Greece is not only all-inclusive hotels and sandy beaches. This country has thousands years history, and in May 2023 we decided to take a trip to Peloponnese. We spent a couple of days in Athens, rented a car… and enjoyed the trip!
🛳️ Our first stop – Corinth Canal – guess who started building this canal – of course these were guys from the Roman Empire, but it was finished only in the 19th century by the French. The canal is only 23 meters wide, and in 2019 a huge cruise ship barely passed it with 1200 passengers on the board. Right now the canal is mostly used for the small tourist boats
🏺Next – Sparta
This place is a legend, but sadly enough – there’s almost nothing left from ancient Sparta. It’s a very tiny city surrounded by the mountains, local people are quite friendly, and tourists are a rare find there. The only interesting thing left in the town is the bronze statue of Leonidas next to the local stadium.
Tips: Great local food in Restaurant Tsipouradio o Peninda
⛰️Mystras
Beautiful ruins of Mystras lie not far from Sparta. The fortress was built in 1249 by Franks, it served as the capital of the Byzantine Despotate of the Morea in the 14th and 15th centuries, and in the end, it fell in 1825 under the Turkish rule. Since that time the fortress has been falling apart, but there were some restorations made in the 1950s. Mostly, Mystras consists of well preserved ruins, but you can find a couple of Byzantian churches and a monastery which is still inhabited by the nuns and a couple of cats.
The mountains around Mystras are great for hiking. We left our car at the parking lot down in the village and hiked all the way up through the beautiful forest
🐕Leonidio
On the way to this village there’s a beautiful monastery carved in the mountains (Elonas monastery). We left our car a couple of kilometers from the monastery and decided to make our way there by hiking through the mountains. The whole hike reminded Alps, and we even saw a couple hiking with a small kid. We hitchhiked back to our car with a nice German couple (who naively thought that all Siberian people look like Lena: light skin, green eyes and freckles)
Leonidio is very calm and surrounded by beautiful mountains. It’s well known by mountain climbers and we even saw a group of young guys climbing next to the monastery.
Tips: In the village there’s a tiny dog shelter, you can take the dogs for a walk (that’s what we did, it was great fun!)
📜Ancient Mycenae – is a home of legendary Agamemnon and it’s around 3000 years old! Mycenae was one of the major centres of Greek civilization, but it was just a legend until 1870s when the amateur archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann discovered first Troy, and then Mycenae. You enter Agamemnon’s fortress through the Lion gate – massive construction of stone blocks with the 2 lions on top. Walking in the ancient Mycenae gives a weird feeling – it’s very difficult to imagine that the remained ruins are thousands and thousands years old. It’s also worth to visit the Ancient Mycenae Museum at the site.
Tips: Wear comfortable shoes, because you’ll do a lot of walking at this archeological site.
🌊Nafplio is a very beautiful town next to the sea with Italian vibes – colourful houses with red roofs, tiny streets and a smell of good food. It’s a very popular destination among Athenian people and it’s worth to visit.
Tips: Walk down a 3km sea side path starting from the car park next to Katharona beach.
Food and drinks: Pidalio tavern, bar Mavros Gatos.
🎭Ancient Theatre of Epidaurus
It was built in the 4th century BC and it’s a best-preserved Ancient Greek structure. It has an amazing acoustic – whatever you say down on the stage, people can still hear you eve on the upper seats (we tried, it really works!)
