Ancient Corinth, Acrocorinth and Corinth canal.

Leaving our lovely Akrata beach camp site with its owners Manolis and Tula we head towards Corinth. It is a very hot day and as we near our destination the engine temperature overheats. We quickly stop and  find a pool of water under the engine.
Being mechanically minded, I thought this is not right, plus many expletives as you would expect at a time like this.  I topped up the water, as it was not boiling and we limped to the Camper stop at Aphrodite Waters.
This is a beautifully kept, private site with toilet and shower, small shop, electricity and camper service point all for 10 euro a night. It is within ten minutes walk from the Archaeological site and the owners are really friendly.
I called our breakdown service and asked for assistance. They were not very hopeful of anyone coming out to us in the near future but said they would get back to us.
In the meantime I asked the son of the campsite if his parents may know a local garage in the area.
The Grandfather jumped up and said follow me and led us on his scooter to the Main Fiat dealer ten minutes down the road. He spoke to the foreman of the workshop who sent a mechanic to look at the job . This is on a Friday afternoon. ! ! !
He found the problem straight away, a small heater hose had chaffed through on another hose clip.
I asked when they could mend it. He said right away. I was astonished and he completed the job whilst we waited. My bill for the job was 29 euros. Astonishing. How would that ever happen back home at a Main dealer ?

Refreshed and ready to go we arrived next morning at the gates of Ancient Corinth as they opened at 8.00 am.
We were the only ones there and started to explore the ruins.
This is a Roman site and was very prosperous because of its position close to the isthmus between the Gulf of Corinth and the Saronic gulf.

Temple of Apollo with Acrocorinth in the background.
 

The Odeion is on the entrance to the Archaeological site and below it are the ruins of a large Theatre.

This is the Glauke fountain, a series of four cisterns carved out of the rock and filled by an aqueduct from the hills.

The Temple of Apollo is the only building which was kept by the Romans and dates before their rebuilding of the site.

Temple of Octavia.

This is the impressive Lechaion way, a marble paved road which linked the port to the city.

The natural springs, Peirene Fountains.

The museum on site is well laid out and contains many of the Roman statues from the ruins and also a good display of mosaics from nearby Roman villas.

After retrieving our scooter from the camp we head up the hill to Acrocorinth, this is the hill you saw in the first picture.

The entrance is through three gateways which are from different eras. This first one is Turkish.

This third one is Byzantine.

Inside the complex at the summit there are the remains of Mosques, chapels and cisterns. The views from the Venetian tower at the top give you idea of the region.

We moved on down and headed to the Corinth canal which was completed in 1893 although the plans
date back to Emperor Nero's time.

Both ends of the canal have sinking bridges and we spent half a hour watching the process.
For us this was quite unique.

Going.

Gone.

Back up with traffic.

 

 Before the canal boats had to be dragged across land on a paved way by men with ropes and rollers.
This was to avoid the dangerous route around the cape and of course this traffic was what made Ancient Corinth such a prosperous place.

Lake Doxa and the Feneos plateau

Another trip suggested by Manolis from our camp site takes us eastwards along the coast to Derveni where we pick up the road to Evrostina.

The road winds its way as usual through many tight bends and small villages.

 

 

This was the church on the outskirts of Evrostina.

 

 

We reach the high plain of Fenios. This plain is surrounded by the three highest peaks in the Pelopeneses, being Ziria to the east and Chelmos and Mt Ntourdonvana to the west.

 

 

From the road we cross the plain and arrive at the lake of Doxa which nestles between the mountains.

The area was artificially flooded leaving the small church of Fanouriou on a peninsular.

 

 

Another of those Bugs.

 

 

The setting of this lake is beautiful.

 

 

We head back down the valley passing the small Church of Steno.

 



Kalavrita railway.

Sarah's favourite today a train ride albeit not steam.

An early start at Diakofto station on the coast.

The rack and pinion railway climbs up the Vouraikos gorge for 22 kms with some very steep section and tunnels.

 

 

The railway was built in 1889 to convey ore to the port.

As you can see there are sections where it just hangs on to the cliff edge, off to the left is a five hundred foot drop.

 

 

The bridges span the river at intervals along the way.

 

 

The first station we come to is Mega Speilo and from here you can walk up to the Monastery, see yesterdays post for a picture of the same. Rob could not be persuaded as we had already seen it from the road.

You also have the opportunity to walk back from here to the coast, but as you have to walk along the track for three hours,again Rob was immovable.

 

 

We continue our journey up to Kalavrita where we disembark to explore the town and to visit the Holocaust museum which is in the old Schoolhouse where the separation of the men from the women and children took place before the massacring of 1436 males took place in 1943

 

 

The Cathedral in the square has two clocks, one of which is stopped at the exact hour of the massacre.

 

 

We re-join the train heading back to the coast taking a few shots missed don the way up.

 

 

One of the original trains built in Paris.

 

 

Another  great day out in some spectacular scenery.