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Published: April 24th 2016
Welcome coffee
at the Nefeles Hotel (before the rest of the food arrived)The allocation of a week to the Pelopennese was really a matter of splitting up the time we have between the mainland and the islands. One week is really not enough to properly check out all of the ancient sites in a part of the world so rich in recorded history. But one week it was to be if we were to give ourselves time to visit a couple of the islands.
I suppose it was really me being lazy but we had in mind joining a tour if we could find one that genrally met our needs. There are a lot of options.You can join tours on large buses that transport you to the various sites quickly and efficiently. Most of those will have a guide. The tours seem to be 3, 5, 7 or 9 days. The difference seems to be that they visit more sites and more cities the longer they last. There are also self drive arrangements where you settle on an itinerary and and the agent sorts out a vehicle, accommodation and a route map. We had a look at some options and weren't overwhelmed with enthusiasm.
For us there were a number of
Arachova Viotias
At one end of what is quite an old town. Viotias - sometimes spelt something like beo... - is the local government area (and name of the early tribe) which distinguishes it from the other Arachovas. The main confusion on maps seems to stem from variations in transcriptions. factors for consideration:
• we are interested in the history of the place and wanted to visit some of the museums and archaealogical sites and we knew, from long experience, that after we had been to a reasonable number we would start to find them less compelling;
• our interest in any country is as much about seeing how things are done, looking at the landscape, eating the food and socialising as it is looking at tourist sites;
• time and value for money are always relevant;
• we have always coped well on the tours that we have joined in the past and will do so again but having your time organised fairly closely – as is necessary when there needs to be cooperation among a large-ish number of people – can remove the flexibility that makes travel enjoyable;
• one of the areas we wanted to drive through was Sparta. Unfortunately, there is very little of historiecal interest to see there, although the people who lived there a couple of thousand years ago had a dramatic effect on the history of Greece. But I still wanted to drive just to see what it actually looked and felt like.
There
Breakfast at Nefeles
We ventured beyond yoghurt and muesli that morning. was one deal that we looked at seriously. With it we would have had a car and 6 nights accommodation, a route and a map. Then we realised that we would pay roughly twice as much just to have someone make bookings for us and rent a car. So we did what we normally do and sorted it out ourselves.
Central to our decision to do it ourselves was whether we were prepared to drive.in Greece. It is a while since I have driven on the 'wrong' side of the road and the drivers we watched in Athens seemed quick, pretty aggressive and with a relaxed relationship with the road rules. There was also plenty of traffic about. I wasn't particularly looking forward to joining in the fun.
The plan we arrived at was to pick up a rental car but from the Athens Internationa Airport rather than in Athens proper. It would cost a tad more but it would mean that we would drive away from the airport on a major freeway and miss the Athens traffic. The route that we had provisionally agreed on would take us roughly a 1000 kilometres in easy stages over 7
Through the dust storm
View from Arachova down to Delphi obscured by dust from the Sahara, we were told. And a strange cloud looking ready to settle in the valley. days, although we had to omit some of the popular tourist destinations.
The rental we picked up was a VW Polo from Budget. This wasn't from the smallest class of vehicles available and was certainly well capable of dealing with the 2 of us and our luggage. I will admit some surprise at the condition of the car. It had more little bumps and scratches on it than I have ever seen on a rental car. Nothing substantial, nothing that affected its capacity to do the job but everywhere you looked there was something. We dutifully ensured that the inspection carried out by the staff had picked up all of the scratches etc. We found a few more and pointed them out. It also had a smidgin under 100,000 km on the clock and, when I fired it up, it you could hear every hard kilometre.
Delphi was our first port of call and, yes, we are aware it isn't in the actual Pelopennese but more on the way. The nearest village of some size is Arachova and there were excellent reviews of a number of the accommodation establishments there so that made sense as a place to
stay. Unfortunately, when you put Arachova into the GPS that came with the rental car, 4 Arachovas came up. We had neglected to organise a decent map that would allow us to work out which of the Arachovas – which apparently means place of many walnuts possibly in Turkish – we wanted. Google helped, and with the Greek sim we had purchased, we could access a good map. The little difficulty there was that Google Maps on the phone was just that touch slow to be a really good navigator.
The Arachova that is about 8 km from Delphi is a lovely little village that is probably better known as a winter place than for accommodation for Delphi. Our accommodation was a bit over a kilometre outside the village, on the side of the mountain and with spectacular views. The hosts of the Nefeles Hotel, Lena and Panagiotis, welcomed us as you might a member of the family. They have clearly been running this establishment for many years but we were greeted as if we were honoured guests whose every need was their concern. We had to immediately sit down and have a cup of tea or coffee with
excellent pastries and biscuits The rooms were excellent and the breakfast – in the price – was one of the memorable ones. You tend to get looked after pretty well in most places but the Nefeles is definitely up there with the best.
