Greece, chapter 3

What?!? More posts of Greece? Sorry guys, there are more pictures coming. There was a general transportation strike one day in Athens, so we planned ahead and rented a van and went to the Peloponnese region of Greece to see Napflion. It was this funny little van thing with a funny name -- hence the picture. It had GPS, which we had never used. The kids named the GPS "Aphrodite," and that girl did save our bacon getting out of Athens!

Our first stop was the Corinth Canal. This is a shipping channel that has been cut through solid rock to connect the Gulf of Corinth with the Aegean Sea. It's more than 6 km long and is amazing to see!

We had this great view on a bridge over the canal. Some of us (won't mention any names) couldn't resist spitting to see how long it would take to reach the water. Remember the old poem by Shel Silverstein, "When You Spit From the 26th Floor?" Ah, but I digress...

Here are Natalie and Shannon on the bridge over the canal. They weren't spitters. Boring girls.


Dad goofing off.

Look who's goofing off again, but with help this time? Natalie and my dad with the statue of General Kolokotronis, a hero of the Greek War of Independence.

This is the Palamidi Fortress! Cool looking, huh? It was built in the late 1600's by the Venetians, but the Turks and Greeks also added to it when they took over. It's sitting up on this big hill overlooking the city of Napflion and the Gulf of Argos. Guess what -- we went to the top!

See the view? Awesome! We cheated, because it was a very hot day. We didn't hike UP to the fortress, but we did explore all around at the top, then we hiked DOWN the hill.

Looking for a cool spot. This fortress also served at prison for General Kolokotronis, whose hero status went to his head and tried to overthrow the new Greek government.

Another great view. See the cruise ship? We're very high up.

Hiking down the 982 steps. Yikes, our legs were jelly when we reached the bottom. Correction, only those of us who aren't 15-year-old hard bodies had jelly legs.

Here we are at step #212. If you don't understand the whole "212" thing, don't ask.


Here we are at the bottom of the hill. Tired and sweaty, we jumped into the ocean!

ICE CREAM!!! It was sorely needed and richly deserved today!

Can't you just wait for Chapter 4???