2024 Ruth & Rik's Adventure in Greece with Clara

It was our last full day in Greece today. Bummer.  We had a private tour booked to see the Peloponnese area so we got up early and headed out. Our driver, Michael, is nice enough but he's no Dominic. First we stopped at the Corinth Canal. It's a narrow canal that cuts through the Peloponnese to mainland Greece. It's 6km long and only 9m wide. 11,000 ships per year pass through, though, as it's a big time saver.  This mountain is the peak of Corinth and the Corinthian Acropolis is there.  The apostle Paul stayed here  for 18 months and preached to the Corinthians in around 53 A.D. The platform from where he spoke is still there! We didn't stop though. Just a drive-by.  I asked our driver if Corinth was known for its leather and he said no. (What was Ricardo Montalban going on about in those  Chrysler commercials ?) 80% of Greece is mountainous or scrabbly hills. The flatlands are covered with olive groves and orchards.  I got Michael to stop so I could ...

After we dragged our stuff from the first VRBO to the second one, we found the cleaners still in the middle of cleaning our new crib, so we left our luggage there and took off for a walkabout. We were told the place would be "ready in one". One what? We had no idea. Our new place is on Tripodon St. It's been named that for the last 2500 years! We decided to wander and tripped across an old church, The Holy Trinity Church of Philhellinon that had a sign outside advertising tours of the catacombs. How could we resist? Catacombs? Sign me up! And Clara loves cats. The site was some sort of building like a bah-jillion years ago and then was converted to a Roman bath house. In 420A.D., a small monastery was built, then expanded into a larger church - the present one - was built on the site before 1044, and dedicated to Saint Stephen. There are pictures of him around everywhere. An earthquake damaged the church, then it became a nunnery.  The Ottoman Turks fired a cannonball thr...