Off to Greece

With a little difficulty in communication I finally manage to purchase ourselves and the camper van tickets for the last ferry of the day. A quick shop for food and we’re on our way - boarding just in time! The trip is long and hot, sleeping in the van is near impossible due to the heat and noise of the engines so armed with a pillow and sheet I enter the communal areas of the ferry in search of somewhere to call my bed. The air conditioned areas enable a more comfortable sleep. Had it not been for the roaming announcer at each stop, I would have slept all of the way.

Patras is the arrival port and first taste of Greece. Having not had much sleep the first impression is not great and my main goal is to head down the west coast. Though Patras does not feel like a big city from first glance (at port) we all feel it is best to get out quick. It is not until I revisit Patra that I really see it for it’s relaxed beauty and trendy water front night life.
The drive down the west coast is relatively boring, not much to look at and quite wind chopped. (I was later told how nice that area of Greece is, funny enough I didn’t think it was that great) Not until I drove much further down the west coast did I start to see some nice beaches. The tour of the Peleponnese lasted a little over two weeks as we circumnavigated the island from west, south, east to north. Venturing inland to visit such famous places as Olympia, Sparta, Nafplio, some less famous places and many totally un heard of towns\villages that were in their own right as interesting and beautiful if not more than the more heard of.
Of all the beaches the biggest mention must go to Kalogria. A less heard of beach but sits right next to Stoupa only just north. Not only being a little more hidden than Stoupa, it boasts a far prettier beach, and better sand. So no wonder the locals from surrounding areas choose to congregate there. The whole road trip of the Peleponnese was relaxed, trouble free I felt as though I were floating down a gentle meandering river, stopping off here and there to take in the surroundings. Of the too many interesting sights to mention, a few do warrant mentioning. One of these was my first Greek ruins.
After following a few dead ends, back tracking a couple of times finally we found our first hidden temple of Athena (something to note in Greece, road signs and maps for town names almost never match up. Spelling changes dramatically in some cases. This makes me wonder if it had anything to do with my inability in finding English satellite navigation maps for Greece) upon arriving at the temple much we find is left up to the imagination. All that is left are the foundations. The rugged country side is dry, harsh and appears to be inhospitable when Dad walks up with something he has found wandering around the alter room. It’s the first sign of life that we have seen in Greece besides the odd fish or bird. A small turtle, small enough to fit in the palm of your hand and almost rough enough with it’s long claws to dig through it.

The next major attraction was not in Sparta but on the out skirts in a town called Mystras. Here lay a once grand and powerful castle being the seat of the Byzantine Empire, perched high on the mountain over looking Mystras with Sparta not so far in the distance. This site had endured for many hundreds of years fighting, ownership and plunder. Until in 1825 all was burnt to the ground for the last time. The plan was to get up there as early as possible but unfortunately we got off to a later than expected start. The morning was hot but lucky for us relatively dry. The castle sits at an altitude of around 620m, the up hill climb probably around 400m which takes about an hour to slowly work your way up the heavily warn in paths while taking in the surrounding architecture and churches. Once at the top it is easy to see how a lot of the time the Castle was surrendered rather than taken.

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