Greece Day 5 -Corinth, Nemea, Mycenae and Nafplio

Today was our prebooked tour with George the taxi driver that I saw recommended on a Facebook group for Athens travel and he did not disappoint. He arrived to our hotel at 8am on the dot and we packed our suitcases into the car and were on our way for the day. He said his goal was to make all our friends jealous with our beautiful photos. ha I told him I would need friends first. George didn’t really understand my English sarcasm…but we managed ha

The road signs are very similar to American signs…and most of the Greek signage had an English version, too. George says its because 30% of the economy is tourism so they love tourists. ha

After an hour in the car or so, the first stop we made was at the Corinth Canal. An engineering marvel that took 2500 years to actually achieve. This narrow straight of land is all that separates the Ionian Sea from the Aegean Sea and would save ships from having to sail all around the Peloponnese peninsula.

Rulers from 600 BC forward have had plans to dig a canal here…including 4 Roman emperors. Nero actually started the work but then had to stop to fight off an invasion and then was killed… so work stopped. It wasn’t until 1890 that this canal was actually created and ships could pass through it, saving 430 miles of sailing.

The older ruler to think about digging the canal was named Periander and after he consulted the Oracle of Delphi and it was recommended that if Apollo wanted the seas to connect, he would have designed them that way… he tried to resolve the problem by building the famous Diolkos. The Diolkos was a special road paved with slabs of limestone covered in wood from which ships greased with fat were pulled over land by oxen and slaves. Ships were loaded on special vehicles and were carried/pushed over dry land through Diolkos while the goods had been offloaded from the ships and were transported by pack animals. This idea was very successful because the ships of the era were much smaller dimensions than today. George took us by this ancient road to see what remains.

There is also a modern submersible bridge. Usually the bridges open up for ships to pass through. This one submerges under the water at a depth of 40 feet to allow passing ships. He said many years ago that locals would wait for the bridge to resurface after a ship passed and collect the fish that were stuck in the bridge. Smart fishing!

The site of Ancient Corinth was closed for today but we could still peek in at the ruins through the fence where you can see the columns of the Temple of Apollo. Corinth was the wealthiest city in ancient Greece with fertile soil and its strategic position on the peninsula. The Diolkos helped that, too. If you are Christian- it is said that the Apostle Paul visited Corinth around 50AD and created the first church of Corinth where he met Priscilla and Aquila who became two of the Seventy Disciples. His letter to the Corinthians (1st and 2nd Corinthians) are a major part of the New Testament.

A view from the ruins up towards the acropolis of Corinth – or the Acrocorinth – the impenetrable fortress that protected the land route into the Peloponnese peninsula. From here the military could monitor all activity by land and by sea.

There were a LOT of steps in the pouring rain to get up here… but worth it.

The rocks were so slippery from the rain, we didn’t go all the way to the top… since it was all in ruins anyway, we made it through the gates and could see all around (what wasn’t obscured by fog anyway)

Back in the car for our next stop in wine country.

The winery we had made reservations for a tour and tasting was outside the town of Nemea which has this huge rock outcropping with houses way up the side back in the mountain.

We chose the Bairaktaris winery on the recommendation of George and were given a tour.

They use all of their own vines for their wines and most of them are the Agiorgitiko variety as a base.

They had one variety called Terra Opus that they aged in these clay pots- called amphora like the ancients would have stored wine.

We selected the 4 wine tasting- then added on 2 red premium tasting. So, we tasted a white, a rose, 2 reds – then 2 premium reds, including the Terra Opus from the clay amphora. Overall, my favorite was a $14 bottle vs the $60 bottle lol

Norah read all of the tasting notes and decided that she wanted to taste the last wine of the tasting- the 3/.13 dessert wine. She liked the smell, but quickly on just a tad sip was not a fan. The host asked “does she drink?” when we sat down- she was totally going to give her a full tasting, too! ha

Having the equivalent of 3 full glasses of wine at noon made the cold rain better. ha We then continued on to the ancient site of Mycanae.

The Mycanaens were the pre-Greeks – at this site and flourishing as early as 1600 BC.

The first site we visited was the Citadel which is fortified by the Cyclopean walls and the main entrance being the Lion’s Gate

3000 year old gate. Inside (which I apparently didn’t photograph because it was raining and I was less than thrilled to be cold and soaking wet) was a circular grave where they pulled tons of gold and other options from burials. The famous Mask of Agamemnon that I photographed on Day 2 at the National Archeologic Museum was found here at this site.

There was a small museum on site showcasing some items that have been excavated from the site.

We took a quick drive over the to the Treasury of Atrius or the Tomb of Agamemnon – a beehive domed tomb from 1300 BC.

After this visit, it was lunch time – George dropped us off at a recommended restaurant in Nafplio called Bounos.

Steamed mussels (and pan-fried shrimp and fired calamari that I forgot to photo)

Complementary panna cotta with chocolate, caramel and strawberry topping for dessert.

Afterwards, we were supposed to spend an hour walking around the town and seeing the sites, but it was still pouring rain, so we told George we were ready to head on back to Athens. He suggested he knew a spot were we could be out of the rain and get a great family photo – so we drove up to Palamidi fortress – a fortress built by the Venetians during their occupation in the 1600s- above the town to George’s secret photo spot.

George informed us that there was a taxi strike for today, people kept calling him to ask for rides and he had to say no. Thankfully, he did not cancel our trip since we had pre-booked.

We checked into a new hotel on the other side of Athens and said goodbye to George, but Norah wanted dinner… and looking there wasn’t much super close and walkable that looked good… but there was a sushi restaurant with a full 5 stars on Google… so we gave it a shot….and it was good!