Our German Year

Sunday, 19 April 2015

Napflio

From Mycenae we continued to Nafplio, where we had another AirBnB apartment. This one was beautiful, newly renovated, and with a washing machine. After a week of travel, we all get very excited about a washing machine. It had been a long day, so we picked up a few groceries at the supermarket around the corner and then walked downtown to look around a bit and go out for pizza at "Scuolio", which was excellent.

On Saturday we visited the Palamidi fortress, and what I liked best were the wildflowers! They were gorgeous, and the fortress is a fun place to explore. It has all sorts of places to climb around and through and under.

Palamidi Fortress

Nafplio waterfront

Flowers at Palamidi Fortress

Palamidi Fortress path

Palamidi Fortress

Palamidi Fortress flowers

Palamidi Fortress cacti

Palamidi Fortress

After lunch we walked around Nafplio, looked around a couple of Greek Orthodox churches, and then had dinner back at our apartment.

Nafplio

Greek Orthodox church

Saturday, 18 April 2015

Mycenae

Between Olympia and Nafplio we took a very scenic drive on the twisting roads through the mountains of the Peloponnese. The mountain villages were beautiful.

The drive actually didn't take quite as long as we expected, so we stopped at Mycenae on our way to Nafplio. Mycenae is much older than the other sites we'd visited - it was at its peak between 1600 and 1200 B.C. It is basically a fortress on a hill. The scale of the walls was amazing - 40 feet high and 20 feet thick. There were also grave circles and an underground cistern to explore.

Lion Gate

Path to the cistern

Mycenae

We visited the Treasury of Atreus, a bit away from the fortress, which was an enormous beehive-shaped structure (filled with, of all things, living bees) that was the burial ground for royalty. It was built into a hillside and is enormous.

entrance to the Treasury of Atreus

Inside the Treasury of Atreus

Olympia

The drive from Delphi to Olympia was stunning, as was the bridge from the mainland to the Peloponnese.

Olympia was another really fun site to visit. There are not a lot of buildings intact there, but enough to get a feel for the size of the place. The marble starting blocks are still in the stadium, so of course Gail and Wayne ran a race, one we're officially calling a tie. We also visited the Olympia archaeological museum, also quite small, but with a model of the site, statues from the pediments of the Temple of Zeus (I loved the portrayal of the battle of the Lapiths and centaurs), and the statue of Hermes. We ate dinner at a "Thea," which had good reviews online; we were unimpressed. Gail summed it up nicely when she said, "I knew I was in trouble when the menu went straight from meat to beer." The town of Olympia seems to exist just for tourists. The shops remind me of those you see in any beach town.

Olympia Palaestra

Olympia Temple of Zeus

Entrance to the Olympic Stadium

On the starting blocks of the Olympic Stadium

For the record, it was a tie

Battle of the Lapiths and Centaurs

Delphi

Wednesday morning we headed west to Delphi. We stopped first at the Sanctuary of Apollo. This was probably my favorite site in Greece. The stadium was amazingly intact. What I liked about this site was that there was enough remaining to really be able to visualize what it was like in ancient Greece. It was also a beautiful day and the views from the site are stunning. After that visit we found our hotel, where we had a balcony with a wonderful view.

Temple of Apollo

Delphi Stadium

After we ate Wayne and I went to the Delphi archaeological museum, where we practically had the place to ourselves. It's a small museum, but with some nice pieces, including the Sphinx of Naxos.

Spinx of Naphos

Athens

We arrived in Athens very late Thursday night/Friday morning. Our flight was not long after the Germanwings crash in France in which the co-pilot allegedly deliberately crashed the plane. Flying Lufthansa (Germanwings' parent company) just a few days later, it was certainly on our minds. Then the pilot comes on with the welcome announcement and says, "Up front we are happy, feeling fine, and looking forward to getting you safely to Athens."

Odeon of Herodes Atticus

We spent our first full day in Greece in the Acropolis, of course! It was an easy walk from our apartment in Plaka (a neighborhood in the center of the city). Seeing something in person that you've seen in hundreds of pictures is always fun. It was a beautiful day; while there were plenty of people around, it wasn't as crowded as I imagine it is in the summertime. First we visited the Odeon of Herodes Atticus (an ancient theater.)

Propylaea (entrance)

Then we walked all around the Acropolis complex and saw the entrance gate (the Propylaea), the Parthenon, the Temple of Athena Nike, the Erechtheion with the porch of the Caryatids, and had a late picnic lunch on Mars Hill, where long ago the Apostle Paul preached to the Athenians.

Visiting the Parthenon

Gail at the Parthenon

Erechtheion

Greek flag flying over the Acropolis

After lunch we went to the Acropolis Museum. We weren't expecting it to be open on a Monday, but we were pleasantly surprised. The museum is a beautiful building, though most of the exhibits require quite a bit of imagination. There are lots of archaeological fragments, though the Caryatids and the models of the Parthenon pediments were my favorite things.

Parthenon Pediment Model - Athena and Poseidon competing for the patronship of Athens

There's no doubt that the Elgin Marbles (currently residing at the British Museum) would be a wonderful addition.

At the Acropolis museum:

me: "We have an hour and a half - what would you most like to see?"

Gail: "The exit."

That evening Wayne and I went out to dinner and I had baked Feta cheese, which was lovely and unlike any feta I've had anywhere else.

On Tuesday we visited the Temple of the Olympian Zeus and Arch of Hadrian, then saw the Theater of Dionysus, which is at the base of the Acropolis. We then caught the subway up to the National Archaeological Museum, which was a wonderful museum full of the art of ancient Greece. It's also a very pleasant building, with a café in a courtyard.

National Archaeological Museum

Temple of Zeus

For dinner we had Greek pies from Ariston. My favorite was definitely the red pepper pie - kind of like spanikopita but with red peppers and onions. After dinner we took a walk to see the Acropolis at night, which was beautiful.

Parthenon at night

And, of course, in our continuing efforts to eat local . . . .

Our new favorite snack food: Oregano Lays!

On our trip back to Athens on our way to Santorini we visited the Temple of Poseidon in Sounio.

And on the very last day, between our flight in from Santorini and our flight out to Frankfurt, I made a solo trip into town to see a few more things . . .