29 January ’05, Saturday. Ancient Delphi Theatre and Sanctuary of Apollo
Fortunately the wind had somewhat died down and rain had stopped by the time we started packing up on Thursday. Our trip started out by crossing the new suspension bridge from Rio to Antirio, and then heading east following the shore of the Gulf of Corinth. We would continue about 100 km (60 miles) to Itea, grab a left, climb the side of the mountain for about another 20 km and there we were….Ancient Delphi and Sanctuary of Apollo. (A little side note: yesterday (Friday) we picked up a “English” newspaper, and they had an article on the bridge…It was closed right after we crossed, because of “HIGH WINDS AND RAIN lightening had struck one of the suspension cables and tore it, it will be closed for a few days” it only opened Dec 04’. This is one of the prettiest bridges we have ever seen. One thing I will never forget about it is the toll…15 EUROS ($20+) one way !!!!…a little …(HELL, A LOT) hefty for a toll…) . Because of the late arrival time (1:30pm) and rain at Delphi, we decided to just take in the Archeological Museum today and tomorrow (Friday), we’ll get an early start at the ancient site and head out again in the afternoon. For the Greeks, Delphi was “The Navel of the Earth”. During the 1600 BC period, the Mycenaean’s built this for the goddess Gaea, but by the end of the Mycenaean period, Apollo had replaced all other god’s. Delphi reached it’s height in the 4th century BC, when multitudes of pilgrims came to ask advice of its “oracle” who was believed to speak for Apollo. The oracle had influence over all things, from personal to wars….want to get married ???, see the oracle to see if this is the right time, person, will the first born be a son ??? We walked the Sanctuary of Apollo, Roman agora, the Sacred Way, visited the Temple of Apollo, the theatre, and to the top of the site to see the stadium, which is the best preserved in Greece. While we were there, there was a group of students that took to running from the start line in the stadium to the end…no one made it to the end… We also met a family from Montana while we were there. They were traveling from Athens to Delphi by bus, and having a good time in Greece. After about 2 hours covering the site, we decided to head back to “Bumble Bee” and hit the road again. Our journey today will take us back towards Antirio and then north, up the Ionian Sea to Igoumenitsa. This was about a 5 hour journey, and our first intensions were to find a campground and stay over. Well the best laid plans are made only to possibly be changed…we were able to catch a ferry to Bari, Italy, which would leave at 7pm and we could “camp” (in Bumble Bee) right on the deck of the boat. So, for 120 Euros, we were all set and ready to ship out.
Our night on the boat turned out to be just OK… Everything with Bumble Bee was great, but, sometime in the night, we got into a thunder and lightning storm and the waves picked up…what a ride…not much sleep after that, and we had to be ready for a 6 am departure from the ship as well. The nuts of that was, the ship didn’t dock until just about 9, so we really missed our sleep. Louise and I had given some thought to what route we would take after leaving the boat, so we headed up the coast towards Foggia. During this drive up the coast, we got talking about what options we had for campgrounds that might be open to us in the winter. If we continued up the eastern coastline, we didn’t have much to chose from, but if we went over to the western coastline, we had quite a number available. So, take a left turn, and head off to Napoli (Naples). Then we had a stunning surprise start before us….SNOW !!! Like all snow storms, it started out with just a flake once in awhile, and then…I’m glad they were Johnny on the spot with the sanding and plowing…we needed all the help we could get. We had snow for just about ¾ of the way across the country, and then when we finally arrived in Napoli, we had left the snow behind and just had the cold and wet of the same storm. We found our campsite in Pompeii, and are just across the street from Ancient Pompeii which we will see later on our return trip. Tomorrow we are continuing our trip north by northwest.

