Day 11, Epidaurus to Athens

Leaving the beautiful blue sea, we made 2 quick stops.One actually, still by the sea, a sunken village at Epidaurus. There was a sign board that was so ravaged by the sun, you couldn't read it, so no idea of where exactly we were supposed to be looking, even if we could have seen through the glare on the surface. A fools errand! Next a few minutes away, an ancient theatre, which apperaed to be under reconstruction. another waste of time. Onward then to the fuel stop I had previously calculated would be the optimum place to stop, to allow us to get back on track with our fuel schedule.

The journey over the mountains was spectacular. The area is very green, pines covering the hillside, the smell from them filling the air. Occasionally, there were some cones and striped tape on the barriers at the side of the road. Not places you'd want to be going over the edge! We arrived at the fuel stop and filled up. It was the most expensive we'd paid so far. To my annoyance, it turned out to be the most expensive we saw, the entire 82 miles to Athens! Bugger!

Our next stop was at the amazing Corinth Canal. It's a must stop, if you are ever on this road to Athens. Standing on a crowded road bridge, you look down something like 300 feet into a channel hewn through rock, to the water below. It's an incredible sight but not for people with vertigo. We were lucky enough to see a tug towing a ship through from the Gulf of Corinth, to the Aegean Sea. Once that had passed through, cabin cruisers and yachts got their chance. We had a drink in a cafe before continuing on our way.

There was a certain trepidatrion on my part at entering Athens, not just because of the volume of traffic and the manic way they seem to drive but also, with the temperature at 37 degrees, I knew that slow moving traffic does not sit well with Ginny. The suspected happened, the dash flashing the red triangle that she was overheating. At one point, the traffic moved freely and the flashing stopped but soon enough, we were red again. Luckily, the volume of traffic and number of road junctions with traffic lights, meant I was able to turn her off, every time we came to rest. It helped but not a great deal. It's very frustrating. So long as there is air flowing through the radiator, she's fine. We've had higher temperatures but we were moving, so no problems. I was quite stressed by the time we eventually got to the hotel. I say eventually, as I missed the turn and we ended up going around in a big loop to get back to the same place! Knob!

The hotel has parking outside, apparently though, only for cars. Bikes have to park across the way on the public road! A security guard (they have 24hr security) said we'd have to move. I told him we'd move after we had unloaded all our bags. He was Romanian, claiming no English but seemed to understand my gestures. The chap at check-in said it's company policy, cars only. We both had to make two trips to unload and didn't rush. There wasn't room for both of us across the road anyway. Then, from the balcony I noticed a car had moved, so we rushed down and nabbed the space. They are locked and right opposite the security stand, so should be safe enough.

There's no restaurant in the hotel, so after we'd both freshened up, we went down the road to a place called Piatsu Gyros. Guess what we had? Yes we had gyros, but not as we've seen it before. It resembled a calzone pizza and went by the name gyros covered. It was huge, though we asked for the small version and the only way we could force it down, was with 3 beers, served for the first time this trip, in glasses from the ice box! Aaaahhhh! Beer count 23!

Back at the hotel, we found we had a problem with the aircon. The readings don't seem to match what is coming out of it and it doesn't want to adjust. We had someone up to look at it. She gave us some cock and bull, then we had a call saying we could changhe rooms. With all our gear strewn about, I was about to decline but the call had been ended. She never called back. Guess she made the decision for us! It wasn't too bad with the patio doors open, except for the train noise. The line runs just across the road, 5am to midnight!

Some Pictures from the Corinth Canal.