The town is worth a look. It doesn't take long. The main street is probably a couple of kilometres long and the businesses are spread out along this street. We found a little souvlaki place for dinner that had just 4 tables but where the husband and wife running it were doing a roaring trade in takeaways for the town. The food we had there still retains the position as the best souvlaki I have had in Greece.
A downside for us on the afternoon we arrived was what we led to understand was the the residue of a Saharan dust storm carried by strong winds straight up the valley we were sitting in. You couldn't really smell the dust but the heavy haze in the air was as bad as Athens had been.
Delphi is also well worth a stop and a good look. The museum is very well presented with information provided
Amphitheatre and temple of Apollo, Delphi
Taken from the stadium - a good walk further up the mountain in Greek, English and German (as I recall) that is very useful. We had clearly timed it reasonably well and weren't overcome by large tour groups with guides who provide a great deal of information (rarely in English) while standing in front of the most impressive objects. There were, however, plenty of school groups there for some education and a lot of fun.
The site is one of the better ones to walk around although there hasn't been a great deal of restoration. There is a fair bit of climbing to make it up to the amphitheatre and to pick up the best view of the site and the valley but it would be possible to see some good areas without the full climb.
From Delphi it was on to Olympia, which is actually in the Pelopennese. Again we could find it on Google Maps but the GPS had no idea what we were looking for. All of the alternatives we could think of, nothing. We settled on a place that wasn't too far away and put that into the machine, all the while heaping abuse on the machine.
One of the things we had agreed on
Old Mine in Pilos area
On the shores of a pretty little bay was that we weren't terribly interested in spending time in Greek cities. Not that there is anything particularly wrong with them, just that we had spent our time in Athens and that had done us for the moment. That plan came to grief with a little orange light that appeared on the dash of our car. It didn't look to be anything serious but was warning of something. Not brakes, fuel, electrics, oil or heating but something. There was no book in the car so we had a good look over the car and, for the first time ever, rang the number for advice or assistance. It wasn't possible for them to diagnose the issue on the phone so they said that they would call us back.
As we were about to turn onto the very long bridge across to the Pelopennese we received a call asking us to go to Patra, or Patras, as it is often spelt in roman letters. This is a large city, or at least it felt that way as we toured the back streets, and occasional larger streets, seeking the Avis/Budget office. After an inspection of our car (parked in a spot reserved
Bridge to Pelopennese
You can see glimpses of the longest fully-suspended multistayed span bridge in the world (2880m) for a while before you actually get to it. Toll for a car is 13.20 Euro. for the Greek Navy, we found out when we were told to move), it turned out it was what we had thought – a warning light, probably something to do with the lights but not really clear what. Nothing to worry about though. And it went off, then came back on and went off and came on … for no apparent reason. We had no intention of driving at night on this trip so we ignored it.
We found Olympia primarily by following the signs and intermittent GoogleMap directions. The GPS never did locate what turned out to be a relatively recently built town. It has a good number of hotels, tavernas and restaurants, along with the shops you would expect to service tourists.
Again, the museum at Olympia was of a high standard with interesting material and very good interpretative information. We had been immersed in the history of Olympia a little earlier, having watched a video that automatically comes on when the TV in our hotel room is switched on. It was a good, well-produced program and we watched it with interest. Possibly could have been a littler shorter but we enjoyed it.
At the
Rio-Antirrio Bridge (what we were calling the Patra bridge)
is about 13km from Patra and there is a new expressway that allows you to bypass the city, and makes it a little more difficult to get to the city if you miss the Port exit. museum we did have to contend with a lecturer/guide who was shepherding a quite large number of young people, perhaps students, around the key areas of the facility. He appeared to be providing a very full analysis of the material and they all listened respectfully, thus the lecturer/student conclusion. He could also made the most of his very loud voice and we did our best to stay well away.
The site itself is extensive and is easy to move around, without substantial hills to climb. Excavation has been underway for many years but not necessarily at a great pace. You are able to gain some idea of how it may have operated, especially during the period of the development of the original Olympic Games. The various temples are less well defined and, of course, the statue of Zeus that was one of the wonders of the ancient world is no longer in existence. On this occasion it was one of the Eastern Christian emperors who carried it away in pieces, only for it to be burnt in a big fire in Constantinople years later.
For us a highlight of Olympia occurred while we were having a slightly better
Checking out more old rock
This time columns in Ancient Olympia than average meal in a restaurant at night. The restaurant operated on both sides of the street and the wait staff were clearly less than happy with the traffic that persisted in using said street. Later a car arrived and pulled up smack in the middle of the intersection with its lights on, pointing directly into our part of the restaurant. No problem except that we couldn't see what was going on. One of the staff walked over to the car and then left and resumed his duties. The traffic on both streets coming into the intersection took this impromptu traffic island into its stride. No horn blowing, no gesticulation and clear adherence to the rules relating to the negotiation of traffic islands. After about 20 minutes a substantial takeaway order was delivered to the impromptu traffic island and the police car then left.
