Another overnight dimensional leap brought us into a bright, sunny day, heading towards Aegina. It didn’t involve a particularly early start, but it was worth getting up a bit earlier than normal for another look at the Corinth canal. It really is a fantastic work of engineering and I loved the telescopic mechanism for opening the bridge. I’ve seen bridges rise up, or swing apart, but never retract.
It was calm, peaceful sailing until we reached Aegina, the largest of the Saronic islands and the one closest to Athens, only 45 minutes away by hydrofoil. We’d visited Aegina before, but many years ago. It looked unfamiliar until the first sign of the pistachio nut stalls, then it all came flooding back.
The bus took us first to the far end of the island, were we experienced yet another fantastic sight/site, the Temple of Aphaia. Another uphill hike had the muscles screaming again, but we heard wonderful tales of how the island got its name from a persecuted nymph. Unfortunately, the guide we had on this occasion was not up to the usual standard. She was difficult to follow and lacked the enthusiasm of our previous guides.
We passed on the museum, saving ourselves for the next visit, to the site of another temple of Apollo, at Kolonna, just outside Aegina town. Only a single column remains standing, but it’s a major landmark on the island. While we were ashore the liner pulled away from its mooring to allow another ship to dock and didn’t return until 6:00 pm. We passed the time having lunch, reading and chatting and watching the to-ing and fro-ing of ships and hydrofoils. It’s grim life, but somebody has to do it!
After a short siesta we returned to explore Aegina Town by night. We had a couple of ouzos inn a picturesque bar behind the fish market, wrapped in the smoke of grilled octopus and other fish and seafood. We finished the evening with some Greek pancakes full of ham, cheese and tomato, with herby cheese spread over the folded circle. Again, it was all locals in the place, with lots of friendly banter going on between the customers and the waiters.
As we were returning to the boat, we met Stelios again. He recognised us from our previous encounter and asked if we’d had a good time. He seemed genuinely pleased when we assured him that we’d had a brilliant time and thanked him for making it possible. It may have been an economy package, but it was a mega-rich experience.(Karmanie)
2 comments:
The sea level bridges at each end of the Corinth canal were actually raised and lowered for the patiently waiting motorists (I have the photos to prove it!) Alex provided an all too brief commentary on its construction. To us, this must rate as one of the more impressive engineering feats of the late 19th century. It’s a real shame that it is slowly falling into disrepair as evidenced by the crumbling brickwork and constant erosion of the soft sandstone at its base.
To be brutally honest, the subsequent tour of the temples on Aegina was not at all well planned and the guides were not up to the otherwise high standard that we had come to expect. We had nothing like enough time for our second visit having spent much of our tour travelling back and forth across the island – albeit rather interesting to see the neatly planted blocks of naked pistachio trees reaching out in all directions between the olive groves. The main problem is that many Greek monuments close at 3 pm. This worked out well when we had a late lunch on Monday and Wednesday, following the tours, but had the effect of severely limiting our visits on Aegina. Nonetheless, an informal lunch on the adjacent beach afterwards was more than welcome before braving the seemingly endless stalls of pistachio sellers around the harbour!
Dinner on board that evening was easily the best of the holiday (on board) as rather than our somewhat limited standard selection, we were offered a rather splendid Greek-style buffet with a selection of meats, fish, cheeses, salads and fruits. As was becoming usual, we played Trivial Pursuit late into the evening. I think the North Americans were more than slightly bemused by many of the questions in the 1990s UK edition!
I think Aegina might have been my favorite day. I mentioned earlier my lack of experience driving a stick, but there were no automatics to be had anywhere, so I bit the bullet and tried not to totally trash the tranny (how's that for alliteration?) I did OK, and pretty much only got into 3rd gear once or twice because the whole island is nothing but hills, hardly any flat roads of more than 1/2 mile that I hit. Had lunch near the piers with a cat for company. The highlight of the trip for me was a little town up on a hill. I passed it earlier and went back because it looked interesting. It was. It was sort of a park because there was a parking area and some official looking signs that looked like they were for tourists. It was built way up on a hill, and had stone homes and a church and other buildings. had been abandoned a few hundred years ago when the whole town moved down near the sea. My big adventure though was getting back to town to return the car. I couldn't for the life of me find the car place. Driving through crowded, narrow, tight streets and corners with lots of one ways was torture, since traffic was building up for Friday night. I managed not to kill anyone or wreck the car, and after about half an hour, I finally found the place and got it back with about 10 minutes to spare. Maybe in another 40 years, I'll drive another stick. I met the ladies from patras again and we spent the night at various tavernas along the waterfront.
Post a Comment