Greece, the Corinth Canal and Sounio

I started the day feeling quite excited.  We're going to go down the Corinth Canal and I've seen pictures........  It looks quite awesome.

"The Corinth Canal is a canal that connects the Gulf of Corinth with the Saronic Gulf in the Aegean Sea. It cuts through the narrow Isthmus of Corinth and separates the Peloponnese from the Greek mainland, thus effectively making the former peninsula an island. The builders dug the canal through the Isthmus at sea level; no locks are employed. It is 6.4 kilometres (4 mi) in length and only 21.4 metres (70 ft) wide at its base, making it impassable for most modern ships. It now has little economic importance."

Reading a bit more, it seems it's been beset by problems and is now only used for tourist ships.  And as a tourist, I can tell you it's definitely an experience.

It's hard to believe that's nearly four miles of canal ahead of us. 

The sun is really high and hot (that's why the picture looks washed out), &  the sides are closing in. 

High walls on either side - just a brilliant place to be

You can see we don't have a lot of room on either side.

The people on the bridge stop to watch.  They think it's as cool as we do. 

And to get the view from one of the bridges, looking down on us, click on this link>> Oooooh! That looks a bit tight!

It took ages for us to get through the canal.  According to the captain it was because of low water, tides etc.  There is more about it on Wiki.  I was quite happy though, it just meant we had a longer experience. Absolutely class! 

So, once through the canal, it was on to Piraeus, our final destination of the cruise.  We'll be arriving in the afternoon, and we'll be on tour to a place called Sounio to see Poseidon's temple.  The ship stays in Piraeus overnight, and we leave tomorrow via Athens Airport and then home

The ship arrived in Piraeus late (something to do with an extra long ride down the Corinth Canal), and we had a 90 minute drive to Sounio.  And then, to add to the drama a little, the port authorities were late to come aboard to clear the ship for disembarking.  It was all getting a little tense as the minutes ticked by.

We all got on the bus, and enjoyed quite a fantastic view as our driver took us along the coast road to our destination.  I think I've now decided I really like Greece, all as a result of that coach trip.  But, as I said, it took 90 minutes to reach the temple, and the sun was beginning to set.  Peter and I were beginning to think we weren't going to make it. 

But as it happened, the tour had ended up being timed nearly perfectly.  I say nearly.  If we'd had arrived 15-20 minutes later, we might just have been able to watch the sun set.  A really quite beautiful place.

The Temple of Poseidon, Sounio

Sunset from Sounio

All too soon it was time to leave, and our bus took us home in the dark.

So that was the end of this cruise.  Tomorrow we fly back to Heathrow and normality.  It really has been such a wonderful two weeks, I don't want to go back.   My only consolation is that I'm off on another cruise a few weeks.

Goodbye Mediterannean - Hello Canaries.