From Ruins To Revelations-Corinth

Our pilgrimage trip was winding down, but it ended with one last hurrah. After one last cruise ship breakfast buffet Hubby Tony and I went to the lounge that had been our group's staging area for each excursion. The group was dismissed according to the color of the luggage tag given to us by the cruise line. As I disembarked from the ship I had my cruise card scanned by a crew member, walked over to the luggage holding area to find my bags, then proceeded to our pilgrimage's tour bus and loaded the bags underneath.

In real time the disembarkation happened on a Friday. Our flight home wasn't until Saturday, so there would be one more night in the Athens hotel. Before we checked in there was one more excursion planned, to the site of ancient Corinth. This turned out to be my most spiritual experience in the entire trip.

Ancient Corinth was established around 900 B.C.; it was destroyed by the Romans in 146 B.C. The city was rebuilt by Julius Caesar in 44 B.C, and became a major port. In 1858 an earthquake destroyed the area and a modern city was rebuilt nearby.

Corinth is another archeological site with Christian connections. Saint Paul lived in the city, as documented in Chapter 18 of Acts of the Apostles. After Paul left he wrote several letters to the church there, two of which are recorded in the New Testament of the Bible (1 Corinthians and 2 Corinthians)

Temple of Apollo at Corinth

After the excursion guide led us through the ruins, she directed the group to a site with benches and rocks to sit on. There, the priest with our group spread a cloth on a large rock and used it as an altar to celebrate Mass.

Consecration

Both on the way to the archeological site and on the way back we passed over the Corinth Canal, which connects the Gulf of Corinth in the Ionian Sea with the Saronic Gulf in the Aegean Sea.

Canal

The bus stopped at a restaurant along the canal for lunch. I was so hungry I forgot to take a photo of my gyro plate before digging in, but  the sandwich was full of wonderfully seasoned, thin, slices of pork and a tzatziki sauce loaded with shredded cucumber and garlic.

Back in Athens, our group checked into the hotel, then had a couple of hours before dinner. Tony and I walked with a friend to a nearby grocery store to get snacks for the next day's flights. After dinner we put our suitcases outside the door for a porter to pick up the next morning.