Travel – What places are on your Bucket List?

Visiting Ancient Corinth and the Isthmus Canal Greece – world-schooling

For as long as I can remember, I always wanted to go to Corinth.

I wanted to go to places where history came alive. Maybe because I read about as a child and was taught about in Sunday School. Something that made the Bible come alive and all make sense.  Where disciples and men of God would have walked the streets, shopped at the stores, and visited the library.  Where ladies would have bathed, and sat together sewing.

And today was my day – I was here.

It is not a popular ruin of Greece to visit, and this afternoon there is only us and another couple here if I remember rightly.

Corinth, or Korinth as it is in Greek, is a narrow stretch of land that joins the Peloponnesus to the mainland of Greece, roughly halfway between Athens and Sparta.

It is about 5 km from the modern city of Corinth, and entry is cheap as chips.  In fact, children are free to most sites in Greece, and entry is a mere few Euro.

For Christians, Corinth is known from the two books First Corinthians and Second Corinthians in the Bible New Testament.

I knew Paul from the Bible walked these streets.  This was the old bathing area right at the entrance.  In fact, the area is so large and continues across the front road.

It is said the Church of Corinth was founded by Paul.

We are told that the way to look is from the rear, which actually would have been the front of the great pillars.

I find it a shame that there are no guides we can hire to outsource education, and I must rely on reading the signs to teach my son.  But this is world schooling. This is seeing, touching and feeling.  Picking up old pieces of pottery that are strewn on the ground.  All things that make it all click together. Way better than a classroom and a book for him.

We talk about how it was built and he tries to lift a pillar. We realize what a feat this was for man to make in the old days.

History can be fun, and not boring if you let kids enjoy it.

The ancient buildings tumbled in the Byzantine era and were largely destroyed in the earthquakes of 365 and 375 AD.

The city was rebuilt after these disasters on a monumental scale but covered a much smaller area than previously. Four churches were located in the city.  History goes on with war after war in the forthcoming years.

In classical times and even before then, Corinth displayed in grandeur the temple of Aphrodite – the goddess of love.

Here this site employed some thousand hetairas (temple prostitutes) (see also Temple prostitution in Corinth).

The city was renowned for these temple prostitutes, who served the wealthy merchants and the powerful officials who frequented the city.

If I remember rightly behind us is the library in the picture below.

We go to leave – and I forgot in my excitement to take a photo of the main street. Dah.

It was great.  Corinth was great. Being here was great. I just loved it.

I can’t believe that I even like historical places, but some are more special than others.

And – as we leave we find our own life-size picture frame says Explorason.

We buy a frame from a little old lady in one of the stores. It is good quality, and she wraps it with more care than a Christmas gift.

We try to share our purchases around. Greek retailers are struggling.  Dust often lies in a layer over the long-stored products on the shelves.

This man below is panting some trinket pots. We don’t buy one as it is too hard to ship breakable things.  Really some of the pottery of this area is quite unique.

We leave Ancient Corinth and then head to modern Corinth with the aim to find somewhere to stay. We don’t find anywhere.

Then suddenly we remember the Greek Canal.

We have been to the Panama Canal, a Welsh Canal, and now it is time to see the Isthmus Canal in Greece.

We get pretty lost trying to find it. It isn’t well signposted and the GPS is useless. But after about 6 stops, we talk to enough locals that all keep pointing and we get there.

We wish a ship was passing through.  To the sea, there are many – but none coming this way.  They are all heading to the oil refineries.  We take a few happy snaps. We buy some hot chips and we decide to try and find some accommodation in the next town.

Greece feels remarkably safe to drive in. People always talk about mad Greek drivers, and I agree – we do see a few, but overall it is more a matter of following the road signs.  The GPS gets it wrong many times, so we hug the old road at the coast and head towards Athens.

And we are pleased we did.

So today we have just visited two more places on our Travel Bucket list.  We have many more, especially the islands off the coast of Greece, like Santorini or Sifnos Island.  Greece has so many beautiful and amazing places, so when you are making your Travel Bucket list, make sure to add a few places in Greece too.

As we drive away we find a fabulous hotel on the way to Athens – but you will have to read all about that in our next blog!

Questions and Comments

• Are you a family that travels permanently?
• What is your take on families that travel permanently?
• What inspires you to keep traveling?
• Do share your comments with us below