26 January ’05, Wednesday The Martyrs’ Monument and Clock from Church Tower
Just after 7am I got a cold hand on the back and the comforting words..”come on, we’ve got a train to catch in just over an hour”… The railway from Diakofto to Kalavryta took us on a wonderful ride through the Vouraikos Gorge. The train climbs over 700 meters (about 2100 feet) over 22 ½ km (13 miles) using a rack and pinion (cog) system for the steep climb. This route was built in 1885 and was a remarkable feet of engineering for it’s time. We crisscrossed the gorge quite often and most of the time the tracks (and the train) were right on the edge of a steep wall of rock with a rock strewn river far below. We not only took this train ride for the joy and experience of riding another narrow gage railway, but for the final destination…Kalavryta. Kalvryta has been written into the Greek history books for 3 different history making occasions. The first was 25 March 1821 when Bishop Germanos raised the flag over his monastery that launched the War of Independence here in Greece. The second, was when Harilaos Trikoupis commissioned the narrow gage railway to Kalvryta to provide access to the birth place of the new nation. The 3rd and by far the saddest is the Martyrs’ Monument. A huge white cross sits on a hillside overlooking the city of Kalvryta and this marks the site of the 1943 massacre of all males from the city, age’s 15 and up. On 13 December 1943 at 2:34pm the Nazis set fire to the town and rounded up all the men and boys, marched them up the hill and shot them in one of the worst atrocities of WWII. This was done as punishment for the resistance activities of the town toward the Germans. Today the main church in the center of town has the clock still in the tower, and it is still eternally showing “2:34”. Fortunately we chose Tuesday to make this trip, as today has turned out to be WET, WET. WET !!! Fact is, the management of the campground, came by about an hour ago and ask us to move to higher ground. As I looked out the door, I found that we had about 2 inches of standing water all around us and it was climbing…what is this ??? Even the wind is raising hell. After getting home this afternoon, Louise wanted to go out to the beach and watch the wave action from the wind. Well as we approached, the wind got so violent, that we had to leave and head for shelter of the van…it’s still blowing tonight…
Monday night I went to shut the sliding side door of “Bumble Bee”, and it didn’t shut the first time, so I tried again (maybe a little harder) and it shut…shut tight and we weren’t able to open it again until this afternoon, and only after paying $50 to the mechanic for doing such a good job. Tomorrow…heading over to Ancient Delphi

23 January ’05, Sunday. Hermes of Praxiteles taking infant Dionysos to Mt Nysa.
Nestor’s Palace is supposed to be the best preserved Mycenaean palace…well, it must be, because they covered the whole thing with a roof that is supported by 12 steel poles. What we saw was a exterior wall that is original and stands about 2 feet high, and a number of interior walls (all marking the rooms in the castle), that stood about 1 foot high. They did have most of the rooms and passageways marked well, and it was easy to go through. The highlight of the stop, was the terracotta bath tub that was still in place. The tub was decorated nicely and colorfully, but because of age (13th century BC) the colors have faded quite a bit. They also discovered over twelve hundred Linear B script tablets that went on to explain about the functions, colors and details of the palace. It was highly colored inside and out.
This morning we were out early to visit Ancient Olympia and the Archaeological Museum of Olympia. The sun was out bright and it was going to stay that way…I said so… The origins of Olympia date back to Mycenaean times. The Great Goddess Rea in the 1st millennium BC…then superseded by Zeus. A small regional festival, which included sporting events began in the 11th century BC. The FIRST Olympic Games were declared in 776 BC, and by 576 BC they were open to all male Greeks. Every four years on the first full moon of August, they held their sporting Olympic Festival, which included wrestling, chariot and horse racing, discus and javelin throwing, long jump and running. They also had pancratium (a very vicious form of fist fighting). Slaves and women were not allowed to enter the sanctuary as participants or spectators. Women trying to sneak in were thrown from a nearby rock. In AD 67, Nero entered the chariot race with 10 horses and ordered that all other competitors could have no more than 4 horses. Despite this advantage, he fell and abandoned the race. Even then, the judges declared Nero the winner…now come on, is that fair ??? I want a re-run… Back to the moment…our visit to the museum was one of the best we have seen. It was well laid out and all items in the museum were properly identified in English and at least 2 other languages. The inventory was wonderful and the quality of the inventory was even better. The site of Olympia was huge and was also laid out so that it was easy to get around to see and identify everything. Louise and I had our turn at the starting line in the Olympic Stadium. They have the original starting line (a solid marble line completely across the starting and finish). It is set for the 120 meter (220’), which is the longest run that can be done “all out”. I won’t tell you who won… (well, I was close anyway…). Some of the buildings were very large, and had lots of columns surrounding the exterior and the interior of the structures. The stone carvings are outstanding. It is amazing as to how many really good artists there were at that time. Tomorrow..North…

