were held in Athens, today the Olympic flame is ignited at Olympia and then carried around the world.

The road system in mainland Greece is very modern with high speed toll roads and secondary roads in excellent condition. We took the toll road as far as Tripoli then ventured off on a narrow twisting road over the mountains to Olympia, of course we could have take the major road but would have missed the fun and excitement of driving over roads barely wide enough for two cars to pass. The road travels along the Lousios Gorge which is a popular hiking area with villages hanging on the side of cliffs. Because of the remote mountain setting, this area was one of the strongholds of the revolutionaries during the Greek war of Independence. Medieval monasteries and churches cling to the steep cliffs of the gorge and picturesque villages are scattered along the route.

In Olympia, we stayed at the Hotel Pelops, a nice hotel owned by the Spiliopoulos family in the heart of the city, close to the ancient archeological site and museums. In the dining room are three Olympic torches from Tokyo 1964, Mexico 1968, and Athens 2004. The torches were carried in 1964 and 1968 by Theodoros Spiliopoulos, and in 2004 by his son "Alki" Alkiviades Spiliopoulos. It is not everyday you see an Olympic torch, let alone three, and meet the people who carried them. Quite an honor.

On Sunday we will depart Olympia for Delphi then back to Athens. Maybe the oracle will have good words for us, but first we have more mountainous roads to travel.