Goodman's Journey
  • Home
  • Blogroll

Narrow Just Isn't The Word For Them...

1/19/2005

0 Comments

 
Picture
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…

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.


    *Locations*

    All
    Amsterdam
    Austria
    Belgium
    Bosnya
    Canada
    Croatia
    Czech Republic
    Egypt
    England
    Estonia
    France
    Germany
    Germany Part 2
    Greece
    Hungary
    Ireland
    Italy
    Latvia
    Lithuania
    Luxembourg
    Madrid
    Mexico
    Mexico Bcs
    MX - Cabo San Lucas
    Netherlands
    Poland
    Portugal
    Scotland
    Serbia
    Slovakia
    Slovenia
    Spain
    Switzerland
    Turkey
    USA - Alabama
    USA - Alaska
    USA - Arizona
    USA - California
    USA - Colorado
    USA - Florida
    USA - Georgia
    USA - Idaho
    USA - Illinois
    USA - Indiana
    USA - Kentucky
    USA - Louisiana
    USA - Maine
    USA - Maryland
    USA - Massachusetts
    USA - Michigan
    USA - Minnesota
    USA - Mississippi
    USA - Montana
    USA - Nevada
    USA - New Jersey
    USA - New Mexico
    USA - New York
    USA - North Dakota
    USA - Ohio
    USA - Oregon
    USA - Pennsylvania
    USA - Seattle
    USA - South Dakota
    USA - Tennessee
    USA - Texas
    USA - Utah
    USA - Vermont
    USA - Washington
    USA - Wisconsin
    USA - Wyoming
    Utrecht Nl
    Wales


    *Archives*

    November 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    July 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011
    December 2010
    November 2010
    October 2010
    September 2010
    August 2010
    July 2010
    June 2010
    May 2010
    April 2010
    March 2010
    February 2010
    January 2010
    December 2009
    November 2009
    October 2009
    September 2009
    August 2009
    June 2009
    May 2009
    April 2009
    March 2009
    February 2009
    January 2009
    December 2008
    November 2008
    October 2008
    September 2008
    August 2008
    July 2008
    June 2008
    May 2008
    April 2008
    March 2008
    February 2008
    January 2008
    December 2007
    November 2007
    October 2007
    September 2007
    August 2007
    July 2007
    June 2007
    May 2007
    April 2007
    March 2007
    February 2007
    January 2007
    December 2006
    November 2006
    October 2006
    September 2006
    August 2006
    July 2006
    June 2006
    May 2006
    April 2006
    March 2006
    February 2006
    January 2006
    December 2005
    November 2005
    October 2005
    September 2005
    August 2005
    July 2005
    June 2005
    May 2005
    April 2005
    March 2005
    February 2005
    January 2005
    December 2004
    November 2004
    October 2004
    September 2004
    August 2004
    July 2004
    June 2004
    May 2004
    April 2004
    March 2004
    February 2004
    January 2004
    December 2003

Goodman's Journey © 2021 | All Rights Reserved.
​Website Creation by Amy Riordan, LLC