22 January ’05, Saturday. Paleokastro Castle in Pylos
Thursday was spent at home. Thank God we have plenty of books to read for such days. It rained all day long, but it was nice to just sit back and let it rain with out worrying that you might miss something. Friday, we awoke to bright sunshine, so we immediately jumped out of bed, made it to town for some much needed shopping, and then headed out to see the Gialova Lagoon. This lagoon is a prime bird watching site during the winter, so we wanted to see just what that meant. It was well posted with how the site laid out, so seeing as how we were the only people there, we headed out walking one of the paths through the lagoon. Our destination was the “lookout tower” further into the lagoon. This lagoon covers over 500 hectares (how many acres does that come out to??), and is a temporary home to hundreds of birds. Some of the birds we saw were the flamingos, white and blue egrets, hawks, many types of ducks, and many, many types of smaller birds that I have no idea what they were. Over looking the lagoon, is the large Paleokastro Castle. It sits high on a rugged hill, giving it a formidable natural defensive position. In order to get there, we had to go out a natural spit of land from the mainland, past the lagoon, take a path around the hill, following the shore, and then a steep climb to the castle. The trail was real good until we got about ¾ of the way up, and then it just disappeared into the high grasses. The weather has been just what the grasses and plants have been waiting for, as it has grown so fast and thick, that we had to blaze our own way to the top and into the castle. What made it a little tricky was that the path that we cut and the most logical, was close to a drop off and the unseen rocks we had to walk on or around, were out of our site. Also, there were a lot of nettles just waiting for us to expose our open skin to them. The castle was built by the Franks in the 13th century BC, but like a lot of the other castles, there isn’t much left except the walls, to explore. So, we immediately found a set of stairs leading to the top of the walls, and started our walk around them. A little catch in walking the walls of a 13th century structure, is that sometimes there isn’t much to walk on and it is a long way down on either side. You almost feel like you would rather get down on your hands and knees and move across that particular area, but you don’t want to disappoint your wife with your…“bravery”. After eating our lunch perched high on the wall over looking a wonderful sandy horseshoe bay far below, we headed back down. We still had to see Nesters Cave and there wasn’t a lot of day light left. According to mythology, this is the cave where Hermes hid the cattle he stole from Apollo…well, we definitely wanted to see that… Once we got back to the van, we had to head off in the opposite direction around the hill (Hell, it’s a MOUNTAIN.), across some sand-dunes, and then start climbing the side of the hill through the same high grasses and rocks we had before. Once we came around the last dune, we saw the cave high above us…it was huge. We forged our way to the opening and thank you Louise, we had brought a huge flashlight. This is some cave, and I would bet that it did hold those cattle…fact is, it almost smelled like it (just kidding). It was impressive. Again, it is amazing that here we are, at these fantastic sites, and all by ourselves… Yes, we are traveling in the “winter”, but it is worth it not to fight the crowds. Well, we came back to camp tired little “puppies”… Tomorrow, The Palace of Nester and on to Ancient Olympia….

19 January ’05, Wednesday. Bourtzi Castle at the Methoni Fortress
I’ll say one thing, we are consistent…, when we are getting back on the road we hit the pavement just as close to 10am as you can get. If I think we might get an earlier start…well, it just doesn’t happen. Oh well, it’s not that we have a schedule to keep too. The sun was out and it was really warm…what a day to travel…
As I mentioned yesterday, we are heading south for the last time in quite awhile. It was to be a simple drive, and the first part was. We pulled into Koroni just before noon. Our drive took us through secondary roads and lots of small villages along the coastline. The scenery was also small farms, rolling hills in front of the mountain range, small orchards, sheep with their herder, and very little traffic. As we entered each of the towns along the way, we had to slow way down. The streets there got real tight. If we were lucky we didn’t have any on-coming traffic, if we did, it was a real tight fit….almost touching mirrors in most cases. Now these streets aren’t just flat. No, they are on hills or sloping one way or the other and have people and parked cars all along. This can be a challenge, but it is always quaint and interesting to see. As we pulled to the curb in Koroni, I tried to stay as close as I could to let others get by (I like my mirrors to stay were they are…).
