May 3, 2025 - Greece
Corinth Canal - Piraeus - Ferry to Hydra
Today was mostly a travelling day. We left Nafplio and stopped to see the Corinth Canal.
Completed in 1893, the canal cuts through the narrow Isthmus of Corinth and separates the Peloponnese peninsula from the Greek mainland. The canal was dug through the Isthmus at sea level and has no locks. It is 4 miles in length and at 80.7 feet wide at sea level is impassable for many modern ships. It is mostly used by smaller recreational boats. It is currently of little economic importance and is mainly a tourist attraction. That would be us!
Lynnette and I would be catching a ferry boat to the island of Hydra. I did not know what to expect at the harbor. I was thinking they would have a terminal building like at an airport, but there were no buildings, at least in the area we were at. We found a sign for the Flying Cat ferry boat and waited there. They did have some seats, some under shelter.
Did you know that there once was a "Long Wall" connecting Athens to Piraeus?
They provided a secure connection to the sea even during times of siege. The walls were about 3.7 miles in length. They were initially constructed in the mid-5th century BC, and destroyed by the Spartans in 403 BC after Athens' defeat in the Peloponnesian War. They were rebuilt with Persian support during the Corinthian War in 395–391 BC.
The Long Walls were a key element of Athenian military strategy, since they provided the city with a constant link to the sea and thwarted sieges conducted by land alone.
Just west of Piraeus is the location of one of the most consequential naval battles in history: the Battle of Salamis.
Salamis was fought in 480 BC, between an alliance of Greek city-states under Themistocles, and the Achaemenid Empire under King Xerxes. It resulted in a victory for the outnumbered Greeks.
The Battle of Salamis marked the turning point in the Greco-Persian wars. After Salamis, the Peloponnese, and by extension Greece as an entity, was safe from conquest; and the Persians suffered a major blow to their prestige and morale (as well as severe material losses). At the following battles of Plataea and Mycale, the threat of conquest was removed, and the Allies were able to go on the counter-offensive. The Greek victory allowed Macedon to revolt against Persian rule; and over the next 30 years, Thrace, the Aegean Islands and finally Ionia would be removed from Persian control by the Allies, or by the Athenian-dominated successor, the Delian League. Salamis started a decisive swing in the balance of power toward the Greeks, which would culminate in an eventual Greek victory, severely reducing Persian power in the Aegean.
A significant number of historians have stated that Salamis is one of the most significant battles in human history (though the same is often stated of Marathon). In a more extreme form of this argument, some historians argue that if the Greeks had lost at Salamis, the ensuing conquest of Greece by the Persians would have effectively stifled the growth of Western Civilization as we know it. This view is based on the premise that much of modern Western society, such as philosophy, science, personal freedom and democracy are rooted in the legacy of Ancient Greece. Thus, this school of thought argues that, given the domination of much of modern history by Western Civilization, Persian domination of Greece might have changed the whole trajectory of human history. The celebrated blossoming of hugely influential Athenian culture occurred only after the Persian wars were won.
Both sides used Triremes at the Battle of Salamas. The defining quality of the trireme, of course, was its triple bank of oars, crewed by a standard complement of 170 oarsmen. Trireme combat offered three primary possibilities to defeat enemy vessels: ramming, shearing (the oars off the other tirieme, or boarding.
Modern recreation of a Trireme. Notice the bronze ram at the bow. (Hat tip to Big Serge)
Piraeus has a long recorded history, dating back to ancient Greece. The city was founded in the early 5th century BC, when plans to make it the new port of Athens were implemented: A prototype harbour was constructed, which resulted in concentrating in one location all the import and transit trade of Athens, along with the navy's base. During the Golden Age of Athens, the Long Walls were constructed to fortify the route from the main settlement to the port (Piraeus). During the classical period, the naval base in Piraeus had 372 trireme shipsheds. Beginning in the 3rd century B.C., Piraeus went into a period of cumulative decline.
Under Ottoman rule, especially before the beginning of the Greek War of Independence, Piraeus was mostly deserted, except for the monastery of Saint Spyridon (1590) and a customs house, and it was only used occasionally as a commercial port.
However, it began growing once again in the 19th century, after Athens was made the capital of Greece. Today Piraeus is a large city bustling with activity. It is a huge marine and commercial-industrial centre, and home to Greece's largest harbour.
The port of Piraeus is the chief port in Greece, the 5th largest passenger port in Europe and the 24th largest passenger port in the world serving about 4.37 million passengers annually in 2020. With a throughput of 5.44 million TEUs, Piraeus is among the busiest ten ports in Europe in terms of container traffic, and is the busiest container port in the Eastern Mediterranean.
Here comes the "Flying Cat", our ride to Hydra!
After a pleasant transit due south of Piraeaus of about an hour and a half, we arrived at Hydra Port. Hydra is a long island which runs east-west. The port is about center on the north side.
As you can see, the Flying Cat is very modern, fast, and had comfortable airline seats. It was not crowded so we got window seats.
Our first glimpse of Hydra.
Per Rick Steves: "Hydra has a totally different vibe from Mykonos, Santorini, or other Greek islands and is still the best place I know where you can take a vacation from your Greek vacation."
Horses, mules and donkeys, and water taxis provide public transportation. The inhabited area, however, is so compact that most people walk everywhere. Rubbish trucks are the only motor vehicles allowed on the island.
We walked the short distance to the hotel office, and the women who worked there led us to our lodging which was not far. We never would have found it on our own.
Hydra is the name of both the island and its main town (home to about 90 percent of the island's 2,000 residents.
Hydra town centers on its harbor, which is surrounded by a ring of rocky hills covered by houses and some buildings.
