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…
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…