Day 22 - Saturday, 11/30/24 - Piraeus

 In order to avoid conflicts with very extensive ferry traffic, we arrived around 4am and I was awakened by the noises of the deck machinery and the vibrations from the propellers and thrusters.  But I didn't let that noise from keeping me from falling back asleep for a normal wake up around 7am.

After breakfast we met up with HR and Mayra who found the excursion to Corinth for today.  Corinth is one of our bucket list destinations that we've wanted to visit on this cruise.  We scanned off the ship and made our way out of the seminal building and quickly found our guide and driver, Demitrius and his black Mercedes van.  

Deqmitrius took us on a northwesterly route outs of the port area and along the coast skirting the hustle and bustle of the city. Corinth is about an hour outside of Athens.  Our first surprise was that we crossed over the Corinth Canal which is a deep straight canal permitting small vessels to cross between the Gulf of Corinth from the Saronic Gulf In ancient times, ships would be hauled overland arrows the isthmus to avoid a several week sail around the peninsula.  Then in the 1800's the canal was blasted and dug.  It's an impressively deep canal.  Demitrius also purchased us some souvlaki which was really tasty.  

At the ancient city of Corinth, we purchased entry tickets which included the ruins and the small museum.  After touring the museum and grounds, Demitrius drove us first up to the parking lot for the Acropolis built on top of a tall mountain.  There were great views from there.  We then drove down to St. Paul's church which is a modern church with a very pretty mosaic of St. Paul's life flanked by ancient Greek texts of 1 Corinthians 13 on the left and misc Ist and 2nd Corinthian texts on the right.

The Apostle Paul preached from here

We drove back to the port a slightly different route which took us partially through the city and there was a fair amount of congestion.  Arriving back at the port around 2pm, we said goodbye to Demitrius and did a little shopping in the terminal before being security screened there.  They were much more strict in their scanning process but it saved being scanned on the ship.  

We ate a small lunch in the Lido before adjourning to the Crow's Nest for the rest of the afternoon until the departure around 5 in the dark.  We joined the Kemps for a special dinner in the Canaletto with the string trio (Alex, Alice, and Ashley) and 3 other people who were Kemp's friends.  The dinner was a 3 course affair starting with a pasta appetizer, followed by a terrific noodle soup and finished with 4 large breaded scallops on a bed of spinach.  Dessert was a serving of pistachio ice cream and a mango cheesecake like dish.  Dinner was a long affair lasting from 7:30 to 10:00 so we missed the Repertory Company show on the Main Stage.  But it was worth it to get to know the string trio a bit better.

And so ended the first day of the second half of our voyage.  Tomorrow is a a sea day on our way to Alexandria.