Sorry to sound like a broken record, but the weather was absolutely fabulous again today. Couldn’t have been better. I’m not sure I’ve had a trip to Greece where the weather was so cooperative.

We left Olympia this morning about 9:00. The owner of the Pelops Hotel (wonderful little hotel, BTW—try it out next time you’re in Olympia: ) suggested that we avoid the long, looping, and very busy interstate (running from Patra to Corinth) and instead take the road through the heart of the Peloponnese (the road from Olympia to Tripoli). Either way would get us to Corinth eventually. But I knew the interstate road well (it is an awful drive!) and opted for the road less travelled.

At Corinth, with the Temple of Apollo in the background

To say the drive was “interesting” would be a vast understatement. About 10 kilometers out of Olympia, the road turned into a piece of spaghetti that some evil genius had piled up on the side of a mountain. Narrow. Twisting. No shoulders. Sharp drop offs. Incredible. For the next 75 kilometers (or was it 1500 kilometers?), the fun just kept coming. For some of that way, the road was so narrow all traffic had to come to almost a complete stop just to pass each other. The entire highway was no wider than a single lane on most of the roads we are accustomed to. And there were buses! And trucks! And this was a “national highway”!

It finally relented and became a decent road about halfway to Tripoli. From there on, it was smooth driving. We got to Corinth about 11:45 and proceeded immediately to the site. Rick and Mike decided they really wanted to climb AcroCorinth and, since everything was closing at 3:00 (the museums here are still on “winter hours”), we had to hurry. Through the site and museum, grabbing a candy bar at a roadside stall for lunch, and then back

At the Temple of Aphrodite atop the AcroCorinth

in the car to drive most of the way up AcroCorinth. It was just after 2:00 pm when we arrived at the parking lot high above the ancient city of Corinth. We had less than an hour to make the (considerable) hike up the mountain to the Temple of Aphrodite (highest spot on the AcroCorinth), snap a few pictures, and then get back down. We made it though. Rick and Mike did fine. Their guide, on the other hand, was feeling the results of too many years and too little exercise of late.

We drove on to Nafplio (where we’ll be staying for the next two nights—the Byron Hotel:  www.byronhotel.gr. Rest … food … well, by now you know the routine.