In the evening, we sit together virtually with friends and plan a hiking weekend together in the Black Forest. Quite incidentally and as a matter of course, it is taken for granted that we, who are constantly on the move, are sporty and well-trained.
Fiddlesticks. In all honesty, we have to admit that there are not many metres in altitude to be made with us at the moment.
This honesty works well for us, but shortly afterwards something grumbles inside us. This is not good. We have no excuse. We have time, we would always have the opportunity to bring a little more movement into our daily routine. That has to change, by the time the hiking weekend in the Black Forest comes around, we want to be back to basic fitness. That means: walking more, doing more sport, sitting less.
But first it's: historic Corinth, the Corinth Canal and above all the Acropolis of Corinth, called Acrocorinth. We spend the night directly at the canal, which is wide and unspectacular on one side. Only when we arrive at the other end of the canal, which is about 6 km long, can we take a few of those typical canal pictures. And we remember: Almost exactly 2 years ago we were already here once, back then by motorbike, after 5.5 months of "lockdown" and "best time ever" in Koroni.
This time we take more time, stroll across the bridge, go to the information centre, which was closed at the time because of "C", and learn a lot about the canal that separates the Peloponnese peninsula from the mainland.
At some point, our way leads us further to Corinth, we want to go to the old, historical Corinth. "Old stones", we can't help ourselves. I dutifully enter all this into the sat nav and we come out somewhere completely different. Felixos, as he is now called in Greek, takes the first Greek passes with flying colours and suddenly we are standing on the Acropolis of Corinth. No excavation.
After a nice chat with a couple of campers from Lucerne (those Swiss, they're everywhere too!) we set off. The castle towers high above us. That's where we want to go. Gerd reminds us briefly of yesterday's conversation and of our untrained bodies. Yes, we are panting. And I complain a little too. But eventually the first training hill is done. The view is magnificent, spring makes us light as a feather.
Love for Greece is making its way back into our hearts. When we left Koroni in April 2021, we didn't know that the Greek Cupid had hit us right in the heart. Were we going to talk ourselves out of it with reason and arguments? But already on the second day it hit like a bomb.
Gerd, who is always in a good mood anyway, sighs here every few minutes and says: "Oh, how nice!" Or "Good thing we came to Greece". Are we supposed to believe in signs? What is all this supposed to tell us? We will see.
Ah yes, the castle: the fortress on a 575-metre-high rock massif consists of two peaks, both of which we naturally climbed, panting. On the peaks are a Byzantine chapel and the ruins of a Frankish tower, which was later extended by the Venetians and Ottomans. There are many buildings from different eras, and Triptasticas our reading app is now called, tells endlessly of sieges, enemy conquests, losses again and so on. Sometimes the Macedonians, sometimes the Greeks. The Romans, the Visigoths, the Ottomans, the Franks... All and more have been here and ruled. We have long since lost the overview.
Today we are just happy about the spring up here, about our rediscovered love for the past months of travelling and above all: about our physical achievement of having mastered this thing. Guys and girls, we are training hard for the Publishing Hike!
Merci for "travelling with us
We are thinking about taking another break from travelling in the summer and visiting our families in Germany and Switzerland. One of the ideas is to organise a Lecture about our long journey to the Persian Gulf to prepare. If you would like to, what would interest you the most? We will also tell stories here that don't find a place here on the blog. We're thinking of the Bern and Berlin area - simply because we have family there. But other places are also conceivable. Feel free to write to us.
Do you think our travel experiences might be of interest to others? Then you can share the Share post quietly. By e-mail or however you want to do it.
In addition, if you haven't already done so, you can use our Newsletter subscribe. Here you will receive all our experiences in your mailbox whenever we publish something new or once a week on Fridays: live-pur.ch/newsletter
We are also very happy to hear your views, your tips or your questions. Just comment on the post!
You could almost say:
Welcome home 😉
Maybe learn Greek after all? 👍
Have fun and best wishes
s'Racheli
The Greek is proving to be a tough nut to crack, I can tell you that already....
Kind regards - Heike