Road trip to Peloponnese: Corinth, Edipaurus, and Nafplion

Friday, August 9

It turns out to be difficult to get up and ready for our 10.30am pick-up by Yanni. All that wine.... It's a bit quiet in the car as we head out of Athens, through tunnels hacked out of the rock and along the coast on our way to the Peloponnese. The sea is now more green than blue, in spite of the high beige brush-covered hills surrounding us. Our first stop - again under a scalding sun - is to see the deep canal dug between Attica and the Peloponnese. There have been many attempts to do this since ancient times, one has Nero lifting the first shovelful of earth with a golden trowel. Then he took of for Rome and left 60,000 Jewish slaves brought from Judea to finish the job! We see brilliant blue water deep below us with an pressive gunmetal yacht - tipo Eike Batista (that was) - streaming through it. This is also a popular place for bungee jumping \0/

Then we continue down an orderly highway, which would put the Rio Santos to shame, but which in many ways is like it: steep hills covered in green vegetation (pine-trees, every now and again we get a whiff of fresh resin) and deep-green island dotted sea. In one beautiful cove we see several circular nets. We think they may be clam farms, but no, this is where "the fish is grown." Sad to think that in that wide expanse of sea fish are crowded in nets, basically waiting to be hauled out of there for consumption. But then, of course, I'm a vegetarian :)

Yanni veers of the main road and suddenly we're in an ancient site, the Theater at Epidaurus. The grey semicircle is vast, and apparently the acustics is amazing. 

 A young Chinese girl - a tourist - stands in the middle of the stage and sings a wavering Chinese song in a high pure voice. Her entire family is filming her with their mobile phones, wearing delighted expressions. The sun is so strong they're using umbrellas or have draped thin shawls over their heads.

We visit the local museum. This was a site devoted to the healing god Aesclepius, and his instruments have survived time. The guidebook says he was much sought after, but it can't have been pleasant.

Then we're off to Nafplion, on the sea, hoping to catch a folklore museum before it closes. Turns out to be difficult to find and precious moments tick by until finally we're there. Oswaldo and Yanni go to inquire and then return to get me out of the car and into the chair. By the time we reach the museum 5 minutes later, it has closed. A man departing does not react to Oswaldo's surprise and after much knocking on the closed door a woman appears to explain, not particularly nicely, that they close at 2.30pm in the summer (3pm in the guidebook, Hello Frommer!), but fortunately they open again at 9am. Oswaldo explains we come from Brazil, but no, nothing doing. OK - deal with that also. We've seen another attraction, the Antica Gelateria di Roma, while cirling the town, so we manage to find it and also a very different reception. An expansive Italian owner

helps lift me into the store, where tantalizing icecreams await. I chose a crusty cone with 1 ball each of Nocciola and Pistacchioa and Oswaldo Gianduia and Chocolate

The flavor is really amazing and while we eat we study the pleasantly quirky shop, full of Italian specialities

Satisfied we walk back through pretty pedestrian streets, much like Paraty without the cobblestones

until we find Yanni and the car.

We take a quick look at the Bourtzi Fortress sitting in the middle of the harbor

and then head out of town. Yanni deliver us back to the hotel 2 1/2 hours later after a quick stop at the supermarket and late at night we have a light supper - with water - at our kitchen table.