Phase 2 of our trip landed us back on the mainland. We took the shuttle ship back into Pireaus Port, where we waited for our rental car. It took the kindness of a taxi driver letting us borrow his phone to make connections with our young friendly Greek rental car driver. But, it wasn't long before we were loaded up with the GPS and the rental car, headed for Corinth. Luke did a great job navigating the city. Once we were out of the Athens area, the roads were clear, smooth, and easy to drive.
We stopped for a coffee and snack at the Corinth Canal. This coffee was truly the only thing we put in our mouths the whole week that wasn't awesome. It was pretty bad, actually, but those Europeans love instant coffee! Add ice and milk and... it doesn't get any better!
Wow. The canal was deep and windy! This canal drastically changed the trade capabilities of the area many years ago. Boats used to be moved over this chunk of land on logs because it was easier than transporting all the way around the land.
Our main destination on this day was "Ancient Corinth" and it did not disappoint. We were struck again and again by the detail and beauty of ancient art and sculpture. I loved seeing evidence that humanity that loves to make things lovely.
Which way to go?! This was the main drag through Corinth and the reason that this city was such a bustling and busy place around the time of Paul. He knew what he was doing, coming to work and minister in Corinth for 18 months. This was a hot spot!
After finishing our walking tour with the assurance that "We'll be back someday... right!?" we drive 30 more minutes to our landing spot for 2 nights - Nafplio. What a quaint city! It was once the capital of Greece and still serves as a vacation getaway for locals. It's right on the water with a beautiful pier, adorable streets, fun restaurants, and lots of shopping. We settled into our cute hotel and took a sunset walk before dinner. After dinner, we wandered the town, lit up by tables with candles, hanging lights, busy restaurants. We found a true italian gelateria and ate gelato while we meandered back to our hotel. Lovely!!!
The main event for the following day was Mycenae (after a lovely European breakfast at the hotel).
I have to say that I've heard more about the Myceneans in the last year than I ever had before. Doing CC with the kids made me really excited to see this early civilization as we'd sung about the "Mycenians!" 100's of times over the past year. It was amazing! This little city dates to 2000 bc, so there are a lot of unanswered questions as to what the buildings were for. This was likely a burial chamber -
Lion's gate entrance to the city.
Those Mycenenians had a great view!
En route to a very (!) dark watering hole cave that they dug 1000's of years ago. I did not make it to the bottom, but Luke did.
We found stone steps all over Greece to be super slick. They've been polished by 1000's of years of footsteps.
After we completed our toasty tour of ancient civilization, we headed back to Nafplio for lunch of souvlaki (yum!), shopping, and dodging the rain.
We'd read that Nafplio is a great place for worry beads. Although we got the kids their beads in Athens, we did enjoy seeing the worry bead shops. Our Nafplio souvenirs were olive wood items. We found a cute little shop with a friendly Greek man, who knew very little English and got a few treasures to bring home with us.
The building on the right was our hotel.
Seriously picturesque!
By this point in the trip, the clouds and rain seemed to match our energy level. We were happy and loving it, but tired, too. We ended up borrowing an umbrella from the hotel and walked around the city. It was fun to stumble upon this little cactus-lined path along the water's edge, which was energizing after hours of walking around shops and ancient ruins.
By evening, the rain was coming down pretty good and we decided that we didn't have to eat out every single night. Instead, it would be ok to bring dinner in, watch tv, and hang out in the hotel. We walked in the pouring rain to a grocery store to pick up olives, cheese, wine, and ouzo. We were definitely out of the tourist area by then and we made the poor lady behind the cheese counter crazy with our lack of Greek and strange request for tiny bits of lots of different types of cheese and olives! On the way back to the hotel, we stopped at a bakery for bread and baklava. The sweet owners of the hotel brought us glasses and a snacks to enjoy with our meal. A night in was just what we needed in the middle of the trip.
That night was really my only moment of being uncomfortable being away from the kids and Longview as I realized they were on tornado watch... They were in good hands and so were we, but it did make me a little crazy.
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