10 January ’05, Monday. The Theatre at Ancient Epidavros
A few days have gone by since I’ve written anything for the journal, so I will kind of give you a short update. Sunday was a day off from anything but go out by the sea, walk the beach, wade in as far as possible without getting too crazy (to my waist, the water is coooollllddd), throwing the stick for “Bear” (the name I gave him), and just sit in the sun holding out hope that you might get a little color out of it (didn’t happen). Monday we fired up “Bumble Bee” and headed off to see the ruins of Epidavros. Epidavros is about 30km (18 miles) from Nafplio. Our campground was at Deprano Beach (just outside of Tolo), so that added on another 8km. The ride took us through a number of small villages and lots of agriculture. We have and still are in an area of olive, orange and tangerine groves, fields of grape vines for the local wines, and smaller crops of all kinds. All this was capped off by the wonderful mountains that circle the area. As we pulled up to the ruins of Epidavros, we found we finally had some company…about 4 tour buses and of those at least 2 were filled with college students from the US. They were spending the Fall quarter traveling Greece and studying the ancient ruins….good way to attend classes… At Epidavros, are found the ruins of Asclepius, the god of medicine. There were many kinds of healing practices available here beginning with the licking of snakes. It was thought that a serpent which, by renewing it’s skin, symbolizes rejuvenation. Some other practices were diet instruction, herbal meds and the occasionally even surgery. For some reason (and we couldn’t find out) this site is getting a rebuilding. There were at least 3 buildings that are getting completely rebuilt. The drawings are incredible, it would be great to be back in about 5 years to see the “New” Epidavros. There is also a very large theatre there that is one of the best and most complete ancient theatres anywhere. You could be sitting on the top row (a very long ways up there) and hear someone on the stage strike a match (it sounded like it was right in front of you). If we hurried we could get back to the beach before the day was too cool to enjoy it….so we headed back just before lunch.
A few days have gone by since I’ve written anything for the journal, so I will kind of give you a short update. Sunday was a day off from anything but go out by the sea, walk the beach, wade in as far as possible without getting too crazy (to my waist, the water is coooollllddd), throwing the stick for “Bear” (the name I gave him), and just sit in the sun holding out hope that you might get a little color out of it (didn’t happen). Monday we fired up “Bumble Bee” and headed off to see the ruins of Epidavros. Epidavros is about 30km (18 miles) from Nafplio. Our campground was at Deprano Beach (just outside of Tolo), so that added on another 8km. The ride took us through a number of small villages and lots of agriculture. We have and still are in an area of olive, orange and tangerine groves, fields of grape vines for the local wines, and smaller crops of all kinds. All this was capped off by the wonderful mountains that circle the area. As we pulled up to the ruins of Epidavros, we found we finally had some company…about 4 tour buses and of those at least 2 were filled with college students from the US. They were spending the Fall quarter traveling Greece and studying the ancient ruins….good way to attend classes… At Epidavros, are found the ruins of Asclepius, the god of medicine. There were many kinds of healing practices available here beginning with the licking of snakes. It was thought that a serpent which, by renewing it’s skin, symbolizes rejuvenation. Some other practices were diet instruction, herbal meds and the occasionally even surgery. For some reason (and we couldn’t find out) this site is getting a rebuilding. There were at least 3 buildings that are getting completely rebuilt. The drawings are incredible, it would be great to be back in about 5 years to see the “New” Epidavros. There is also a very large theatre there that is one of the best and most complete ancient theatres anywhere. You could be sitting on the top row (a very long ways up there) and hear someone on the stage strike a match (it sounded like it was right in front of you). If we hurried we could get back to the beach before the day was too cool to enjoy it….so we headed back just before lunch.