Day 16 and 17 Ancient Corinth, Mycenae and a Thunderstorm in Athens and Back Home

Our final tour day dawned partly cloudy and pleasant. We joined our guide Mary and took off for Corinth and Mycenae on our final day of touring. After traversing the heavy downtown Athens traffic, it took us about an hour to reach the Corinth Canal. Four miles long and only about 75 feet wide, this canal sits below rising cliffs of several hundred feet with sheet walls—a little confining for the vessels as they make the crossing from the Aegean Sea to the Ionian Sea, saving a couple of hundred of miles in time to get around the bottom of Greece. Now if you like you can bungee jump off a bridge above the canal.

From the canal about 20 minutes later we were at the ancient site of Corinth, amid orange groves ripe with naval oranges ready to be picked. Only about 5% of the area has been excavated, but it is an impressive site. We saw archeologists sifting through a dig near the gate where a new ticket booth was interrupted by the discovery of new discoveries at the site.

It was impressive to sit close by where Paul had spent time preaching and ministering to the Corinthians whom he greatly appreciated. At the time in 53 AD (or so), Corinth was more of a major city than was Athens and it was a major center of commerce in the region. We walked along the streets where Paul walked and were able to take in the serenity this spot must have offered 2000 years ago. Pastor Linda led a reading from the book of Acts regarding Paul’s time in Corinth while the group sat under a grove of trees inside the excavation site.

From Corinth we bussed through fertile fields of orange trees and olive trees ready for the late fall harvest. We visited Mycenae, home of King Agamemnon, of the Fall of Troy fame. This capitol for Greece as its major center in 1500 BC. We visited one of their “Beehive” tombs, made for an ancient King, and we climbed the Acropolis of Mycenae where the royal palace once sat. It was exciting to visit a place which was a major part of our western civilization and its roots.

We stopped for lunch in the little town outside Mycenae and enjoyed fresh squeezed orange juice, roast lamb, Greek salads and many other wonderful Greek dishes.

While heading back to Athens we were faced with a major thunderstorm. The area obviously needed the rainfall, but it made traffic a mess. When we returned to the hotel, six of us decided we needed to go to the Plaka (the old city of Athens) to make final purchases. Now veterans of the Athen’s metro system, we hopped on the subway and got off at the Acropolis stop to find a Olive wood store that Cathy Baird had found the day before. We were quite a site, 6 Seattleites dressed in rain gear walking with map in hand through the streets of Athens at dark looking for a little shop. We found it, but unfortunately, they had closed for the night. Of course, we found other places to spend our money and get our gifts. (Some of us had to get the additional suitcase for packing home our gifts). A little wet and laughing all the way we hopped back on the metro and returned to our hotel. After another Greek meal, we all headed to our rooms for final packing.

Our group began its return home with several having hotel pick-up times of 2:00 AM in their private Mercedes taxi cabs arranged by our tour company. Most of the rest of us had times a little later in the morning. We had a large group on Air France keeping their fingers crossed that a purported strikes wouldn’t impact their flights.

Pastor Linda, Rich and Deborah and Lanny Vanderhoek returned on British Airways via London. A few last-minute items were purchased at the Heathrow Harrod’s department store, including a musical, tail wagging Westie dog. After a long flight, a great adventure ended.

Our group took probably 10,000 photos during the journey. Selected shots will appear on this blog. Thanks to everyone who traveled with us during this marvelous visit to the Holy Land. For additional information contact rich@luxurient.com and he will give us details of future travels around the world.

---

---