Greece to Sheffield

2nd - 15th December The Peleponnese, Greece

One of the delights of our travels has been meeting lovely people - especially Jana and Daniel, Elias (12) and Anna (8), who were great. They’re having 6 months in Europe, in their converted outside-broadcast van. We shared meals and life-stories (as you do with a wineglass in hand!). As their English is so good, we talked and laughed a lot. Elias’ English is excellent and puts our language skills to shame (NB I MUST LEARN GERMAN). They lent us ‘Life of Brian’ – an interesting balance to the religiosity we’ve seen in Eastern Europe! It was lovely having them as neighbours on the pebble beach and it would be nice to meet up again. Anna’s mobile, made for us from things she’d found on the beach, hangs in our van, as a reminder.

Although we’ve mainly been relaxing here, the odd place has attracted us. This amphitheatre, at Epidavros, is the most intact in Greece and is still used for performances today – the acoustics are amazing. Rick spent ages investigating its design and construction, so I won’t be surprised if we find one in Sheffield one day….

We now know a lot more about olives, thanks to the excellent museum in Sparta – and they’re more interesting and useful than you might think. The process of extracting the oil is very much the same today as 5th C BC, and the machinery looks remarkably similar.

Nafplion, near our beach, was the first capital of modern Greece (and looking at Athens now, I bet its populace thinks it had a close call….). It’s a very attractive place, with narrow streets and a busy harbour.
The Venetian Palamidhi fortress overlooks the city, 899 steps up and 899 steps down. I don’t know which direction of travel was worse! Still, the remains and the panoramic views were worth the leg-ache.

The Byzantine city of Mystras is set in the most beautiful countryside, 2038 ft up – and yes, we walked up, down and round it (Rick did it twice, after mixing up van keys!). It’s amazingly complete, with little alleys, houses, chapels and millions of steps….. In its zenith, it was the centre of Hellenic social and cultural society, only abandoned in 1954, though trying to spot the last occupied house was difficult!




We’ve been on some exciting twisty roads over Peloponnesian mountains, with steep gorges and scary ravines (especially as they have few crash barriers!).


We found snow and ice too - and some low overhangs.....





Sadly, we also saw the effect of the horrendous fires in August; whole hillsides are decimated, leaving charred stumps of olive groves and scorched earth. It was a wretched sight.









We also found a likely plot of land, at the end of an orange grove, overlooking the sea……. we dream on.

We’re now back in Sheffield for Christmas, having left the van in Athens until 9th January. It’s so fabulous to be home, seeing family and friends – and, many thanks to Kathleen and Derek, a bottle of champagne! Mind you, I reckon we’ll need to go back to Greece for a rest…….. Happy Christmas!

Greece

23rd Nov – 1st December - Attica, Greece

Nearly forgot to add these: http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/findthebinghams/3423rdNovTo15thDecGreecePart1

Greece is warm, sunny and very laid-back– hooray! This zooming around Europe is quite exhausting and we now need a holiday.

We found the Meteora - amazing constructions in a equally amazing environment. Between the 11th and 16th Centuries, weird and wonderful monasteries were built on sheer rock pillars, 300m up. We were rather pleased to find there are now steps, given their original access was via long ladders, or even slings pulled up by monks. The chapel frescos are fascinating (although they depict pretty gruesome events relating to the martyrdom of saints) and we were impressed by the multi-monk serving plank (see pic) .

We’ve been shopping in Argos, admired Mount Olympus from afar and tried to interpret the remains of Ancient Corinth - 7 Doric columns from the 6th Century Temple of Apollo, the theatre, odium and a section of stoa.

AcroCorinth, which sits 574m above the town was highly (sorry!) impressive and we walked most of its intact 2km fortified walls.

Rick was fascinated by the Corinth Canal (original idea was Nero’s, but it took ‘til 1893 to get done). Sheer walls are 261ft, with no parapet…..

We’re so pleased we decided to take it easy here – we’re staying in one place and have gentle excursions when we have energy. We’re well settled on a pebbly beach, 20m from the Aegean Sea in a small fishing village called Kiveri, on the East Coast of the Peleponnese . It’s delightful. There’s a water tap and very friendly German neighbours in 3 campervans. The locals stop to chat and one little boy gives us a wave every morning.

It’s so lovely to be surrounded by fresh fruit and veg. The orange, clementine and lemon trees are laden with luscious fruit. We may be the first to get citric poisoning the rate we’re eating them!

Greek hospitality is grand. Within a 24 hour period, a campsite owner was over-hospitable with his ‘chipru’ (i.e Rosi didn’t stop drinking quite soon enough….) and Rick was invited in to a christening in an old church in a cave!. Even the police who arrived at 12.30pm to check up on us were very polite and pleasant (not their normal image apparently).

Mind you, the downside is horrendous town traffic, double/triple parking and mad, mad drivers (Greece has the 2nd highest accident rate in Europe).

Sadly rubbish is everywhere. Imagine the most stunning Greek scenery, overlooking the beautiful coast – then you see the tons of discarded rubble, bottles, furniture, old washing machines…….all the countryside looks a dreadful mess. I can’t bear to put a pic in – you’d be horrified.

Must go and enjoy my ouzo in the sun, listening to the waves and watching the divers catch octopi…it’s a hard life.