We had a short walk through the side streets (no cars allowed) to get to the castle. It was all stairs and the steps were quite deep and all were outlined with paint. This castle was taken over by the German army during WWII, so there isn’t much left of the grounds, and the walls are in rough shape as well. It seems that when the Germans saw this major offense coming to them, they decided to blow the whole thing up with dynamite. They did a good job. Today there is a convent inside the walls and a few very small homes with gardens that were rebuilt after the war. We met a couple that just moved into their little home the first of April. They are now in the process to fixing it and the stone fences up, as well as maintaining their lemon and olive orchards. Their house is a one room home of about 25’x25’, and made of cement and stone. They have to get permission from the government before they can do anything on the property, as it is in a historical site. They paid about $65,000 for the house and 2 fairly good sized lots on the grounds of the castle. They gave us a gift of 6 lemons and we were on our way to Methoni. We hadn’t been on the road but 10 minutes, and we had to make a U-turn and get back to the “road to Methoni”…that’s what the sign said anyway… We twisted and turned through the rest of the town of Koroni and finally found ourselves on a very small and winding road. “Now this doesn’t look good, do you still think this is the right road ???”…”Yes, that’s what the sign said”… About 40 minutes later, and having traveled on this “unbelievable” road, we found ourselves heading right back to the very place we had left… Well, we made another “U-turn” and headed back to another road that looked like it might be the right one. Luckily enough, it was…we were on our way to Methoni. The view coming into Methoni, was wonderful. We were winding our way down from a mountain and the Med was right in front of us. There were a few small islands and a couple of larger ones. The water color was that blue and then green color of the Mediterranean. As we wound our way into Methoni and looking for the fortress we felt like we were the only people in town…there was very little sign of people there. We found the Fortress without any problem and started our personal tour. It is a 15th century Venetian fortress that was separated from the mainland by a moat. This was a “stop over point” for those heading to the Holy Land. For Louise and I it was a stop over of about 2 hours, and it was worth it. This was a very interesting fortress and to have the Bourtzi Castle attached by a causeway out into the sea, made it all that more interesting. Within the walls are a Turkish bath, cathedral, house, cistern (the pyramid styled structure), parapets, and underground passages. The walls sit high above the sea, and when you walk them it gives you a dizzying feeling as if the waves could climb all the way up and get you. I must admit, looking down into the clear blue-green waters, almost gave you the feeling of jumping into it…almost… The Bourtzi Castle is one of the smallest we have seen. I would estimate the octagonal diameter as 50’. We could get inside by going through a gate that had been torn up a little, and you could see that it must have had 3 or 4 floors, plus a basement. Louise made lunch in the van and then we continued our journey north to Pylos and our next campground. As we drove through the narrow and again winding streets, we found that there were few businesses open and about the only people, were the kids that were just getting out of school. Pylos (pee-loss) sits over the southern end of an immense bay. On 20 October 1827, the British, French and Russian fleets, fired at point-blank range on Turkish, Egyptian, and Tunisian fleet, sinking 53 ships and killing 6000 men. This event was not to have happen at all. The Allied fleet wanted to do no more than to convince the Pasha and his fleet to leave, but it got totally out of control. There are 2 castles in the area and also one of the best bird watching sites in the Peloponnese. Right now we are in the middle of a very wet rain storm, complete with thunder and lightning. I would expect this to continue for at least 2 or 3 days. Our campsite is right at the waters edge and as the waves come up, they are no more than 25 feet away. We have a couple of days to spend, so let’s hope the weather breaks for us…

18 January ’05, Tuesday. Langada Pass
