DAY 18..KORINTH/ATHENS

Hot hot hot today!  And my pics weren’t all that great...a big bad hard sun out there.

Our wake up call came at six thirty and we were all docked up.  We had to leave our stateroom by quarter after 7.  Out we went and trundled onto our buses.  We drove about an hour from here to Korinth with a older lady tour guide talking and talking and talking.  I think I know all the greek god history and stories now.

The canal that slaves built, dug really, is four miles long, very narrow and connects the Aegean Sea to the Ionian Sea across the Isthmus peninsula.  An amazing human feat!  We rode a boat through and back.  Corinth is where St. Paul lived for 18 months preaching the good word.  I wish we could have seen the ruins but I must say its a good thing we didn’t sign up for that.  It is so blinking hot outside and Bill simply would not have been able to make it.  But what we saw was amazing.

We got back to the ship by one, grabbed our laptops and books and headed upstairs to ‘our’ table.  We are docked in a beautiful spot so I decided to go upstairs as far as possible and get some pictures.  I haven’t been up to the sports deck as yet.  Bill stayed with the stuff at the table.

I got off on the 19th floor and it was a deck that curved around the back of the ship, as high as you can go.  I was surprised to see a fair number of people laying in deck chairs sunbathing...I didn’t pay them any attention.  These Brits love to lay in the sun and get BROWN!  Its like a competition with them.  So I just ignored them and immediately went over to the edge and started to snap pics, moving along the railing to get a good set from all sides of the ship.

Along the way I had to occasionally dodge around lounge chairs, but I kept my eye on the horizon as I was trying to get a home made panorama.

At one point I caught the eye of one man who quite pointedly said hello..in such a tone of voice it caught my attention.  I smiled and said Hi back.  He then said that generally they don’t let cameras up there.  I am thinking WTH??  Security, safety, what?  So I kind of told him I was just getting pictures of the city..was that not all right?  Well, no, he kind of hesitantly replied, ‘it’s just that the people prefer that no pictures be taken up here.”  And then I looked around

Most of them were bollox naked.  Even the men.  Skinny, old, fat, old, wrinkly, old, ewwwww!!! Did I mention old?  Without thought I went “Holy Crap!!!” which struck those nearby funny.  They knew I had no idea.  And let me tell you, it ain’t a pretty picture, standing in a sea of OLD wrinkly bodies, the women’s boobs falling way down under their armpits, the mens’ diddlies looking like sad little dried up dill pickles sitting on dangling prunes.  So I lifted my camera and pretended to push video and told them all I was filming them!!!  Freaked a couple of them out and we all had a good laugh and then I got the hell out of there as fast as possible.  Oh God...the image is burned in my brain.  What is with these old Brit dudes...my hats’ off to them I gotta say!

Now we are about to have four days at sea.  I must admit that this time we are enjoying our sea days more than usual.  Probably because of all the lovely people on this ship.

I shall be back tomorrow!  TTYL