Blogs from Nafplion, Pelopennese, Greece, Europe - page 4

DAY 92 SAILING DAY 20 Finally Skipper Dave calls out to us that are still below deck to “get up, we are coming into Athens”. Now we are moving. It is still windy, but warm. We enter the marina and it is full of boats as the weather has been rough. We find a place to moor, freshen up, dress and get off that yacht. We have breakfast at a cafe along the beach and hop on a tram into the center of Athens. Bill comes us us. That being Angie, Francine and Yvonne. Bill was here for nine days prior to sailing so he knows the city well. We get off the tram and walk to the parliament building where there is a small crowding gathering for inspection of the guards. It is not as ... read more

4/25/09 -- Lily and Austin: Over the last couple of days we have looked at some of the sites and history found in the Peloponnese. Olympia was an awesome and sacred place where the Olympics were held every four years. Between those events, no one was allowed to be there. A lot of cleaning up had to be done before each Olympics. In the Olympics back then, the shortest race was one “stade”, the length of one stadium. We both ran two “stades”. -- We also saw the “perfect” beach. It was a sandy crescent moon with waves lapping up a slightly inclined slope of sane. Rock faces were on either end of the beach, one which had the “cave of Nestor” and a castle on top. Lily jumped waves, and broke some. -- Mystras was ... read more

The ruins at Mycenae represents the stuff Greek tragedies are made of. As one version of the legend has king Agamemnon returning from the Trojan war, only to be killed in his bathtub by his wife and her lover. She was angry because he may have had their daughter sacrificed. Hows that for drama. These ruins are older than the acropolis in Athens, the original walls were built around 1300bc. If you have read the "Illiad" or "Odyssey" from the Greek poet Homer (or poets- there are interesting theories about this oldest example of western literature) this is thought to be the site he wrote about. Ancient, mysterious, rubble, and we are fascinated! We drove up to the remains of the citadel Mycenae, from Nafplio. This is a beautiful seaport city. We enjoyed a wine tasting ... read more

You never know who you might run into when traveling. But, to meet up with friends on the little Greek island of Paros would seem to be statistically impossible. They were heading south on the ferry and we were heading north. But, our paths managed to cross on the same day in Paros. It was fun to share dinner and travel stories while making plans for future destinations. The best part of Paros, was our day trip to Antiparos. It is a short 15 minute ferry ride to a very quite and picturesque island. It is so small and quiet that we rented an ATV and did the 12 miles of drivable road to explore the island. Along the way we passed the new house that Tom Hanks just built. At least we think we found ... read more

Player to player games are big here it is 11:30 and (young) people are packed into this internet cafe playing games halo soccer lord of the rings battle for middle earth and smoking blug fashion note: aladdin pants are big on girls here cotton capris that drag down and look like they have a load in their pants also big 80s hair and mullets for the guys and sparkly sandels with lizards with moving parts at ancient archeological sights we went to the ancient sight of Mycene today with two headless lions guarding the entryway and hoards of people once again in the hot hot no shade middle of the day sun health note: i have tonsilitous i went to a ear/nose/throat doctor w/o an appointment and five minutes later had a prescription for antibiotics and ... read more