After spending Sunday in the van all day because of the wind storm, we decided that we would head off to Ancient Messini on Monday. Ancient Messini wasn’t too far off, so we only took a couple of hours out of the day. Not only was the trip short, but the site just didn’t offer us too much. Messini was spread out over quite a large area, but the largest portion standing was a couple of sections of the defensive wall. Other than that, it was a large “dig”, and what was showing was the outline of buildings and other area’s of wall. The town that Messini now has right in it’s center is quite quaint, with very narrow streets that climb and twist up the side of the hill. I was never able to get “Bumble Bee” out of 1st gear going up or the return trip down. If you were to meet another car (trucks just couldn’t get through), one of you would have to back up for a ways. People lived all over the hill and on the main street, but we only saw 1 woman and at another location a man…pretty quite… Today we got up, washed some clothes, put them out in the sun (yep, the sun is out !!! and the wind is gone !!!), and headed out to take the road from Kalamata to Sparti. This is a ride of 59km (about 36 miles) and is suppose to be one of the most stunning routes in Greece, crossing the Taygetos Mountains by way of the Lagada Pass. The climb starts just as soon as you leave the city and enter the first hairpin curve. That curve is the first of many dozens of them. We went high and we went low into the valleys. The pass topped out at 1524m or about 5000 feet or just about a mile high… The ride over towards Sparti took us about an hour and a half and then we made a “U-Turn” and made the trip back in an hour not counting our stop at the summit for lunch. On the Sparti side of the pass is the Langada Gorge. This is the site where the ancient Spartans threw babies too weak or deformed to become good soldiers. The gorge and the mountains were beautiful, and we did have a very nice drive, but as far as being “the most stunning” routes in Greece…I’ve seen better here…I know, but it’s just my opinion… Tomorrow we will be heading south once more. This will be the last time in Greece, everything else will be in a northerly direction as we head out over the next couple of weeks. We will be making a drive south to Koroni, west to Methoni, and north to Pylos…

15 January ’05, Saturday. A Maniots Tower Village in South Peloponnese, Greece
Happy Birthday Lena…. We miss you.
Another travel day for us, and unfortunately the weather has changed. We are experiencing rain for the first time since leaving Athens. The destination was Southwest from Gythio and then due South after reaching Areopoli and then follow the coastline down to the very end of the peninsula. The “Mani” area has a story to it that has given us the inspiration to visiting it. It seems like the Maniots were a law unto themselves, renowned for their fierce independence and resentment of any attempt to govern them. We have heard the descriptions of the Maniots as hostile, wild, and hard people (now, fortunately they have mellowed). They were a feuding group, and most of the feuds were over land. The whole area of “Mani” runs from the top of the Taygetos Mountains to the sea. ALL of this land is on a slope and is the rockiest land I have ever seem. It seems that if anything was to grow on this land, that, was a reason for someone to try to take it from the family now on it. Before the feuding between themselves, there was a “fighting” spirit that they claim comes from being direct descendants of the Spartans. They liked to be left alone, but if they were called upon to defend their land, family, or country, they had what it took to get the job done. Their claim (some dispute this), that they are the only Greeks not to have succumbed to foreign invasions. Anyway, I started to tell you about the feuding and all that, well one of the “landmarks” of the area that comes from that period, is the “tower settlements”. These towers were constructed as refuges. As we traveled through all this rock laden land, we came across a single tower house to a complete village on top of the highest hills. The villages came complete with a fortification wall system. We even saw a tower house with 2 cannons mounted on top of the flat roof. Driving out into the Mani, was driving on some of the narrowest roads, with more hairpin curves than anywhere we have been yet. One major advantage they had in living there, is the rocks that litter every inch of the land…they have and do use it for constructing their tower homes, walls, and streets. Where the country has set the roads, they have paved them with blacktop, but if you get off of that, you will find either rock or dirt. We traveled all the way to the end and once we got there, we were on the narrowest of roads that were on sheer cliffs that plunge down hundreds of feet to the sea.
