Right now pay attention everyone; this was our sightseeing week, so if you listen up you might even learn something. You left us at Camp Skala which was right by the city of Nafplio - the first capital of Greece apparently - everyone in the area was obviously very proud of this fact as it was announced by nearly everyone we met. Anyway, it is really rather nice, and has the remains of the fortified old city up on the hill behind from where you can get a fantastic view, however mainly for us it will be remembered as the day we got our fan....the sweet joy of air being propelled at high speed into our faces...ahhhhh. It's awesome, thank you Nafpoli, every day is like a Beyonce video in the van now.
The next day it was onto Epidavros, one of the most important sanctuaries of the ancient world, built around 300 BC and dedicated to Asklepios - the god of healing. There were some great ruins of the associated former buildings, including a stadium where the inhabitants held athletic competitions. But the real sight at Epidavros is the stunning ancient theatre, which is in such a preserved state that festivals and plays are staged there throughout the summer each year. The theatre was built with such mathematical precision that the acoustics are astounding; reportedly you can hear a match being dropped onto the floor of the stage from all the way up in the highest seats 54 tiers above. We didn't get to try this, however unfortunately we were treated to a rendition of Adele's 'Turning tables' in a rather dramatic teenage fashion by an American girl...cringeworthy. Still, once that was over we could get back to simply being in awe of this incredible place; in fact when you are sat 54 seats up, you can't quite believe that this huge theatre and surrounding sanctuary was only discovered in the nineteenth century...it's huge! Great day, finished off with frozen yoghurt and another good blast from our best friend the fan.
With leg 1 of the sightseeing over we made a move south the next day, down the east coast to Leonardhio. Originally we intending to stop here and split the journey however we arrived pretty quickly and then pushed on to Yitheo, on the tip of the Mani. I was pretty chuffed about this as I get to be in the Mani while reading a book about the Mani - that is precision book-timing people. The drive from Leonardhio to Sparta was also rumoured to be quite an experience; mountainous but beautiful. Not more mountains and beauty I hear you cry, but this really delivered...WHAT a drive! Gus made it feel really easy somehow, pulling up all these tough roads, and we were grateful yet again to be in something so small when we had to negotiate some very tight roads and low hanging balconies in the mountain villages. Obviously all this took quite a while so we arrived at a campsite in Yitheo too late to see the start of Andy Murray's Wimbledon final and glory moment (and a potential end to a long running bet with Michael), however we found live streaming online and settled in the bar to watch the remainder of the match. Obviously it wasn't great to see him lose, however...now this is rather British, I found it quite a joy to see the good ol BBC again...sad, I know.
The campsite in Yitheo was run by Dutch people, in fact it seemed like a bunch of people had got together in order to finance it, it had a very relaxed feel, was the first place to play decent music in the bar...the Doors and Richard Hawley no less, however the discovery of our first puncture on my bike left us a little bit stranded, particularly as we next discovered no inner tube...dammit we were gonna need a new tyre and a relatively big bike shop to get this sorted. This left us unable to explore without moving the van, which we really didn't want to do as we thought it needed a break. So instead we had a van service and repair day. So hard we worked that day in fact (Michael definitely more than me I have to admit) that the Italian lady next to us who had watched us in hot disbelief, marched over in the evening and shouted "Bravo" placing a huge tray of cold watermelon in front of us. True to form it was in fact the best watermelon I've ever tasted, so bravo indeed.
The next day, assured by the roadworthiness of our van, we set off on another incredible mountain pass towards the west coast, stopping on the way at leg 2 of sightseeing, Mystra. Mystra is a remarkably intact Byzantine town built in the thirteenth century that at it's height, housed 20,000 people. This was basically the 'power-house' of the Byzantine world, and pretty much ruled most of the Peloponnese until it was overthrown by the Turks. There's some fantastic Byzantine architecture to be seen here, and the sprawling site has an incredible amount of frescoed churches with the most ornate paintings on the interior walls. Awesome - we spent close to four hours exploring the site, but boy it was hard work in the heat. Both of us in agreement that these wonderful sites are probably better explored in the springtime, we decided to drag our sweaty selves to the west coast of the Peloponnese in search of a few days of paradise before heading up towards Athens.
And so we found ourselves just outside Pylos, after - yep you guessed it - another stunning mountain drive! Found a great campsite right on the bay of Navarino with a sandy beach; it was one of those beaches though were you could walk out into the sea for 10 minutes and still the water would only be up to waste height, which for some reason makes you feel all embarrassed and like you're in a kids paddling pool. Very good for swimming in though, especially on the calm mornings, then the windsurfers and kite surfers took over the water on the windy afternoons. We spent three days here swimming and relaxing, and actually sleeping really well at last - no bloody dogs! The bay and Pylos are both lovely - it seems to be some sort of holy grail for holiday makers, particularly from Germany - everyone that spoke to us about it went a bit starry eyed and said once they found it they all come back to the place year after year. On our last morning we headed 6k up the coast to Voidokilia bay, which is shaped like a horseshoe, backed by a sandy beach and dunes, and a lagoon rests behind. The bay is referred to in Homer's Odyssey, and there is a cave you can scramble up to (yep we did it in our usual walking shoe of choice - the humble flip flop) where according to Odyssey, Hermes hid Apollo's cattle. There is apparently no other geological formation like this anywhere and it is considered an area of exceptional natural beauty by the Greeks....and they're not wrong, it's bloody paradise! So yes it looks like we did find ourselves a bit of paradise on the west coast after all - swimming through crystal clear water and strolling over fine sand, we really didn't want to leave. We have good things to come though...starting with making our way up to Athens where we are to be joined by our good friend Matt for some island hopping. Life is definitely not bad at all right now.
