canal – David Kotz

The tulips are in full bloom in Holland! For my “hike” this weekend, Pam and I joined our friend Jen for a weekend in Amsterdam. (It’s only four hours from London via train!) Jen kindly arranged a bike rental in Lisse, a small village south of Amsterdam surrounded by vast fields of tulips, daffodils, and hyacinths – all in full bloom – where the air was sweet with the scent from hundreds of thousands of flowers. We spent a lovely few hours riding the bike paths – the Netherlands are heaven for bikers, because nearly every street and road has an adjacent bike path, with dedicated signage.

Vast fields of tulips, hyacinth, daffodils, and other flowers – outside Amsterdam.

The Peloponnese is a vast peninsula that forms the southern portion of Greece, and is attached to the mainland by the incredibly thin isthmus of Corinth (see map below). The Romans once built a wall across the isthmus to protect the peninsula from the mainland.

This narrow strip of land separates the Ionean Sea from the Aegean Sea, and forces ships to sail around the entire peninsula to reach one from the other, a 700-kilometer (430 mile) journey. Even in antiquity, sailors dreamed of digging a canal to shorten the voyage – with the first attempt dating to the 7th century BC. Finally, in 1893, a viable canal was completed [Wikipedia]. Our own ship, Le Bougainville, is nearly as wide as the canal – with just 2m to spare on either side – and is thus quite an exciting transit! See the photo gallery.

Isthmus_of_Corinth — Map of the area, and (inset) of Greece, from Wikipedia.

Tag: canal

Amsterdam and tulips

Corinth Canal