At the very end, we had to make a U-turn and head back the same way we had come. Once we had hit Areopoli again, we were on a new adventure and heading to Kalamata.
“Bumble Bee” needed an oil change and I had a small list of other things that I wanted checked on, so we went looking for a garage we had heard about in Kardamyli. Fortunately, the directions were perfect and we drove right into the drive on the first try. As you are heading north through town, cross over the bridge and the garage is on the right about 200 meters later. We did get the oil changed and all the “To Do” list of things checked. We agree, this is the best service and the best price we could have asked for. I would like to give you their name, but I can’t read their business card (it’s in Greek). Anyway, thanks for the great service !!! Our trip then continued to Kalamata and our new campground…. Tomorrow….haven’t made up our minds yet…

14 January ’05, Friday. Ancient Monemvasia, The Rock of Gibraltor of Greece
One Hour and 15 minutes on a narrow, twisting, winding road with orange and olive groves on both sides when there isn’t the sea, and a dash down a valley with the mountains on both sides of it and finally you emerge to the sight that you’ve read about….Monemvasia (mo-nem-vah-see-ah), the “Gibraltar” of Greece…a massive rock that rises out of the sea just off the coast. It is reached by a causeway from the mainland village of Gefyra. As you see “the rock” and the fortress on top when you’ve made that last turn, it makes the statement that “if you want to really see me, you’ve got some hiking to do… Hell, we’ve done so much hiking this past year, one more sure isn’t going to kill us. As we drove into Gefyra and made the left turn to meet up with the causeway it was worth a stop for another picture. From all we could see, it was just a small bridge across to the “rock” with a few buildings. Again, the book says follow the roadway around one side of the rock and you will come to a tunnel. When you enter the tunnel you can’t see the other end as it was made in a “L” shape. Now as you break out of the tunnel you are taken back by an absolutely beautiful village, that was completely hidden from you. The island of Monemvasia was part of the mainland until in 375AD it was pushed out to sea by one heck of an earthquake. Just like the story with Mystras, the people around Monemvasia fled to this natural rock fortress for protection from the invasions. This was in the 6th century as the barbarian incursions occurred. A complete city was built on the sides of the “rock” with the almighty fortress on the top. As we walked through the tunnel and come to this beautiful medieval town we knew we had found another “10”. The narrow, cobbled main street was lined with souvenir shops, restaurants, and some quaint hotels. All this was interwoven with winding stairways that weave between a complex of stone houses with walled gardens and courtyards. Of the churches that we saw, one dates from 956, the Church of Agios Pavlos. Another from the 13th century, and my favorite was the Church of Mirtidiotissa, which was virtually in ruins, but still with a small altar and a defiantly lit candle. We walked through the village looking for the stairs to the top of the hill for some time, and then just as you are about ready to ask for help, the magic stairway opens up for us. As we followed this cobblestone path up and up, through the gated areas, winding and twisting for ever, we finally walkout into the ancient ruins of Monemvasia. Then….Lunch time…when we walked through the village the first time, Louise could smell some really good smells coming from a restaurant. Well, seeing as how it was lunch, and seeing as how the wonderful smells had come from “this” restaurant, we went in. We (Louise) had made the right choice. Another spectacular visit (and meal) for us… I know, we’ve said all that before.