The next day it was onto Epidavros, one of the most important sanctuaries of the ancient world, built around 300 BC and dedicated to Asklepios - the god of healing. There were some great ruins of the associated former buildings, including a stadium where the inhabitants held athletic competitions. But the real sight at Epidavros is the stunning ancient theatre, which is in such a preserved state that festivals and plays are staged there throughout the summer each year. The theatre was built with such mathematical precision that the acoustics are astounding; reportedly you can hear a match being dropped onto the floor of the stage from all the way up in the highest seats 54 tiers above. We didn't get to try this, however unfortunately we were treated to a rendition of Adele's 'Turning tables' in a rather dramatic teenage fashion by an American girl...cringeworthy. Still, once that was over we could get back to simply being in awe of this incredible place; in fact when you are sat 54 seats up, you can't quite believe that this huge theatre and surrounding sanctuary was only discovered in the nineteenth century...it's huge! Great day, finished off with frozen yoghurt and another good blast from our best friend the fan.
With leg 1 of the sightseeing over we made a move south the next day, down the east coast to Leonardhio. Originally we intending to stop here and split the journey however we arrived pretty quickly and then pushed on to Yitheo, on the tip of the Mani. I was pretty chuffed about this as I get to be in the Mani while reading a book about the Mani - that is precision book-timing people. The drive from Leonardhio to Sparta was also rumoured to be quite an experience; mountainous but beautiful. Not more mountains and beauty I hear you cry, but this really delivered...WHAT a drive! Gus made it feel really easy somehow, pulling up all these tough roads, and we were grateful yet again to be in something so small when we had to negotiate some very tight roads and low hanging balconies in the mountain villages. Obviously all this took quite a while so we arrived at a campsite in Yitheo too late to see the start of Andy Murray's Wimbledon final and glory moment (and a potential end to a long running bet with Michael), however we found live streaming online and settled in the bar to watch the remainder of the match. Obviously it wasn't great to see him lose, however...now this is rather British, I found it quite a joy to see the good ol BBC again...sad, I know.
The campsite in Yitheo was run by Dutch people, in fact it seemed like a bunch of people had got together in order to finance it, it had a very relaxed feel, was the first place to play decent music in the bar...the Doors and Richard Hawley no less, however the discovery of our first puncture on my bike left us a little bit stranded, particularly as we next discovered no inner tube...dammit we were gonna need a new tyre and a relatively big bike shop to get this sorted. This left us unable to explore without moving the van, which we really didn't want to do as we thought it needed a break. So instead we had a van service and repair day. So hard we worked that day in fact (Michael definitely more than me I have to admit) that the Italian lady next to us who had watched us in hot disbelief, marched over in the evening and shouted "Bravo" placing a huge tray of cold watermelon in front of us. True to form it was in fact the best watermelon I've ever tasted, so bravo indeed.
The next day, assured by the roadworthiness of our van, we set off on another incredible mountain pass towards the west coast, stopping on the way at leg 2 of sightseeing, Mystra. Mystra is a remarkably intact Byzantine town built in the thirteenth century that at it's height, housed 20,000 people. This was basically the 'power-house' of the Byzantine world, and pretty much ruled most of the Peloponnese until it was overthrown by the Turks. There's some fantastic Byzantine architecture to be seen here, and the sprawling site has an incredible amount of frescoed churches with the most ornate paintings on the interior walls. Awesome - we spent close to four hours exploring the site, but boy it was hard work in the heat. Both of us in agreement that these wonderful sites are probably better explored in the springtime, we decided to drag our sweaty selves to the west coast of the Peloponnese in search of a few days of paradise before heading up towards Athens.
And so we found ourselves just outside Pylos, after - yep you guessed it - another stunning mountain drive! Found a great campsite right on the bay of Navarino with a sandy beach; it was one of those beaches though were you could walk out into the sea for 10 minutes and still the water would only be up to waste height, which for some reason makes you feel all embarrassed and like you're in a kids paddling pool. Very good for swimming in though, especially on the calm mornings, then the windsurfers and kite surfers took over the water on the windy afternoons. We spent three days here swimming and relaxing, and actually sleeping really well at last - no bloody dogs! The bay and Pylos are both lovely - it seems to be some sort of holy grail for holiday makers, particularly from Germany - everyone that spoke to us about it went a bit starry eyed and said once they found it they all come back to the place year after year. On our last morning we headed 6k up the coast to Voidokilia bay, which is shaped like a horseshoe, backed by a sandy beach and dunes, and a lagoon rests behind. The bay is referred to in Homer's Odyssey, and there is a cave you can scramble up to (yep we did it in our usual walking shoe of choice - the humble flip flop) where according to Odyssey, Hermes hid Apollo's cattle. There is apparently no other geological formation like this anywhere and it is considered an area of exceptional natural beauty by the Greeks....and they're not wrong, it's bloody paradise! So yes it looks like we did find ourselves a bit of paradise on the west coast after all - swimming through crystal clear water and strolling over fine sand, we really didn't want to leave. We have good things to come though...starting with making our way up to Athens where we are to be joined by our good friend Matt for some island hopping. Life is definitely not bad at all right now.
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