Nafplio

Bungee jumping from Corinth Canal Bridge. 

Our driver to Delphi, Pan, picked us up at Piraeus to take us to Napflio. We hadn't booked the Corinth Canal stop because we booked with him directly instead of through his employer,  welcomepickups which charges extra for that stop. When we got close to the exit to go to the canal, he asked if we wanted to stop for 5 minutes which was perfect because we thought we'd have to book a tour from Nafplio and the tours include other stops.

The 5 minutes turned into around 20 because we had to stay to watch at least one person bungee jump. Pan said the area to watch them from was built especially for that purpose. 

First we looked at the canal from the side and then viewed it from a bridge. It's high but not scary because there's fencing on each side. I wouldn't want to be there during tourist season, though, because the bridge is narrow. The canal separates the mainland from the Peloponnese. 

Pictures don't quite show the height which is 170 feet. It's 4 miles long and ranges in width to 80 feet at sea level.

The canal connects the Gulf of Corinth in the Ionian Sea with the Saronic Gulf in the Aegean. Building it was proposed in classical times and a failed attempts were made at various times in history including the the first century. Nero broke ground for it at one point. Interest in building it continued through the years, especially after the successful completion of the Suez Canal in 1869. This canal was completed in 1893 but was often closed because of landslides. There is a memorial to the Hungarian architects who designed it. There were a lot of problems through the years; erosion caused the need for reinforcing the walls, it was damaged in WWII, it didn't get the amount of traffic originally planned because it's so narrow. In fact, modern ships can't go through it so it's major use now is as a tourist attraction but no one has to pay to see it.  Not sure how much it costs to bungee jump.

There were about 10 jumpers we watched walk the platform under the bridge wearing the gear they'd be attached to. We saw the official give them instructions.  Mickey got the shot of the first jumper. He was screaming as he descended. Scary.

The condo is over a jewelry store on the oldest street of the town. It's big, 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, large living/dining room. We were met by the manager, Anna. She spoke very little English but had brought her granddaughter who translated. They had left us fruit--bananas, apples, oranges, as well as a loaf of bread, eggs and other things in the refrigerator. We got mostly nothing at the other places we've stayed.

The washer is in the larger bathroom, the dryer is in the smallest bedroom. I washed a load by choosing some random buttons. At least I didn't break it. It probably washed the load for a couple hours while we walked around and went to dinner. 

The area around us us street after street of stores--clothes, shoes, souvenirs, lots of restaurants. We walked to the port then chose a restaurant that seemed popular. We needed milk for coffee but couldn't find a 7/11 type store in all the blocks we walked. We bought vanilla ice cream to use after it melted. Later we found small cream containers in the fridge but ice cream is better anyway. 

The port at night. Lots of luxury yachts. 

When we got back from dinner, I took out the laundry which was sopping wet. We tried to figure out the dryer but it seemed to want to dry for hours so we set it on 20 minutes just to see if it worked. It did but didn't dry the clothes at all so I hung them up to dry in the morning. Finally I remembered you can scan with Google translate and got this:

This morning I decided to set the dial on cotton but the time choices were between 3 and 4 hours. I finally found that outdoor could be set at an hour and a half so I'm trying that now. I have no idea what intensive for safekeeping means. Update: dryer worked. Actually dried my clothes in an hour and a half. And that's the last laundry for this trip.