Athens to Patra to catch the ferry to Italy

 Athens to Patra to catch the ferry to Italy

We managed the ride out of the city of Athens with little difficulty and rode to the port of Pereas where we caught a local ferry across the bay to another peninsula. The local ferries are frequent and inexpensive, 1.10 Euro, about $1.50 for the crossing. This peninsula reminded us of the Mornington Peninsula, just out of the city with seaside living but suburban shopping.  We had a ten kilometre ride to the other side and caught another ferry for a ten minute ride to the next peninsula. We have caught a number of ferries, we enjoy the change of pace and a rest from the bikes.  Headed for Corinthos we followed a coastal road which offered great views of the Argean sea, a beautiful blue. Twelve kilometres from Corinthos we crossed a bridge over a canal which had been forged through the ismyth in 1898, a great engineering feat for that time.  Modern ships are too big to pass through the canal and it is used mainly for tourism now. We had a long chat about the canal with a garage proprietor, who, when he saw us coming rushed out with bottles of cold water.  His son was involved in erecting a monument there to acknowledge the assistance given by the Hungarians during the excavation of the canal.

When we go sightseeing we usually leave the bikes and walk or catch local transport.  A big mistake in Greece, the buses run when they want to and not to a schedule. We thought we must have missed the bus stop so asked at the local travel agent who luckily for us was an Australian who had Greek parents and she was now living in Greece for the lifestyle. She gave us directions but we waited and waited, then a work colleague of the Australian woman pulled up in her car and told us to get in, she took us the Corinthos ruins telling us we could be waiting all day, if the bus is not full it may not even run.   We were most appreciative as the museum closes at 3pm.  I suppose we were lucky it did not close at 2.pm like everything else.

The old city of Corinthos is the remains of a city, mostly known as the place where St Paul wrote the Letter to the Romans, he wrote the Letter to the Corinthians after leaving here. The place where he preached, in front of the shops can be seen still.  There is part of a temple used for worshipping Greek Godesses still standing, roads, shops, fountains and a museum which houses statues and tiles recovered from the site. There were not many people visiting so we wandered around at our leisure seeking shade under trees from the hot sun.

The next day was cooler, even a little rain, and people scrambled to bring in their deck furniture as this was the first rain for over three months, and the first time we had been rained on since China.  It did not last long and we dried out very quickly because we had a stiff wind against us. We reached Patra, a large port city and bought out tickets for the overnight ferry ride to Italy.