yestravel

Day 25 Greece
Monemvasio
Today we had a short drive to our one nighter staying on Monemavasia. Thanks to there being few sites on the way we actually made it in a timely manner for once.
We left behind the twisting narrow mountain roads. It felt weird to drive at sea level on relatively straight roads. It was a fertile valley with tons of orange groves and the ever present olive trees. It was a pleasant drive through a couple unengaging towns and gave us a glimpse into small town living on a Saturday morning in the Peloponnese.
The one site of note was a shipwreck at Valtika Beach. The wreck of Dimiitrios which has been stranded there since 1981. Rumor has it that it was involved in cigarette smuggling between Turkey and Italy, but how it ended up there remains a mystery.

You arrive at Monemvasia and have to park your car either along the road if you are fortunate or over the bridge in a large parking lot. We were fortunate and it was a short walk to our 800 year old villa where we will spend 1 night.

Monemvasia is a Byzantine settlement not unlike Mystras making our knees not happy. We did some exploration for a few hours deciding that hiking to the acropolis would not be for us. We ventured into a small gallery and had a delightful conversation with the owner/ artist. He was coloring individual elements of a larger piece. So far it had taken him 2 months. He permitted me to take a picture of his hands working but no face. We bought a print of an orange tree. The man has patience!

Glad we are staying on the rock and glad we are staying just the one night.

We have stayed in such a variety of places this trip -- all nice and many with quirks. Monemvasia fit right in. Our 800 year old house had 15 steep wooden steps plus 5 more stone steps to get to the downstairs where the DR is and kitchen and unfortunately also the bathroom. I had planned on making breakfast. It was coffee, melon from the farmers markets and hard boiled eggs from another farmers market. All good. The egg cooking was done on an unusual piece of equipment. A toaster oven with burners on the top. Never seen that before. photo below

I had debated whether do just do a day trip at Monemvasia or stay the night. I figured it would be different staying overnight. Its the one place I felt we could have gone on from and not spent the night. Perhaps because it was at the end of our trip and we had seen so much spectacular places, this seemed very nice, but easily a day trip would have worked fine.

The wreck of Dimiitrios which has been stranded there since 1981. Rumor has it that it was involved in cigarette smuggling between Turkey and Italy, but how it ended up there remains a mystery.

walls

Monemvasia

Church way up there

Lots of narrow walkways

Square

View from our place

Felt like New Mexico

Incredible work by this man who allowed me to take only his hands with the picture. We bought one he did of an orange tree.

Next door



Never saw an "oven" quite like this. It worked though


Another view peeking thru a doorway

Not a place you'd want to drag a suitcase any distance.

Nightime was lovely

Walls & castle at night

Alleyway to our 800 year old villa


An early morning walk

An early morning walk

An early morning walk

KarenWoo

Wow!!! Monemvasia looks really interesting, very medieval. Would love to know how the Dimitrios ended up where it is. And your 800-year old villa looks like an interesting and different kind of place to stay. But with all the steps it's probably better as a one-night stay. Your visit with the artist is one of those special moments we all yearn for when traveling. And that toaster oven is certainly weird!

yestravel

Definitely medieval. I do think my view of it is colored by coming at the end of a trip. The house was interesting to say the least. I had booked it in early winter and I think many places had not opened their bookings yet. I grabbed this place meaning to recheck what else there might be closer to our departure. That slipped my mind. Oh well!

yestravel

Greece Days 27, 28 & 29​
The last days of our Greek Odyssey were spent in Nafplion. We have been there before. Nafplion was almost unrecognizable from our first visit 30+ years ago when it was a sleepy town. Today it's bustling with lots of restoration and rehabbing going on. But still it's a delightful town & we were happy to just kick back and enjoy life. Nafplion is the perfect place to do that.
​We arrived on a Sunday afternoon and the town was bustling. We walked around amazed at how different it was. That evening we saw the most spectacular sunset of our trip. KarenWoo mentions the same sunset in her great TR.​

We saw two museums while there. First, ​finally we visited ​​a Folklore Museum. I have been trying to see one this entire trip and they have been close​d​​ for one reason or another. It's small but well worth a visit. I liked it alot.
The second​ museum is The National Gallery. Current exhibit is all about the Greek Revolution. Given the world today I was not inclined to look at the horrors of war. It is free on Mondays and it’s in a lovely neoclassical bldg.

​Mostly we spent our time wandering the alleyways and streets and sitting in cafes at the harbor. ​Often our half-a$$ed efforts to do something were thwarted. It seems that off season, mid week, not everything is up and running. I don't think we really cared.

It had gotten hot and not very comfortable in the sun. What to do? Tired of walking around and seeing the sites such as they are in Nafplio and no interest in sweating at any ruins, we took off for a neighboring village, Tolo, a mere 10 km away, but like a different world. So glad we did this. I loved it! Cool seaside breezes, beautiful scenery with a typical Greek town and a great lunch seaside. To me Tolo appeared to be a family oriented beach town. There were lots of stands with kid stuff and even an arcade. A really nice, little beach town.

We returned to Nafplio and figured we’d drive up to Palamidi fortress. Great views, but ​after all the wonderful ruins we have visited over this last month, we ​didn't feel like paying the 8€ each to walk around & we got lazy. I wonder if you also pay if you climb up the 900+ steps?
We capped off our penultimate night with a wonderful evening with a GTG with KarenWoo & her husband. Such fun to meet up with another fellow traveler and hear about their time in Greece and a little about their life.

Loved the ornamentation on buildings -- this is looking out our hotel room

Getting ready for the big toursit season

The MOST spectacular sunset of the trip. Mentioned by KarenWoo in her TR too.

