Blogs from Pelopennese, Greece, Europe - page 26

Hello everyone: We're actually back home in the U.S. now (it's January 14th), but we didn't have access to the travelblog for days. So, we're creating a few more days of blogposts and adding pictures to our previous posts. Check 'em out! January 7th was our final day in Kalavrita. We overslept and missed the bus trip to the ski lodge, so we had breakfast in town and then walked to areas we had not yet visited. We should give you a little history about Kalavrita, as it will help to explain the places we visited today. Kalavrita is officially 2001 years old, but there were settlers in this area hundreds of years B.C. It is a beautiful and somewhat isolated mountain town, with a history of revolts during oppressive times. Kalavrita is now known as ... read more

UPDATE: added pictures on 14-January. The move to the Domatia was very wise - even though it's more expensive, we had a good night's sleep and a somewhat warm shower. It seems that the hot water supplies are very low, so we'll try to space our showers out to odd times in the day, in hopes of getting a hot shower! The showers we've found in Greece are generally a very small square space maybe about 3 feet square that only rises up a couple of inches, a shower curtain to pull around yourself, and a faucet with a hand-held hose. Mark attended conference events while Lynne took a daytrip with the families of other conference members. The bus took them past the Corinth canal area, but they stayed in the Peloponnese and headed to Epidaurus. ... read more

(FYI: pictures added on 7-January! Updated with smaller-sized but more photos on 14-January.) We arrived safe and sound (and on time) in Athens today. Chartered busses picked us up, along with 120 other conference attendees and families at the Athens airport. They shuttled us to the small ountain town of Kalavrita in the Peloponnese region of Greece. Along the route, we stopped at the Corinth Canal. Emperor Nero began construction of this canal in order to allow ships to pass between the Saronic and Corinthian gulfs. Before the Corinth Canal was finished (final construction was completed between 1882 & 1893), ships wer unloaded on one shore of the isthmus, dragged 4 miles across a paved slipway, and refloated & reloaded on the other side. The canal is about 75 feet wide, which is too narrow for ... read more

The bus ride from Nafplio to Olympia was one of the most incredible and scary experiences of my life - I highly recommend it. We went from Nafplio to Tripoli and then transferred to a bus that we thought was going to take us directly to Olympia. Throughout the whole of the trip we saw some spectacular scenery. We wound our way up and down mountains on narrow roads where one side of us would be sheer cliffs going up and the other side would be drops going several hundred feet down with little clearance for the bus. We saw amazing towns built into the mountains with buildings up and down the cliff face. The roads were so narrow and winding at points I did not think that the bus would make it through. We thought ... read more

Up early to drive to Athens but wanted to get in a visit to Epidauros, principally to see the theatre. Arrived there bright and early and parked up next to a very organised bunch of Austrian bikers - complete with support vehicle (!). The theatre is amazing and photos don’t do it justice - just go! The rest of the site is undoubtedly important but is very ruined and mostly knee high to a not very tall person, I found it difficult to envisage the site as a real centre, but the stadium is worth a look. Headed off along the coast road up to join the motorway, more wonderful local driving was observed - I really need to find out where they get that kit that lets you see over the brow of hills ... read more