Yesterday - a busy full day tour - with our first stop being at the Corinth Canal - 23 metres wide and with 80 metre walls built in 1882, so that boats would not have to risk sailing around Cape Matapan, which is the southern most point of the Peloponnese. For many years boats have been hauled across the Peninsular on a cobbled road to avoid the storm risk but obviously the bigger boats needed a canal - and here it is.
We then headed to Mycenae - snow capped mountains and mucho olive trees.
The term "Mycenean" more probably late "bronze age" applies to an entire culture spanning the years 1700 to 1100 BC.
Mycenae, the ancient city, included the Lionesses Gate - pictured above with Liz and a lot of glare in it.
There were circular tombs where royalty were buried
Below the other side of the Lionesses Gate, look at the size of that lintel - estimated to weigh 20 tonnes.
How they moved these we do not know
Wildflowers were out and the sun was shining
Frank really enjoyed the engineering of these BC workers
More olives
Looking back up to Mycenae
Below is the entrance to the Tomb of Klytemnestra, this lintel was estimated to weigh 120 tonnes - nearly as deep as it is wide.
This is all BC building, engineering and sheer physical effort, just incredible!
After leaving Mycenae we headed to Nauplia for a very good lunch at the Amalia Hotel - sat with Ingrid, an archeologist from Canada - she lives 1200 miles north of Calgary, really enjoyed her company.
Next stop was Epidaurus and its theatre designed in 4th century BC
It is well known for its near perfect acoustics - and they are!
And has the only circular stage to have survived from antiquity.
Epidaurus is renowned for its incredible theatre, but also an extensive therapeutic and religious centre, active from the 6th Century BC to 2nd Century AD. The medical tools exhibited from their archeology work is unreal.
On driving back through town we noted the amount of police activity outside the Parliament Building in Constitution Square (Syntagma Square) - and crowds in the park there - thought there could be trouble and yes there was again.
We arrived back to our great little hotel around 7pm, got rid of some gear and wandered just up our thin street , to have a drink underneath the Acropolis.
The Plaka is the oldest part of Athens, it's peaceful and basically minus the "graffiti" warfare that seems to have taken over parts of the city.
In fact the choice to stay at the Ava Hotel in the Plaka district was superb. We watched where we let some others from our tour group off - big hotels, surrounded by graffitied walls, and no access to olde charm. Am very happy with our choice.
Frank again at the front door of our hotel with Hadrian's Gate lit up in the background. This had been a wonderful day, but even got better, switched on the Mac Air to find out that Clare and Nick (nephew) in Sheffield had produced young Oliver 3 weeks early in the back of an ambulance in the snow - that would be these 2, married in a helicopter over the night lights of Las Vegas - Oliver and his Mum are well and at home now. Welcome to this world Oliver.
