Corinth Canal, Piraeus, Meteora, Greece
18 September 2011
ms
20110910-0918 Corinth Canal, Piraeus, Meteora - Greece
After transiting the Corinth Canal, we have almost a week until our friend MarkJ comes to join us in Athens.
It is a leisurely sail from Corinth to Aigina Island, our night stop half way to Athens, where we explore the ancient ruins, walk the charming town, and have dinner and play cards.
Then to Athens! The entire coast of the Saronic Gulf on which Athens sits is heavily developed, industrial, especially compared to where we have been. We settle into Marina Zea near Piraeus Harbor, the primary commercial port for Athens, on a Med mooring with our stern to the dock. Marina Zea is a large well protected circular harbor, surrounded by a plethora of tabernas, shops, markets, bars, chandleries- pretty much anything we need we can easily walk to. It is Hot and sunny, but we aren't complaining because we know this will change soon.
We spend a few days cleaning the boat inside and out, provisioning, getting some supplies for boat repairs and maintenance, etc., and plan our trip to Meteora in Central Greece via train for several days.
Meteora is a striking geological site, with dozens of very tall vertical spires of rock arranged close together as if it was a giant rock forest. Over 1000 years, numerous churches and monasteries have been built on top of the spires by monks on an impressive scale, for security against Turkish invasions as the Byzantine power of the Roman Empire was waning. In those days, the primary access to some of the monasteries was by a manual cable winch that lifted people and supplies in nets. While there, the annual pan European rock climbing event was going on, and we could see many dozens of rock climbers scaling these rocks all weekend. We rented a moto scooter so we could cover more ground and see more sites, much of it via steep switchback roads up and down the surround cliffs, from which there were additional long walks up steep trails or steps to access the monasteries.
Back in Athens, we hired a professional crew to do an intensive boat cleaning while we traveled in Meteora - all topsides cleaned, polish stainless steel, remove rust and oil stains, etc. Vasilis is the owner of the business, and a very intelligent educated engineer. We spent a great afternoon on aVida discussing our philosophies about religion, politics and business, on which we meshed perfectly. Vasilis is disgusted with the corruption, bribery and entitlements of Greek government, and is preparing to move to New Zealand to start a new yacht-oriented business in a better cultural climate.
After some additional provisioning, we are ready for our good friend MarkJ to arrive and spend almost 2 weeks with us. We will tour Athens together, and then sail southward along the coast, then south hopping various Cyclades Islands, with a plan to end in Santorini where he will take a ferry back to Athens and depart.