following the ancient Greeks

---

Once you get past the idea that Greece is always warm and sunny, winter travel in the Pelponese is great==no crowds, local folks just going about their business of farming, fishing, goatherding. Olives, oranges and lemons are ripe literally for the picking, and early spring flowers are out. Opening hours are short, with many places closing at 3pm for the day. We met very few tour groups, almost all European student study tours with one high school group rather improbably from Buffalo NY. Many coastal places are shut for the season. Old Epidaraus grows from a winter population of 2000 to 5 times that in summer. I was stunned by ancient Mycenea, a major civilization in the 13th-15th century BC. We had seen some of its most amazing finds in Athens, including exquisite pottery and gold work. I was awed by standing in the athletes entrance to the original Olympic stadium, where city states agreed to a truce for the length of the games every 4 years. We made the climb to the Delphic oracle. And I undersood very clearly the strategic and trade importance of classic Corinth when I stood on its acropolis with an outstanding and clear view of both the Ionian and Agean seas. Because Greek Corinth was leveled by an invader, abandoned and rebuilt by Romans, most of the ruins are Roman. Move to Byzantine times, Mystra is a city, religious site and fortress on a steep cliff. Every site has several layers of history, and every site has 2 stories, the mythological and the historical, and both appear equally important. Pictures some other time!

---

Photos

Delphi
the fissure in the mountain through which the oracle of Delphi expressed itself