There isn't a lot to recommend Olympia other than the archaealogical site and museum but there is one thing you shouldn't miss if you are visiting here. The Archimedes Museum in the main street is a small establishment on two floors of a building. It aims to show the contribution that the ancient Greeks made
Original Olympic Oval
Spectators (no slaves or women - apart from one priestess - allowed) sat on the grassy slopes around the oval. to science, architecture, design and engineering. Archimedes recieves most of the attention. The models of his designs are very well done with understandable explanations. The exhibition travels and has been to Melbourne but this appears to be its home. Well worth a visit. They ask for a donation for entry. Your donation will be a lot larger if you provide it on the way out than on the way in.
There are many other sites around on the way south from Olympia but we passed them by. We headed down to Stoupa, a small village (in Greek, not Australian, terms) on the coast towards the southernmost tip of Greece. We planned to spend just one night in Stoupa and the moment we arrived that felt like a mistake.
Driving down the coast we were being given glimpses of beautiful places on the way. Every hairpin we negotiated threw up another. There are now flights from the UK straight into Kalamata. We didn't stop there but it gave the impression of being a town that takes a little more care than some to be easy for tourists and travellers. Stoupa is all about visitors, whether they be tourists, holiday
Animal votives Olympia
Hundreds of little clay and stone animals collected from the various temples in Olympia. makers or people looking for the sun.
Our apartment was very well located above a beach with 4 tavernas within very easy walking distance and any number of tavernas and restaurants in the main part of town about 15 minutes walk away. Our neighbours in the complex (5 apartments) were a couple from London who were on a week's holiday. Lovely people and we enjoyed a very good dinner with them that night in a very good and surprisingly well priced restaurant that had been there since Stoupa was a small fishing village.
The trip through the mountains to the other side of the peninsula involved the same high mountains and hairpin bends as we had become used to on the way down but, once we made it through the short cut that the GPS found for us, the road opened up and it was very easy up to Sparti. As others had advised, there wasn't much to show for the powerful history of Sparta but it was good to drive through and speculate on the challenges they faced.
Napflion (or Nafplio or Naufplion, depending on which sign you read) is on the coast a couple of
hours drive from Athens. It had been allocated two nights, partly because it was close to Mycenae and to Corinth and was a good place to stay. There are some ruins around Napflion but nothing special. Again the museum was of a good standard and we enjoyed spending some time there. We gave the Military museum a miss and there is also a folklore museum which we considered but didn't get to.
The lasting impression of Napflio will be of hordes of schoolchildren on day trips, an old city that has been scrubbed up to be worth wandering through and a place where it is very difficult to drive and to find a place to park. When we arrived our GPS told us that we could get to our pension in the old city. We believed it, for a while. We didn't go up any one way streets the wrong way and I would only drive into a street that had cars in it but we still made it to a point where we had 5 people assisting me to extricate the car from a place where there were stairs ahead of us at the end of a one
At the Museum of Ancient Greek Technology
A strong, silent type towering over Mario (the very enthustistic and knowledgeable attendant) and David way street. Eventually, one bloke came over to me and told me to ignore everyone else, just watch him. He gets in and out of here every day. I did and we made it out without knocking over any of the motorbikes, hitting any of the cars, crushing the dog dishes or driving over any people. Took a while. Then I drove out of the area and we walked into the pension.
There were more than enough restaurants, coffee shops and cafes and all that we tried provided us with good food. As the season develops and school holidays arrive Napflio can be expected to fill up. We stayed in a pension in the old city that, décor aside, you might describe as luxurious for a good price.
On the run up to Athens we passed the Mycenaen ruins and gave them a miss. We had reached the point where we had seen enough for this trip and were on our way to the islands.
The drive was just over 1000 kms. We spent about 90 euros on fuel and had a very enjoyable time.
One last point for anyone using a rental car that they
Robot that pours your wine
Invented by Philon of Byzantium 3rd Centry BC. One of the displays at the Archimedes Museum need to drop off at the Airport with a full tank of fuel. You can ignore all of the advice about exits 17 and 18 or of trying to find the supposed service station near Parkaris. Just drive down the expressway to the aiport, the A7 I think it is, and there is a Shell service station near a large Ikea store just after the Air Cargo exit. It is on the opposite side from the entry to the airport proper so, depending on the direction you are coming from, you might need to switch sides on the expressway. Easy enough to do on the overpass. Oh, and the entry to the rental return is a very tight turn straight off the main road. Easy to miss.
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Sarah
non-member comment
Looks like you're having fun! How is it you always end up at the end of one way streets though? You should stop yelling at your GPS and maybe it'll stop trying to get revenge.