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Winding Roads to Tripoli
Nafplio's harbor is below, we crossed the mountains which turned out to be much longer than expected, but more interesting than the highway. I neglected to mention we crashed early in Nafplio the day before which meant we did not get to enjoy as much of that city as we would have liked, it is clearly a place you could spend a few days in. We left Napflio at a bit of a leisurely time and headed out towards Sparta in a bit more of a back way which took us over the mountains rather than around them. A lot of hairpin turns but it wasn't horrible by any means. I have to admit that I initially mistook the exuberance of Greek drivers as meaning that anything goes so long as I was safe, plus I was foolish enough to think that the photo-controlled speed zones were not a real threat until I realized that when I saw the signs indicating they had such devices, these devices actually existed. I sure hope we don't get too many tickets in the mail.
Also, for today's visit of the Mani and tomorrow's visit of Olympia, please read
Rick Steves' Account, it summarizes perfectly what the Pelopponese is all about and most especially the fact that most visitors to Greece stack up on the Greek islands but really
Our Hyundai Accent
You can't see the dents and scratches, but they are there. Drives okay. miss the BEST Greece has to offer. I am not a big fan of Rick's TV shows on PBS but this is a well-written piece.
Prelude to Constantinople
We spent most of our day at Mystras which is near the modern town of Sparta. I am still confused as to the historical Spartans as the modern town is quite large and very ugly, the ugliest city we have seen yet. Mystras was much much more challenging, and incredible, than I had expected. I wasn't sure what I was expecting, I knew it was an important location so I placed it on the itinerary. Turns out Mystras was a major city in Byzantium though it was only 1/16th the size of Thessalonike and 1/64th the size of Constantinople, it still figured importantly, so this was a great precursor to our visit of the Byzantine sites in both Thessalonike and Istanbul. Most of what we saw was from the 12th and 13th centuries AD and were the homes and churches of the citizens of this large double-walled city perched on a rock. We did 265m of vertical climb and were really not prepared to do it.
Mystras is essentially
Mount Mystras
Or so we assumed it is. The change in altitude is abrupt and astonishing in Peloponnisos, not far behind these is the coast. a full-blown Citadel crowned with a Crusader's fortress that includes a number of monasteries including the most intricate, the Periplebtos that has very rare 14th century frescoes.
The Mani Coast
The Mani Coast is pretty incredible, Stoupa is where one should stay, or maybe Limeni. Kardamyli, where our hotel, Anniska, is located is a ways further up and is a bit more crunchy than the hip folks we saw in Stoupa. Stoupa has beaches and Limeni has an awesome bay, Kardamyli's views are not bad though and we had an oceanview patio which was nice.
This is definitely an emerging destination that is identifying itself, maybe trying to replicate what the Amalfi Coast has done. It is beautiful but limited. Near Limeni is a huge castle perched on a rock that we unfortunately did not get to visit. In Stoupa there is also one which we could not see, it would be worthwhile to spend more time there as well in our opinion.
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