Pelloponnese and Crete

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It's argos actually. Napflion is the gold coast of the Peloponnese.

Sunday.
everything is closed for easter. We pick up our car and we decide on the spur of the moment to go to Delphi before the pel. All along the way there are spits roasting whole lambs. In every village there are industrial quantities of these spits. out on the footpath over an open fire. easter is big here. We get to Delphi. It's only when you get to greece that you get some idea of how the landscape and geography shaped the development of civilisation. It literally is mountains with valleys in between. Imagine Newcastle but at Merewether, Kotara, Wallsend and Mayfield is MT Sugarloaf just rising out of the flat. And Mt Sugarloaf is barren with only limestone rocks showing. and there is space between each of the suburbs and they don't run into each other. So in ancient greece each valley would see a city state develop. It is truly the most consistently breathtaking scenery either of us have ever seen. Delphi itself is closed for the holiday. we see the lower half which has no entry fee (or attendant). Ancient Delphi is sited on the side of a mountain. The interesting part (with amphitheatre etc) is closed.
Anyway we get lots of photos. It's unusually cold. i am in shorts and feel like those school teachers who wear shorts and long socks 52 weeks of the year with the only concession to winter being a jumper. I'm sure you all know of one of these.
We arrive in Argos at 5.30pm. Bonapartis, our host, has no knowledge of our booking despite several emails confirming same. He gives us a room. seems it's his son who handles the internet side of the business. it also seems that the internet part of the business doesn't talk to the hotel part.
We ask which is the best restaurant to go to. Restaurant???? There won't be anything open tonight. It's easter sunday!!!

we head to Napflios and find it's open. We find cafe/bar row (every european city has them) and there is a tiny cafe with a lamb on a spit outside. we go in. Have you a table for 2? yes but we are only serving lamb toninght. Lamb will be just fine!!!!!!

That was one of the best meals i have ever had. Roast lamb, greek salad and bread. Fantastic!!!!!

Monday
We head for sparta having decided that Olympia is too far. We have re-acquainted ourselves with Clare the GPS. She heads us off towards.... well it's wrong. so we put in Tripoli and it gets us back on track. Meanwhile it's 10 o clock. This is not going to be a good day. i can tell.
Let me say something in passing about greek drivers.
Firstly they are not as anarchic as Italy or Turkey But they do have their idiosyncracies. The most prominent is the capacity to completely ignore double centre lines. It's like they don't exist. They just overtake. You're in my way. I overtake. In the rain and storms yesterday it was very disconcerting.
Speaking of Anarchists. When we mentioned where we were staying at (will put name in next blog) our friends on the train said oh that's where the anarchists live. When we met Nick the Greek he said the same thing. He was very reassuring: "The anarchists will blow up a car but you won't be in it"Every night in Athens we heard fireworks going off. Well we assume they were fireworks.

We get to Sparta. But sparta doesn't have any ruins. The closest we can find is a MUSEUM OF OLIVE OIL!!!!!!!
the girl at Mr Donut (don't ask) says Oh you mean Mystra. We head to Mystra to the ruins of a Byzantine fortress. Well they're all old aren't they?!!!!!!
We do the fortress which has a nice surprise of a little chapel with wonderful images on the walls and ceilings. And we head home.
The only thing that can save this day from being an absolute disaster would be if we were to see some of the most spectacular scenery in the world. And this is exactly what we saw. We go the back road to Argos and it is breathtaking. We come over the mountains and see the Argolian plain stretched before us with Napflion and the promontery stretched out to our right.
We eat locally and it's cheap and quite nice.

Tuesday
One of the best days of the tour. we head off the Mycenae, the home of Agamemnon. Schliemann ofter he destroyed Troy headed off to Mycenae where he claimed after 10 weeks digging that he had discovered the mask of Agamemnon. He's wrong. Fortunately he leaves and some more painstaking archaeologists come and do the digging.
Mycenae dominates the plain of Argos. It is a natural defensive position. Unlike Athens these walls are not finely hued to a flat surface but are larger and more crude. Mycenae was an absolute highlight. we spent 4 hours there. Liz was ok about the ruins but was really taken with the museum which had a lot of the antiquities.
We lunch in Mykene, the modern village and move on to Tyrins. Tyrins was a contemorary of Mycenae. They are always talked about in the same sentence. This is less preseved. However there seems to be mroe of a sense of a city. perhaps because Mycenae is built in a hill with a crest whereas Tyrins seems to be a flat-topped tor. This is one of the best days of the tour and it's about to get better. We ask Bonapartis' son for a restaurant recommendation. He says Spilia about 5 km down the road. we enter. we're the only customers. He brings us some complimentary wine. It's gronw by the farmer next door. we decline a bottled wine and stick with the (very) local stuff. Boney's son has written down about 5 dishes to choose from. We show this list to the waiter. He nods approvingly. We think he says something like: Leave it to me.
He then goes away and brings out all 5 dishes. Believe me 3 would have been more than adequate. It is one of the best meals i have ever eaten. But it's too much and the waiter is so accommodating that we don't want to disappoint him. we we eat. We are still paying for that night 3 days later.

Wednesday
We farewell Boney (118kg down from 167) and head off to Plataea. Little plataea had the honour along with Athens of fighting at the 3 significant battles of the Persian war: Marathon, Salamis and outside its own city gates at Plataea. Plataea is part of Boetia which in classical times (and today) was dominated by Thebes. But Plataea always aligned itself with Athens. It has one of the noblest histories of any city state in Greece.
We arrive at Platees and it's a major disappointment. There is a generic ARCHAEOLOGICAL RUINS sign and that's it. No signposting of the battle site. I manage to work it out from diagrams i have seen. The citadel istelf is overgrown and in absolute disrepair.
We head off to Marathon. Marathon doesn't have a cafe open. we eat very cold pizza. We look for the beach.
Liz: There is no beach
Barney: Of course there's a beach. The Persians were driven into the sea!!!!
We eventually find the beach. . I take photos. Am very disappointed. we're driving out of town when we take a wrong turn and i see a sign to the Athenians Trophy for the victory at Marathon. I narrowly miss running into a car and we eventually make it to the site. Kalloo Kallay.
We have to get the car back. We need to get to Markopoulo.
What do you reckon the odds are that there would be 2 suburbs named Markopoulo in Athens? About 1000 to 1. WRONG!!
What do you reckon would be the odds of us picking the wrong Markopoulo on the GPS? It should be 2/1 but it's not. We ring the car place. we are at the OTHER Markopoulo. And we have to have the car back in 45 minutes. I drive like a Greek and we get there. we then catch a metro to Pireaus and our ferry. We leave 45 minutes late. we eat on board and settle down for the night. Surprisingly it's not all that rocky.

Thursday
we arrive at Heraklion at 6am. Nothing's open. We see signs to city centre. surely we can get some breakfast there. We walk about a km. No city centre. We make a decision. We will hail a can and go to the hotel. Turns out the hotel is 30 minutes away (said 10 on the internet). 30 Euros later we arrive. The door is locked. We ring. No answer. we find some seats and sit down. About 30 minutes later Krystal, our host turns up. she prepares breakfast and we sleep till lunch time (actually i slept).
We wanter into Agius pellagia. It's a tourist resort. We find the bus stop. One bus 9am or maybe 9.15 or maybe 9.30. At this point we decide to hire a car tomorrow in Heraklion.

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Photos

the view above argos
To the right is Napflion

Beehive tomb
This was all done 1300 BC!!!!!!