Peloponnesian Folklore Foundation Museum

I htought weird dolls at Folklore Museum - WDYT?

Bourtizi Castle

Statue outside the War Musuem

Empty streets on our first morning

Time to take heaters down -- it got hot!

Palamidi Castle view from our room

Evening

Nightfall

Nightfall

Tolo

Our happy, friednly restaurant owner in Tolo - every Greek person we met were delightful. So happy to see us.

Lovers in Tolo waters

Beach Tolo

My fav gelato joint


KarenWoo and hub -- so nice to meet them!

travelerjan

What a darling photo of Karen & Spouse... I guess one could say Woo Woo!! (sorry about lame joke!) .. Reminds me of meet-ups through the years, in various fave places, including in Nafplio with the super-smart & beautiful creator of VisitNafplio website! BTW, the great photo of the Clocktower from your hotel was of Acronafplia, not Palamidi... the latter is waaay waay higher. I hope that all of you found the weird "elevator in the rock cliff" access to Acronaafplia ... first time I encouontered it ... walking into a spooky tunnel, modern & deserted, I thought I was in a cheesy sci-fi movie (Beam me up Scotty).

yestravel

Oops! Right you are -- mislabelled the photo. Thanks for the correction! I missed the elevator in the rock cliff on both visits. Where is it? I walked up to the castle and tower one morning. Do tell.

travelerjan

Cant' believe you missed the elevator! Did you not have a guidebook? Here's a gooogle 3-d map of Nafpllio... https://tinyurl.com/4ytck26x --see the curvy ramp at left that lleads up to a small "High Circle" (square) with parking - see where there's a hotel something suites? just to left of this are 2 parked cars right by cliff face and right in FRONT of those is this spooky entryway - https://tinyurl.com/5y43pea6 for the eerie tunnel to the elavators, click on this -- https://gruntiestravels.com/things-t...do-in-nafplio/ and scroll down t o Acronaplia Castle -- "gruntie" also thought the setting "a bit futuristic in a 70s b movie kind of way."

TPAYT

Just came upon your post. I’ve got Greece on my bucket list and you have made it come alive.

Love all the photos, and yes I want to be there!

Time is running short so I better get planning.

yestravel

Lots to choose from in Greece. If you want fewer tourists and something different from the islands, check out the Peloponnese.






jan- nope, my guidebook, Bradt Peloponnese does not mention the elevator. Overall we found it a very good guidebook. Would have been cool to see the elevator, but it was a nice early am walk up to the tower and Castle.

KarenWoo

Yestravel, I love your photos of Nafplio, especially the evening photos and the sunset photo. In fact, I like your sunset photo better than ours. Tolo looks lovely. And we did not walk up to Acronafplia, so we did not see the mysterious elevator in the cliff!

yestravel

Thanks! My fav sunset shot from that Sunday. I think the secret elevator was down the opposite end of where I walked up. It was a very nice walk with interesting streets & great views.

yestravel

Our 29 glorious days in Greece have come to an end. We left Nafplion and drove to the little beach town of Artemis,about 15 minutes from the airport where we spent the night. The only stop we made was at the Ancient Theater at Epidavros, about 30km from Nafplion. This was the only ruin we had seen in the area on a previous trip that I wanted to see again. Just as spectacular as I remembered it.

As I have said throughout this TR, I highly recommend getting off the beaten path some in Greece. I loved NW Greece and the Peloponnese. The Peloponnese is relatively small so its easy to do day trips from a couple locales if you wanted to do that. Thanks to those of you who followed along. Always happy to answer any questions.

Bye bye Nafplion - Palamidi

Epidavaros

Artemis - nice place to stay overnight before a flight

A deserted island-Artemis

Artemis

Artemis

Artemis

Artemis

Last glimpse of the sea shrouded in fog or perhaps pollution from Athens

travelerjan

That little town Artemis looks like a winner, for last night before AM flight. Your itinerary said "Seasabelle" -- was that a Hotel name?

yestravel

Yes, Seasabelle is the name of the hotel. It was fine -- Restaurant for breakfast was overpriced. Be aware that we booked it back in winter and got a good rate. It might be higher these days as everything seems to be. I looked at all the little towns within ~20 minutes of the airport and Seasabelle seemed to a nice hotel and the little town was ok.
https://www.seasabellehotel.gr/

tripplanner001

Palamidi Fortress looks like a fun hike. I bet the views are pretty good too.

yestravel

Indeed -- a great view. I'm not sure I would call it a hike exactly. From what I have read its a walk up of ~900 steps. Similar to the walk up the Washington Monument before they closed it. Views in Greece are nothing short of spectacular.

travelerjan

Actually, those 900+ PAlamidi steps did not provide invincibility to enemies... both the Turks and the Nazis decided to invade from the LAND route! Of course today hardy tourists with strong legs/wind can test themselves with the climb ... but the view is just as good when you get to the FOrtress the back way, via taxi, car or "happy train" (local jeep choo-choo that may operate in summer). I myself, the first time, and solo, taxiied up, took the requisite photos, and then clambered DOWN the steps. On subsesquent visits, with newbie travelling companions, I developed a strategy that worked well for young famllies with a car/taxi : -- the whole group drive up to entry, all enter, enjoy views, & exploring. Then ONE parent goes with kids down the step, while the other drives/taxis to bottotm of fortress where there's a lovely shady taverna by a waterfall. There one can have a coffee & read the Guardian until the family arrives at end of steps,happy & thirsty.

yestravel

Sounds like a good approach for lots of people.