Mainland separated from Peloponnesus

Today David took a trip to Corinth.  Heard of Corinthians?  Yup that Corinth.  The bus left early  Monday morning and we drove through the Port of Piraeus (the port area for Athens) which is an experience in itself. 



 Speaking of Pireas, when cities like Athens and Rome were first started ships were not really part of life and the cities were not built on the coasts.  The boats used  were rowed (6 oar early galleons) and travelled only along the shores.  (Reference Greco Persian wars. 460bce)

Pireas however became more important as “navigation” came to the Mediterranean and was an early example a city planning: an example of the hipodean system ie streets we’re in a vertical and horizontal block system.  The port is huge- the 4 or 5th largest in Europe. 

It was an 1 1/2 hr trip to from the ship in Pireas (port of Athens)  along the harbor ports  along the shipyards and shipwrites, the warehouses and petroleum tanks and past major natural gas hub before getting into more rural areas.

 

It is said often here that your geography is your destiny and because of the hilly terrain and a lack of flat lands it becomes obvious how the whole system of city states built up.  Land holdings were small. Even now a large portion of the population in the south will have enough land for a few olive trees. Our guide, with his mother and aunt has 32 olive  trees which they harvest themselves and which provides enough oil for 18 months. Typically the city states would have a center less than 3 hours by Oxcart from the individual farms.

So there is this isthmus that is called, surprisingly the Isthmus of Corinth - a narrow strip of land that connects the Peloponnese peninsula to mainland Greece. 

ATHENS IS A BIT NORTH AND Sparta a bit south.  Certainly a defendable land defense. But as commerce widened there was the issue that to sail from one side is Greece to the other required a 15 day journey. What if they could cut a canal?  For centuries this was a dream but rock like granite can be an issue.  Nero started a canal in 63 ce. It was finished 1900 years later in 1863. https://www.britannica.com/place/Isthmus-of-Corinth

So now instead of 15 days it takes 15 minutes to go about 4 miles.  Of course now the ships are much bigger but the canal does still get used some. 

And then what do I see….





Hmm, what’y’think? Think I could do it in 15 minutes?



Well we had to get back on the bus.  

We’re off now to ancient Corinth and the Temple of Apollo 



see the bleachers?  



Temple of Apollo god of light, balance (karma)  and music. Most worship took place outside the temple. Processions and animal sacrifice were the normal thing. Gods needed blood as life was seen as a give and take with the gods.  Their concept of sin was a bit different. One was supposed to preserve what one might call Karma. If you didn’t it annoyed the gods and    when karma was disrupted you needed a sacrifice (birth, death, stealing and other events) 

Built 530 BCE  built of soapstone in  Doric style these columns are still standing.  

 

 

 

 in the above shop the Forum (agora) is  in the foreground. On the far side of the forum at about 11:00 o’clock you’ll see a raised platform with people standing on it. This is where Paul did his preaching to the Corinthians.   

And that platform was called a Veema (rhymes with Bema. A coincidence? I think not )  in later days a chapel was built over the bema and you see some relics of the Middle Ages added as well. 

Paul stayed here 18 months peaching and working as a tent maker.  

We wondered about all the fire extinguishers under the pine trees. Apparently these trees are a real nightmare as if they catch fire the pine cones flare up and catch everything around on fire as well. 



 

Some of the first recorded synagogues (from the time of the Jewish Temple) were found in Greece. In Delos from 60 bce and these relics from a synagogue in Corinth from about 50 bce. Note the candelabra, the Lulav and the etrog. 

And of course there were the self aggrandizing statues of the big wigs. 



One of my favorite stories of the day was that when Nero was touring here he was in a chariot race. Apparently he fell out of the chariot but was still awarded the prize for winning. The tour guide goes: much like what’s happening on the other side of the Atlantic now. 

I leave you with the statue of what is presumed to be Dianna. Note the high boots and belts - suggestion of a hunter 

Meanwhile, my own hunter was out on her own quest. Melanie went on a food tour instead of going to Corinth and was very happy. 😃 

The end. 

Dinner first night

One runs onto the most interesting characters on the streets here.  This is outside Hadrians library. 

We headed off to dinner at a small family run restaurant where David experienced zucchini balls (zucchini,onions,carrots and  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pastitsio

And Melanie had what we agreed was the most fantastic pastitsio https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pastitsio

We both left food on our plates. 

On the way we decided to pick up a little something for Jake 

In the morning we headed to the ship. 

