Today dawned sunny and warm, with a high of +28 degrees (sorry to hear that back home in PEI you had 15cm of blowing snow!).  We enjoyed fresh eggs from Vasilis' brother, and a fresh fruit salad for breakfast on the balcony.

We had intended to travel to Ancient Olympia, the site of the original Olympic games, but it is over 3 hours to drive there and as it is Easter Monday and still a family holiday in most places, we didn't want to risk getting there and it being closed. 

So, we headed north and found out a good deal about the Acrocorinth castle and the Corinthian Canal.

The castle was open for visitors, and we enjoyed another very steep and rocky climb to the top.  Every step of the way, we couldn't believe the gorgeous views all around.   The mountain is one of the tallest in the area, and another huge and impenetrable fortress was built on top, over many years.  

Here's the history you know you're going to get .....

Acrocorinth is 4 km above the main city.  A major fortification has been at the top of the mountain since before Roman times.   We walked up the steep path on the west side and entered the first of three gateways, each one for added protection.  The lowest, most recently built, and first one we entered was built by the Ottomans; the second gate is Frankish, and the third is Byzantine.  Beyond the third gate, it opens up to 60 acres of  rocky ruins of bake ovens, tombs (Muslim and Christian, and I'm sure there's others) and abandoned homes, chapels and mosques.  A whole town was inside this fortress.  Tom and I clambered to the very top where we could see 60 km in all directions.  Amazing views of olive and orange orchards, the fast electric train from Athens to Sparta, the major toll highway (like our TransCanada) running east and west.  We could even see where the 2 gulfs narrowed down and were joined by the Corinth canal.  A final push to the top and we stopped to enjoy a couple of oranges and the view, the spectacular view.  We were sitting on part of the foundations of the temple dedicated to Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of beauty and love.   It's believed that 1,000 sacred prostitutes lived there.  Supposedly, it was against these practices that St. Paul wrote his two epistles to the Corinthians, warning against this type of living.

Descending very carefully, we arrived back at the car and descended further into the city of Corinth.  By this time the battery in our camera had run out, so unfortunately we don't have any good pictures of the canal, but it really wasn't impressive.  Historically, it would have been impressive and very important, though.  Because of it's strategic position, and sailing around the Cape Matapan was very dangerous, the Roman Emperor Nero started to build the canal, but it wasn't finished until the late 1800's.  Up until that point, boats would have been unloaded on one shore, dragged the 6 km across a stone slipway, then refloated and reloaded.

Corinth is a dirty town, probably very touristy in full summer, and as we wandered around we saw it is a very poor town.  Unemployment in Greece is still quite high, 10%, but it is considerably down from the 20% a year ago. 

But, we enjoyed another great day, exploring, walking and climbing, eating Greek salad and souvlaki, buying 10 kilos of freshly picked oranges from a roadside stand for 5 euros (about $7.80) - life is good!