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!