Corinth Canal excursion description:
“Depart the pier and drive to the famous four-mile-long and 70-foot-wide Corinth Canal. It has sloping sides that are 170 feet tall and it is 26 feet deep. The canal was built to replace an earlier and rather unique method of connecting two seas — it consisted of a wooden “road” with special grooves greased throughout with animal fat and ships were simply dragged from the one end to the other. The Roman Emperor Nero made the first serious attempt to build a canal but it was never completed due to Nero’s death a year after the planning of the project. The present-day canal was built from 1881 to 1893, and the engineers closely followed the designs made by Nero’s engineers. Board the Canal Vista boat for a ride through the canal and listen to the interesting narrative on the history and infrastructure of the canal whose origins date back to 600 BC. Refreshments will be offered before you return to the pier onboard during the Canal crossing.”

I was wondering how a four mile canal boat ride could possible hold a candle to the 120 Mile ride through the Suez Canal. I was also wondering how the excursion could possibly last five hours.

I was pleasantly surprised. The Corinth Canal was about an hour and a half bus ride from Piraeus. Part of the time was in slow moving traffic as we were getting through Athens. Once we got into the countryside, the land and water views were beautiful.
The place where we boarded the boat was pleasant and the weather was perfect. I made an observation about the area near the dock where we boarded the boat, there were a couple of dogs there. The dogs were not fenced nor were they chained or leashed. They were very calm.

There were several other places in Greece where I observed dogs which were roaming freely. I do not recall a dog anywhere that barked. On one excursion, I observed three dogs outside a fence gathered around a dog inside the fence. I could imagine that in dog communication they were saying “Why don’t you see if your owner will let you come out and play with us?”

I took a lot of pictures in the canal. The water was beautiful and the walls of the canal were interesting. I cannot imagine how they carved through all the rock to create the canal. The write-up says that, before the completion of the canal, boats were pulled on greased boards up and over this four-mile obstacle rather than sail around the island. I cannot imagine that either.

An unusual feature of this canal, which separates Greece in half, is that it has one crossing which, instead of having a draw bridge, has a bridge that sinks into the water so the boat goes over it. Our tour guide says that sometimes when it is lifted up there are fish on it. When our boat passed over the bridge there were about a dozen vehicles on each side waiting for the bridge to be raised so they could cross it. We watched but by the time the bridge was raised out of the water, we were too far away to spot any fish that might have gotten a ride.

Before returning to the ship, we were driven to a very high bridge overlooking the canal. This was an opportunity to take even more pictures. There was also a pleasant place to purchase and enjoy refreshments.

One final thought; Corinth has been made famous in the New Testament by Saint Paul. Most of you know I am a wedding coordinator at Saint Mary Magdalene Church. To date, I have coordinated about 275 weddings. The majority of couples select Saint Paul’s letter to the Corinthians for their second reading. You know the one… “Love is patient. Love is kind.”