Blogs from Pelopennese, Greece, Europe - page 5

Not our first trip, and not our last. Greece the country that just keeps giving. Every time we go we visit another area and we are never disappointed. As we enjoy slow travel we don't try and see everything and we mostly pick just one area or one city but we never have enough time and there is always at least one place that we would like to stay longer in but can't and other places that we never reach at all. Lucky with the weather again at the end of October, actually a bit too hot for me, this time we visited the Peloponnese. We started in Athens and drove via the Corinth Canal to Nafplio. As it is only 2 hours from Athens, it is a popular tourist destination all year round. The historic ... read more

There's only one panoramic photo at the start of the blog but there are more photos below the text if you want to skip the diary details; and if you double click on any of the photos you will get an enlarged, clearer image. You can return to the text anytime. Thursday 13th June: a big drive for a short rail journey? Strange as it seems that's what we planned to do as there's a railway from Diakofto on the Gulf of Corinth to a ski resort called Kalavryta up in the mountains behind Diakofto. Also, we both fancied taking a look at the Corinth Canal which cuts across the narrow isthmus that connects the Peloponnese with the rest of mainland Greece; which was just off the fast route to Diakofto. So we set off quite ... read more

Only one panoramic photo this time so don't wait for it to change. Also, there are more photos below the text if you want to skip the diary details; and if you double click on any of the photos you will get an enlarged, clearer image. You can return to the text anytime. Friday 7 June: the first big expedition, to the Northern Peloponnese to look at the great theatre at Epidaurus and Mycenae, home of Agamemnon of Iliad fame. Initially the drive was easy as we zoomed north 120kms / 75 miles up the brand new motorway from Kalamata to the turn-off for Epidaurus. The motorway had slightly more traffic than on our previous experience, coming back from Sparti, but it was still quite normal to see for 1 or 2 miles ahead completely traffic ... read more

Reminder: the panoramic photos at the start of the blog change every 7/8 seconds and give a larger and clearer image than when viewed with the other photos. Also, there are more photos below the text if you want to skip the diary details; and if you double click on any of the photos you will get an enlarged, clearer image. You can return to the text anytime. Sunday 2 June: after a very early (7.30am) and surprisingly comfortable flight from Birmingham we arrived in Kalamata at 1pm local time. It's a small terminal at Kalamata Airport and they were handling just one plane at a time. So we breezed through Immigration and Customs and, as the Hertz desk was next to the exit from Customs, we were on our way quickly and efficiently. Our hotel ... read more

When I was growing up, my sister owned a world atlas that displayed places of interest around the world. I'd always had a predilection for maps and seeing all these famous names on this one was a source of dreamy inspiration, triggering a wanderlust that remains to this day. Growing up in New Zealand, everything seemed so far away, so the thought of visiting all of these places one day aroused a sense of wonderment when I was a young teenager. Well, you could definitely say that that atlas was one of the inspirations behind by travels and it would in fact, go on to inform most of the travel plans that I eventually made. On the map of Greece, I was drawn to the Peleponnese, a massive chunk of a peninsula that makes up the ... read more