The end of the
Greek Odyssey. And then we wend our way back home via Corinth, Athens, Istanbul
and a long flight with a short stop in Johannesburg
Last morning at La Petit Planete and
Agamemnon is shrouded in cloud
then it was off to see one more
ancient site at Corinth. This is the Temple of Nemean Zeus. There was a group
of American US archaeology students having a lecture
A sylvan scene
The old bath house for the Athletes
The ancient way of attaching rocks to
each other looks amazingly modern
A commemorative plaque to the
restorers of two columns. There are more to come
Terry taking a moment to absorb
history
when you see these marvellous
reconstructions and restoration you wonder at what they can now do with computers
that can match edges and surfaces
The view the worshippers must have had
A 'window' on the countryside
Nice sunny day
A skink warming itself
John approaches the camera for a
change
He has his portrait taken at last
Just leaning on time
You can hear the cicadas singing in
the heat
Tumbled column awaiting resurrection
Green walnuts
And fresh young vines
In flower
These trees have been here as long as
the temple, but they regrow from fallen nuts and seeds
In the museum a model of how it used
to look
A poem to a fallen warrior
Three gold rings
And a poignant memory for John, who
worked for AGFA for 24 years. Film has gone and so has AGFA
A panoramic view of the Gulf of
Corinth
A chilled beer for the boys and a
freshly squeezed orange juice for Lynne in a jam jar, clever adaptation. Damn,
why does one find gems on the last day of one’s trip? the juice was stunningly
good
We needed a substantial lunch, as the
plane food would start after midnight. John had meatballs and rice
Good bread but no one touched it
Terry and Lynne had Lamb souvlaki,
with tzatziki, chips, tomato and pita
the restaurant had lots of tourists
and a good view
The owner and his rustic wall
Next we climbed up to the ancient
castle on the top of the hill. In the car. Thistles on the way
A magnificent view of modern Corinth
The sign that told us we were too
late. Why close at 3 in season?
Strong wind blowing, we walked up as
far as we could
And by putting his camera through the
gate railings, John got a view of what we missed
You can just see invaders climbing
those walls and getting shot by arrows and having hot tar or oil poured on
them
More thistles and another gate
You
need to swop the next two
Thank heavens he only had one beer at
lunch. Terry was pulled over at a police check point. No charges! But he was
sweating blood
The nearest we could get. Next trip
perhaps
The famous Corinth Canal. Rarely used
nowadays, but still big enough and deep enough for medium sized ships to
traverse. Lynne once took the Ferry from Brindisi in Italy to Athens and it
came through the canal. It's a lot bigger than it looks on the photograph..
The other side of the bridge going
towards Athens
Goodbyes said, we board the airport
express at Corinth at 17h00. You need to know that in Greece EU pensioners
travel at half price, and all museum entrances are also half price if you
produce an EU passport. Sorry, SA travellers, unless you’re married to the
right person
Then it's into Athens modern airport
21h45 Take your seats for the short
one hour flight to Istanbul on Turkish airlines. Onward flight to Cape Town
left at 01h05. Why can't we sleep on planes? Why can't we come on day flights?
And finally, a long time later, the
next day at about 3 pm, we board the MyCiti bus from the airport to town to
collect our car from Barons, where it had been serviced while we were away. We
arrived back in bitterly cold weather
And we arrive home to our house on the hill, welcomed by our niece Callen and the cats. My, how the rose around the door has grown
© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2015