13 January ’05, Thursday. The Convent of Pantanassa at the ruins of Mystra
Without the possibility of a hot shower, we did the “quick wash in the sink” trick, had breakfast, paid our bill and headed for our first stop….The captivating ruins of Mystras. It sits on the topside of Mt. Taygetos just 7km away from Sparta. On the top of the mountain, sits the fortress, which is very imposing and was to guard over the village of Mystras below it. Located about half way down are the ruins of the palace. There is major renovation work going on at the palace now, so we could only see the exterior and read about the interior and how it went together. The fortress was constructed in 1249 and the people of the surrounding hills and valleys came to it for protection and jobs. Soon the whole city was built and contained in a system of protective walls. Everything but the fortress was built on a steep hillside, so the streets (we would call them stone walkways) were steep and switchback, although there were 2 main streets that crossed each other. The rest of the passageways were paths and alley ways. Small businesses were combined with their homes and some even had been set up in covered passageways. At one time, there had been upwards of 40,000 people living in Mystras inside the walls. There was also markets and bazaars held outside the walls, as it was too much to handle inside. The ruling family were called “Despots”, and lived and worked from the palace. The palace was complex of several buildings, and these were built at different times and added one onto the other. A school of “humanistic philosophy” was founded at Mystras in 1355. It lasted about 90 years before Mystras was overrun by the Turks. It was then re-established in Rome by the Romans. I think Louise and I visited 7 different churches that were in fair to good condition on the hill this afternoon. The best preserved was the 14th century Convent of Pantanassa, which is still inhabited by the nuns today. They are the only inhabitants left at Mystras… As we walked the pathways up the hill enjoying the ruins and the view to the valley below, it was almost easy to feel how life used to be here. I mean that in the simple contexts… In the “ruins” here, you still have some walls of the houses, with their windows and doorways…the location of the bathrooms and how they worked...if you had a business, and were you might show your goods or manufacture them…then the tough part…living it !!! I guess it wouldn’t have been too bad if we had been the “Despots”…they were carried through the streets in their “sudan chair”…I’ve always wanted to ride in one of those… Our next stop was to get the pictures at the olive oil manufacture, which we saw last night. I took the pictures, but unfortunately, I didn’t like them…so, no pictures.
Next stop and the last for our visit to Sparti, was the Museum of Olive & Greek Olive Oil. We spent an hour and a half there and learned a lot about olives…it was fun. Then on our way to Gythio, which is about 30 miles due south of Sparti. We found our campground and set-up right at the waters edge of the Gulf of Lakonikos.

12 January ’05, Wednesday. Nafplio’s Palamidi Fortress
The big question in town (Nafplio), is it 999, 800, or just over 700 steps ??? Well we wanted to count them, but decided to leave it to someone who really cares. I’m writing about the stairs that climb the hill from Nafplio to the Palamidi Fortress. We drove by them and made a quick decision that we were going to drive to the top of this 216m high rock that gives the support for the fortress. I’m sure whatever that figure is, it’s right. This citadel was built by the Venetians in the early 16th century and is considered a masterpiece of military architecture. The only problem with that, just after it was completed the Turks invaded and conquered. It seems that all they had to do was go through the front door, which is the same one that we walked through (although, we had to pay to get through…). There are a series of bastions within the walls of this fortress, and from what we read, are the best preserved in the Europe. We had a great time walking all the steps inside the fortress (a heck of a lot more than 999…), walking the walls, and climbing into these little doorways that turned out to be prisons. The little opening, opened into a small entry that, led to another small door that went into this cell block…SMALL, no windows, uneven floor (large and small pointed rocks), and coldddd!!! (Louise tried to shut the door when I had my back turned…). As the other fortresses and citadels we have been to since we got here in the Peloponnese, the views are fantastic, and would have made it tough for an invasion in most cases. In Nafplio, there are two other fortresses. One of them is a small island and lies about 600m off of the port of the town. We had seen enough fortresses with the one at the top of the hill, so we headed back to “Bumble Bee” and the beach for L,S & CL (lunch, sun and a chaise lounge) at seaside.
This morning we packed up, said goodbye to “Bear” and headed to Sparti (Sparta). We had a good day to travel with lots of sun and light traffic (which fortunately we have had for almost forever (I’ll probably eat my words on that one)). Again passing through lots of citrus and olive groves, mountains, and valleys. We arrived at our next campground (and it ain’t like the last one !!!) just outside of Sparti, in a little village called Mystras. After checking in and setting up, we walked out to the street. Across the street from us, is this old building that had the large doors open. I just had to see what was going on over there, so off we went. It turned out to be a small commercial company pressing olives and putting the oil into large vats. We’ll go back tomorrow and get some pictures…it was quite interesting to say the least. I don’t think they have much government and health regs to worry about…