By Bob Van Leer

  (NAFPLIO, GREECE, June 3, 1987) - Today we set aside politics and economics and left on a tour of the Peloponnese (spelled several ways), a peninsula that is the southern part of Greece. We traveled by bus on a toll way from Athens to our first stop, The Corinth Canal.

  One impression is of the many buildings on which construction was started but never finished. Our guide says this is because of the Greek passion for building. Construction stops when money runs out, and starts again when money is available. This seems a little too simple an explanation, for some of the buildings are large commercial ones.

  We stopped to look at The Corinth Canal, completed in 1893, a narrow, steep cut, perhaps a mile long that saves a 185-mile trip around the peninsula. The canal is 8 meters deep and it is 80 meters from the bridge deck to the water. The cut has almost no taper. It is 21 meters wide at the bottom and 24.6 at the top.

  We visited the old city of Corinth. The town is dominated by a 6th century B.C. Greek temple of Apollo of which seven columns remain. Our guide pointed to the ruins of a building and said this was where St. Paul was tried and acquitted in 51 A.D. by the Roman Proconsul Gallio for alleged violations of Roman law. Just 16 miles from here the first Christian church in Europe was established by Paul.

  A few miles further we journeyed back still further in time to prehistory, the ruins of Mycenae. The entrance is through the famous Lion Gate, an entranceway of enormous slabs of stone topped by figures of two stone lions. I measured the thickness of the slabs making the gate and they are 6ft., 4 inches thick. The age here is 2 to 3 thousand years ago. The Lion Gate was built in the 11th century B. C.

  During the drive today we noticed the effects of the severe winter experienced in Europe in 1986/87. Citrus trees are heavily damaged, as are eucalyptus trees and some of the olive trees appear to have damage. Mycenae is good agricultural country, which was noticed by the ancients as well as modern man. Crops we noticed are lots of olive groves, lots of citrus, a number of pistachio nut orchards, tobacco and some grain.

  We journeyed to Epidauros to see the theater there. It is the best preserved in Greece and seats 14,000. The acoustics are incredible. A demonstration was shown to us that a sheet of paper being torn on the stage could be heard in the back row of the 55 tiers of seats. The theater is still used for an annual festival of Greek drama. It was built about the 5th century B. C.

  Sightseeing done for the day, we headed for our hotel in Nafplio, on an arm of the Aegean Sea. On the way, our guide pointed out an example of how well the Mycenaeans built. One of their bridges, 2000-3000 years old, is still in daily use on a side road.

  Our hotel for the evening, The Zenia, is just below a Venetian fort built atop a hill dominating the harbor. Our room overlooks the bay. This evening the doors are open to our patio, which overlooks the harbor and the temperature is in the high 60s

  Tomorrow our party of 16 will travel to Olympia, (the original one) by way of Delphi.