Mediterranean & Adriatic Odyssey

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Phew-we made it.  After an action packed 5 days we’ve arrived in Athens and even caught up on some sleep. Before we left Melanie spent last weekend with the grandkids in Scarsdale driving down with Josh and Gabby.  I played daily rehearsals and performances Friday-Wed culminating with a very well received SRO performance ar Longview. 

Our trip across the Atlantic was wonderful and we both even got a decent amount of sleep  on the plane!

As David said, the flight from Newark to Paris was easy. I only embarrassed myself once.  They gave us choices for the main dish for dinner. They put the tray in front of me and it had cheeses and an appetizer and salad. I said to the flight attendant, where is my main course . She said very politely this is just the first course.  Who knew they serve dinner in courses on a plane.

 

We left Ithaca at 9 AM yesterday. Got into Athens at 7 PM the next day. After dinner on the flight I slept for at least 4  hours. On the second flight I slept for at least 3 hours. 

I’m being reminded over and over that while I can do the same thing I used to be able to do it takes the stuffing out of me. In Athens the man from our cruise asked where my flight originated from.  Athens I answered. He just shook his head. Then I asked a porter which carousel had my luggage. He asked what the name of the airline I came on. I couldn’t answer that either. I just walked away. Seemed like my best bet. 

 So our first flight was late and upon arrival in Paris it was clear we wouldn’t make our connection. Fortunately, we had called Viking ahead of time to warn of this possibility and they had made  arrangements for a “just in case” scenario. But those arrangements weren’t apparently clear in our own  minds so we got the joy of exploring the Charles deGaul airport including two trips in and out of security.  I believe the place was designed in a Lego competition for kindergartners. 

We were saved when a wonderful agent in the Air France lounge figured out that our “safety flight” was actually on another airline, called them and got us what we needed. She assured us several times that we had enough time to go upstairs and shower and still make it to the next terminal.  Several times she mentioned take a shower!   Was hard not to say “ that’s ok we always look like this.’’ (Actually we looked better than usual as we both had just had haircuts).  

We thanked her, enjoyed the hospitality of the lounge and went on our way sans shower.   Must say we were delighted with her willingness to not just blow us off but took the time to resolve our confusion.  

It so happened that this was also the day of the annual release of Piron Beaujolais Nouveau.  We, of course were delighted to taste test and review both the original and Nouveau versions.  

But we did get 6000 steps in the airport  After dark we arrived safely in Athens and were whisked off to our hotel where after a quick bite slept soundly. 

Only to wake up bright eyed and bushy tailed and rarin to go. Here is the first of what I suspect will be several good food pictures. 

Weather here is in the high 60s. I looked at the weather before I packed but somehow living in Ithaca, I could not fathom what the high 60s would be like. Hence, I packed all sweaters. Looks like there is shopping in my future.  

This morning we had the most amazing walking tour of what’s called the Agora. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Agora_of_Athens

 This was the common meeting place in ancient Greece - a place where citizens (meaning adult males) would gather to discuss the issues of the day and gossip and listen to orators, philosophers, politicians and blowhards. Among the sites we saw was a water clock which was used to time the speakers so they didn’t drone on and on. Different types of speakers had different time limits. I think I was told the politicians had to stop when the six minute drop of water fell.  

There’s just too much history in this place for us to try to transcribe and share everything we’ve seen and learned. So we won’t even try, but I hope you enjoy the pictures and the occasional babbling discourse. 

Just imagine though coming for coffee.and going for a stroll with politicians like Pericles and Demosthenes, philosophers like Socrates and Plato, playwrights such as Sophocles and Euripides, and …..

The above lions are from a restoration but with one flaw. The open Lion mouths are to direct rain runoff from the roof. But they forgot to put in the tongue which would have shot the water far enough out to avoid walkers below. Oops. Apparently, Rockefeller money was the big funder for opening and restoring this site.  Seems it was found because when they started digging for the subway, they ran into this huge buried relic. I forget how many houses had been built over the thousand or so years were there but the Rockefellers paid the money to relocate the people as well as funding American university to do the excavation. 

And of course, how can any discussion of city avoid the topic of sewers?

And to fill those to you need the poop

And one last artifact is a water cooled wine jug. Pour wine into the inner section and pour cool water into the outer section to keep your Vino chilled

Our guide Katarina talked about religion by participation. You could have  religion with an unknown God. You practiced your religion through participation in sports, through drama through music through an activity. There was discussion of the importance of participation in public life. Whoever didn’t participate was actually called an “idiot” from the Greek word “idiotes” meaning private person meaning one that didn’t participate in public affairs.  

