Some of the cool things that we saw in passing: The sun rising over Marathon on our way out of Athens this morning. That lake is still used today to provide fresh water for Athens. Passing by Thebes, and being regaled with the story of Oedipus - a story that made some of the high school students on the trip a bit uncomfortable (you should see them squirm when we're in museums looking at sculpture in various states of undress). Our bus driver, Kyriakos, squeezing past a tour bus headed in the opposite direction on a street barely designed to hold two Smart cars, let alone two monster buses. The one hundred miles of the Corinthian coastline. Sunset in Patra.
Okay, now some more details. Our bus driver is freakin' phenomenal. The guy looks like a member of the Special Forces and drives better than James Bond. These ancient cities and coastal villages were never meant for this kind of traffic, but the guy whips that bus around like it's a high-performance Ferrari. We've had moments when the bus has erupted in applause and concerted whooping.
I brought six movies to watch on the trip. The plane was so miserably uncomfortable that I never got the chance. The scenery from the bus has been so spectacular that I haven't even wanted to get the computer out, lest I miss the next great picture. We have a four-hour ride tomorrow - the over/under on movies watched during that trip is 1/2. Smart money is on the under.
There is a huge new bridge from the mainland to the Peloponnese island - the name escapes me. However, tonight as we ate dinner they lit it up all blue and gold in honor of USM, the institution that granted this trip (okay, they do this every Saturday night, but it sounds good, right?). The idea for this bridge has been in the works for over 100 years. They were finally able to open it in 2004 (btw - it cost 60 Euro to cross it - that's around $75). It now stands as the symbol of modern Greece. It was a great bookend to the day after beginning the day with a view of the Acropolis (nice way to eat breakfast) and a tour of an 11th Century monastery and a 3000 year-old temple to Apollo.
Enjoy pics of sunset from our hotel in Patra. Sea you tomorrow. :)
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