September 4 – Epidaurus and the Corinth Canal

Much driving today with great views of the sea and nearby islands...

and some great highlights.  

The first stop was at the archaeological site at Epidaurus, birthplace of Apollo’s son Asclepius, the healer.  The area was known as a place of healing and many pilgrims came to the area in hopes of a sure.  Besides the usual artifacts he museum also had a number of medical instruments dating from the 6^th to the 4^th centuries BC.

Of particular interest was the theater that seats up to 14,000 and it has been restored sufficiently to hold performances (highly recommended to bring your own seat cushions, the limestone seats are pretty hard).  It is considered to have probably the best acoustics of any theater in the world, even today.  No amplification is required for all 14,000 spectators to be able to hear everything. 

We headed up to near the top of the rows while various tourists stood on the “x marks the spot” center of the stage and talked or sang.  All could be heard perfectly, even when they talked in a normal voice.  It was really incredible.  Unfortunately the videos didn't turn out very well.

Our route took us through the countryside with endless olive orchards and fruit trees. 

We had a short stop in Corinth to see the Canal.  Several attempts were made to dig canals across the narrow Isthmus of Corinth during the ancient times but none were successful.  

In 1881 a modern canal was started and finished in 1893.  The bridge that we crossed had a concession for bungee jumping into the canal.  We passed.

The canal is rarely used for commercial sea traffic now because it is too narrow (a straight run of 4 miles but only about 70 feet wide, no locks).  But there are a lot of boat tours through the canal.  Unfortunately we didn’t have time to do that.  Too bad. 

From there we were on our way to Athens, first going by the Athens harbor.

  
In the evening we went to dinner on a nearby street lined with restaurants and shops.

And then went up to the terrace of our hotel for views of the acropolis at night.