Sunday, May 12
This post will be both short and
late, as we won’t be using the Wi Fi on our ship to Crete this evening, so will
post tomorrow night, once we’re back on terra firma – or isola firma, as the
case may be…
In any case, we spent most of the
day in the car, driving from Kalambaka to Cape Sounion, south of the Athens
airport. We’d been looking for a destination that would allow us to return our
rental car at the airport and catch a late afternoon train to the port of
Piraeus for our evening departure for Crete, and the Temple of Neptune seemed
like a good choice.
High on an outcrop of land above
the Aegean, the setting of the sanctuary is every bit as imposing as the temple
itself whose white marble columns stand tall between the blue of the sea and
that of the sky. Commissioned by
Pericles, it was built in the 5th century BC, was an inspiration for
Byron’s verse, and is today one of the most photographed of all Greek
archeological sites. But, long before
the temple was built, Homer referred to the “sacred headlands” that brought joy
to sailors returning from afar. The
outcrop was also the scene of a Greek tragedy born of miscommunication. The
legendary king of Athens, Aegeus, awaited the return of his son, Theseus from
his quest to slay the Minotaur from the rocky outcrop. When Theseus’s ship appeared flying a black
flag, the signal that he’d failed in his quest, Aegeus threw himself from the
cliff. Unfortunately for the king,
Theseus was alive and well, having neglected to fly the white flag of success! Legend and poetry aside, the temple and the
spectacular natural setting remain impressive in the 21st century.
Leaving Cape Sounion, we drove the
short distance to the airport, returned the car and took the suburban railway
right from a station in the airport to Piraeus, the port of Athens, arriving
several hours before our 9:00 departure.
We have an unexpectedly large cabin and are comfortably settled in for
trip to Crete.
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