This is the temple of Theseus and is one of the best preserved temples of the period preserved primarily because it got converted into a church. The Christians cut out most of the decorations, but left the battle of the Centaurs because they identified them as the devil and so it was a virtuous struggle. There was much discussion of Athens as the birthplace of democracy and democracy being a mixture of different layers of the population and also of the importance of public service.

 The last photo we will leave you with from our tour was a lottery machine for choosing juries. 

Each citizen had a token, and if you were called for jury duty, you stuck your token into  one of the slots. There was a funnel with a tube on the side of the machine down which colored balls were rolled. Each row of the jury pool was represented by a color and if your color came out your row was the jury. The theory being this would randomize the jury as well as make it more difficult to pre-bribe the jurors. 

We’re off now to find dinner. Hope all are well.

Mystery authors

We’re enjoying our time in Angelholm with Debra and Mathias 

And of course the grandpets

Aaron said he likes that he knows who wrote which post, David or Melanie. Let’s see if you could figure out who wrote this post. We did grocery shopping many times here in Sweden. When we first went in the store I went over to the spices to get garlic powder. I saw the spices were alphabetical just like at home. Great.

Then I saw it was all written in Swedish. Ok I thought, that makes sense. I gave up looking for the spice and bought fresh garlic. Then as I shopped more and David tried valiantly to use google translate I became more and more frustrated. Would it really have hurt them to add some English ( or as my nephew Tyler calls it American)?

 I tried to buy grape jelly. Afterwards Debra told me it doesn’t exist in Sweden (what do they eat their peanut butter with?). I saw lingonberry jelly and took a jar off the shelf. At the jelly shelf I woman at least 10 years older than me started speaking excitedly to me and I went to interrupt but she held up her hand for me to be quiet so I let her finish (3 minutes later). Then I said “sorry I don’t speak Swedish. “ She said “OK” which is apparently Swedish for Ok and walked away. I have no idea if she was trying to tell me I was buying poison or that was her favorite jelly. The damn labels aren’t in English. We bought Debra milk that turned out to be buttermilk. The best is I bought mushrooms and you have to type in what the produce is at checkout. David typed in “mushrooms“ and strangely enough the scanner had no idea what we meant. I had to call for help. Who knows what the name of mushrooms are in Swedish. Now on to cooking in Sweden.  The ovens  are in centigrade and there are no cup measures, only milliliters. What! 

And Sweden has trolls as well 🤥🫠

We ended up with a flat tire one night and learned how to use the bus to get back to the hotel. Felt very proud of ourselves.

A word about street names. My theory is City Hall had arguments about what to name the streets. So instead of compromising they took everyone’s suggestion and lumped them all in one street name,  for example Berganvesterorganstrasser. The next street is Berganvesterorgangarten.

What the heck We’re coming home Tuesday night!

Catching up:Trondheim from day

Day 2 from so we headed Northwest and took the train from Oslo - Trondheim. We went from the flat farmland into the hills. Going though Lillehammer we caught sight of the ski jump from the Olympics.

L

Trondheim

A town we knew nothing about but we came to really enjoy.

After departing the train we got a quick tour of the city the tour ending at our hotel which was across from the Rock & Roll Museum

and as I think we already mentioned what sort of display was guaranteed to catch the attention of one of us:

Over the course of the trip we had to be reminded of the history of the German occupation of Norway and the role of the Gestapo in controlling the population. Turning the corner to find this was a bit of a surprise.

Trondheim Jewish Museum and Synagogue

“It shall be a small Chapel”

And of course there were the churches. I (David) was clueless as to the impact of the reformation in Scandinavia. The history is still not clear to me but the plethora of small wooden churches as well as major edifices make the importance of a church to local life clear,

This is the Nidaros Cathedral in Trondheim built 1070-1300

and of course Moses with his obligatory horns

There a lots of playgrounds and activities for kids. When walking over one bridge we found this interesting contraption. The pipes went down to a kindergarten playground and tourist were encouraged to call down and chat….

And it was here it was explained to us the the corner shops were cut in such a way that horse drawn carts could turn corners without crashing into the building.

Dinner was Fish once again but with the additional entertainment of watching a local robot take stock of the harbor water quality