Day Eight - Athens and ferry back to Italy

My ferry arrives in Athens harbour and we are sent out into the Athens rush hour traffic just before 08:00. I stop for fuel, checking first that I can use my Visa card and am told OK no problem, so I fill up, when its time to pay the guy behind the counter says no Visa cards I complain and the two guys erupt into a very vocal argument in Greek, luckily I have enough cash to pay in Euro's and leave them arguing.

The roads in Athens are so slippery in the dry I see several locals easily spinning up the rear tyre in 2nd gear just off the throttle just for fun.

First stop look out for the Acropolis, even with the Sat Nav I get a little lost, I find a good place to park and get some breakfast.

Even at this time in the morning there are a lot of tourists.
Its my first visit to the Parthenon, one of Europe's Iconic structures and it looks magnificent in the morning sun.

There are lots of other items of interest to see
I spend quite a bit of time on the Acropolis and soon its time to move on, next destination is about 30 min South West of Athens, The Corinth Canal. So I hop on the Toll Motorway and am soon there.


The canal is 6.3 kilometre in length and was was started by the Roman Emperor Nero in 68 AD, he actually launched the excavation, personally breaking the ground with a pickaxe and removing the first basket-load of soil. The Roman workforce, consisted of 6,000 slaves but was abandoned when Nero died.


There were several other attempts to finish it, but it was finally completed in 1893. Its quite narrow and only one ship at a time can use it.



After that I head further West, crossing a far newer structure, the Rio-Antirio bridge, the worlds longest cable-stayed "suspended" deck bridge.

I've had a busy morning so I stop for lunch in a small town by the coast
I negotiate lunch with the waitress's broken English and order "a plate of mixed things" turns out to be delicious.
After lunch I have time for a swim, then off to Patras for my ferry that leaves at 18:00.