If Corfu gives one a flowery welcome to the Isles of Greece, the mainland keeps up the cordiality. Patras, its first port, a dignified, progressive little city, was not behind its island sister in greeting us. Its historic neighbor, Olympia, is reached by a bridle path, and the two days' journey will give one a better insight into the manners and customs of the ancient Greeks than months spent in a modern city. Many of the inhabitants along this path have never visited their nearest village.
SHIP CANAL CUT ACROSS THE ISTHMUS OF CORINTH, CONNECTING THE GULF OF CORINTH AND THE SARONIC GULF
The road between Patras and Athens—my heart throbs now at the mere writing of the name "Athens," just as it did when I first took my seat in the train for that classic city—is different from anything else on earth, for almost all the way to the ship canal which crosses the Isthmus of Corinth the mountainsides are strewn with currants, drying in the sun on beds of white pebbles. All the dried currants, originally called "grape of Corinth," come from this part of the Levant.
ATHENS:
Full many a bard of thy strong walls has sung,
Full many a hand has sketched thy fair outline;
But none can sing nor paint all that thou art,
To earnest, loving, simple hearts like mine.