Advertisement
Published: December 21st 2022
Edit Blog Post
Ken and I decided to broaden our "living like a local" experiment and head to Tolo Greece. It is on the Peloponnese Peninsula, a kinda quick 2 hours from the Athens airport, and overlooking the Ionian Sea. We are here from Dec 16-Jan 15, after which we move back to the Algarve Portugal. Yes, there is a theme here, sunshine and sea...not a bad thing in the winter!
On Friday, Dec 16 it was an early morning wake up at 230a to make the 6a flight to Athens. It was a frigid 29 degrees which made us quite happy to be heading to 72 degrees in Greece. After a 4 hour plane ride that was delayed, crazy long passport control line in Athens and a 2 hour drive out to the Peloponnese, we arrived at our apartment in Tolo about 5p. The owners had left us a bottle of wine, a bakery box of typical greek cookies, 2 baskets of fresh fuits and vegi's, freshly sqeezed OJ, and a bunch of other supplies. Definitely the best stocked AirBnB we have stayed in. Oh, and then there is the view!! Wowwowwow! The Agean Sea is just beautiful!
We got settled,
then wandered in to explore town and find food. As it is off season a lot of restaurants are closed down, but we found a great little souvlaki place called the Grill House where we enjoyed local food and wine for cheap. It is a small and very family ran, as mom was on the grill, with dad serving and intermittently hoping on his scooter to do a delivery. We stopped past a local taverna on the way back for a nightcap wit the locals sitting outside, then up the steep hill, which helped wear off the dinner.
I woke to a beautiful sunrise over the Sea and Ken got some extra sleep in. Once he started to become human, we walked down the hill for a late breakfast at a coffee shop crowded with locals having coffee and conversation. Then into the little grocery store to pick up some supplies. One of my favorite things when traveling is to check out the grocery stores as even the familiar, is a bit unfamiliar. Lots of fresh vegis on the stands outside and a jumble of foods inside, but we found what we needed.
The afternoon was walking to
the Assini ruins (about 1.5 miles) along the coast and up the to remnants of thousands of years of various occupants. You can see the rocky outcropping in the picture from our deck. Saddest part is during WW2 the Italians used the stones from the ruins to fortify their station there. So, more of those than the actual ruins. More info here...
https://nafplio.gr/.../arxai.../144-2011-06-04-07-23-47.html For the evening we found a little restaurant called Ambrosia, , and as we are typical Americans and eat around 730ish...we were the only ones there, along with the owner (they eat much later here). He was the server and cook, and we had some fabulous fish and some roasted eggplant, which all hit the spot. Then it was back up the steep climb to the apartment, which I predict by the time we leave we will be less winded at the top!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.36s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 10; qc: 52; dbt: 0.1158s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb