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Published: September 11th 2013
Acrocorinth
Western entranceToday the adventure really began as we dragged our luggage to the nearest tube and took the train back to the airport to pick up a hire car.
Like most tubes I have ridden, as it got further out of town, it went over ground. Unlike most tubes I have ridden, the stations were just raised platforms in the middle of the motorway.
Both Glyn and I were rather tired because as Glyn said, when you stay in cheap hotels, you get cheap guests. There was so much shouting, banging of doors and general noise intermittently throughout the night, that we did not get a lot of sleep.
Our car hire company didn't have an office and the lady who brought the car to us was 45 minutes late. This was because even though Glyn had told her in an email that we were already in Greece and planned to meet at 10am, she didn't have our flight details so decided not to bother coming to us. Glyn had to buy a phone card and call her, so a little bit of anxiety there. The car is a
Syntagma Tube Station
Waiting for a train to the airport to get a hire car. fiat punto and has quite a few bumps and scratches on it, but as the lady said, is clean!
Glyn drove and the e94 to Corinth was pretty empty and quite a nice road. Still, it is on the wrong side and we were also horrified by the price of petrol - even more than the UK. It was about 70 miles to Ancient Corinth which is a very sleepy town but with a lot of ancient stuff to see.
Now I had heard of Corinth before, in the Bible, St Paul was writing letters to it's inhabitants. I don't think they wrote back.
We found a bed and breakfast that claimed to have traditional Greek hospitality. It is really nice, clean and has free wifi. I think I've seen a cat here too. It is €50, but after a few nights in a tatty hotel, why not? We will have to be more thrifty later on.
So first Glyn drove us up the hill to Acrocorinth. Had I read the guide book fully, we might have been prepared. But I didn't. Acrocorinth is a fortress/old town that was abandoned about 200 years ago. It's been
Acrocorinth
Near the entrance, looking back down. there since Roman times and was a pretty major deal in the Middle Ages. It had had a few mosques, churches and lots of other buildings, now mostly rubble. It's a good place to build a fortress as you are knackered just getting to the entrance.
Perhaps going there in the midday sun was not a good idea. Add to that, we'd only had one chocolate digestive biscuit each for breakfast that was left over from the flight to Athens. I had an icecream earlier, but that was it. So we trekked up and up and up this hill....I've no idea how long it took, maybe one hour, maybe two. We went right to the top, and 'saw one of the most sweeping views in Greece' according to my Eye Witness Guide Book - that is how high it is. We could see both seas either side of the narrow strip of land that joins Attica and The Peloponnese; Corinth and loads of olive trees.
Walking down we passed a few tourists, but there were not many there, probably because walking up a hill in that heat is a stupid idea, even if it was free to get
in! As I trundled down, I was so hungry that if I stopped still, my legs were shaking. There's a cafe by the entrance, the first cafe that I have ever visited that sells drinks but no food, not even a bag of crisps! So after I fussed the cat (of course there was a cat!) Glyn drove us back into Ancient Corinth and we stopped at the first open cafe.
This cafe was empty apart from an old guy sat in the corner who I think lived there and an old lady slowly moved towards him on a zimmer frame. A slightly younger lady came out and we ordered some food. Sitting there, I noticed the silence. It was amazing, I can't remember the last time I've known such quiet. A ginger cat strolled across the road and collapsed on a warm piece of concrete, waving paws in the air. It didn't matter where he crashed, no one was going to harass him, not even me.
The food was simple but lovely. Greek salad with a massive chunk of feta, tzatziki, bread, stuffed tomatoes and a stuffed pepper. The lady and I presume her father sat down
View of Acrocorinth from Ancient Corinth
Yupp, we climbed that in the midday sun, with only a biscuit each and an icecream for me all day. Clever. to eat nearby and no one was in any hurry. It was about 4pm and we were ravenous, but still, we were stuffed by the end of the meal. They brought us some complimentary grapes, the size of some were three times as big as you get in England. It was a lot cheaper than Athens, but still, we can't afford to be eating out every day and must go to supermarkets and get tight.
Our plan was to visit the Temple of Apollo, Temple of Octavia, the Theatre and other ruins that were just up the road, but they shut at 3pm. Sigh. We will go there tomorrow, it's just down the road. Even this part of town was no more than a tiny street with a few cafes and small shops, hardly a soul in the area by this time which was about 5pm.
Glyn drove us to Corinth, a coastal town nearby that was a bit tatty, with lots of graffiti on the sea front and a big container ship anchored not far out. There were a few people swimming in the sea. We sat on a littered concrete step and dangled our feet into
Big grape, little grape
In family cafe, Ancient Corinth the warm sea for a while. It was nice and relaxing but I could have easily fallen asleep, so we decided to go back to our quaint hotel and have a relaxing night. We stopped at a Carrefour for drinks and snacks (the snacks to make sure we never get as hungry as we did today) and drove back to Ancient Corinth. Time to chill with a beer and a book now that I've finished today's blog!
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