Interesting sights – Page 6 – Judy and Valerie On the Road

Baiona Galicia

Pretty little town with a castle and a replica of the Pinta in the harbour – the first ship that returned from the ‘New World’ bringing news of the West Indies. It’s so small!!

Today we visited Delphi. Unusually for us we managed to get off early to catch the local bus and be the first at the gates when they opened at 8am and for a short period we pretty much had the whole site to ourselves, which was wonderful. Definitely recommend the early start as it gets hot very quickly and the coach tours arrive. The site is absolutely amazing and the position and views are spectacular.

Wall holding up the temple to Apollo. Each stone has been individually cut to fit exactly with those around it

Looking down on the amphitheater, Apollo’s temple and across the valley

The on-site museum has a fantastic amount of material recovered from the site.

The Sphinx- was seated on the top of a column 12.5 metres high

Miniature bronze figures – episode from the Argonaut’s expedition – very tiny and superb

The Charioteer was covered and hidden as a result of an earthquake and so didn’t get looted but was found pretty much intact during the excavations.

Mycenae

What an amazing place. It’s 3500 years old built on a massive hill with walls several metres thick. Here’s the Lion Gate entrance.

The excavations discovered these ‘beehive’ tombs with shafts going into the ground and a conical roof. This one is the tomb of Clymenestra surrounded by all sorts of beautiful artefacts. She murdered her husband Agamemnon then she and her lover were then killed by her two children.

Evidently the potters wheel was introduced in the 3rd millennium changing the nature of pottery and some of the pieces in the museum are wonderful.

(As an aside the owners of campsite where we’re now staying at Delphi who also produce olive oil have very old olive trees which they say are 3,000 years old!!!! )

Monemvasia

An extraordinary place well worth a visit. There are Byzantine ruins on the top of the rock and a very beautiful town on the south side which has no vehicles. It’s composed of narrow winding streets and lots of steps going up up up. The countryside around is full of olive trees producing delicious olive oil.

Found a little Gem near Stoupa

Spending a few days in the campsite at Stoupa ( the only campsite down this coast – fortunately it’s fine) and went for a walk in the hills today. In the village of Kastania found an amazingly beautiful 1000 year old Byzantine church – Agios Petros.

And inside it was stunning. The first amazing thing was that it was unlocked and then it was covered in beautiful frescos!

It’s amazing to realise that this is how all these churches would have been

Byzantine Mystras

As we travel around I continually realise how little I know about so many things. We’ve just spent a day in Mystras an amazing ruined Byzantine city with a castle perched on top of a hill. Know about the Byzantine empire? Well I didn’t.

A very quick history lesson – whilst the western Roman Empire came to an end in AD476 when the last emperor of Rome was executed, the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantine Empire) continued until AD1204. It started when the Roman emperor Constantine I founded Constantinople (Istanbul) in AD330. The Byzantines made Mystras into their second city and this was maintained into the 15th century even though the knights of the Fourth Crusade and other Franks (any foreigner from NW Europe) had sacked Constantinople and taken over part of the Peloponnese.

The churches in Mystras and throughout this area of the Peloponnese have a very distinctive style and architecture, and internally and are filled with amazing frescos.

We stayed in a nearby campsite called Castle View and walked to the old Mystra site. There are two entrances and I recommend entering at the top ‘Fortress’ entrance as then you walk slowly down. If you entered at the Main entrance you’d have to walk up and would probably run out of legs before getting to the castle. It is a fantastic site and we spent the whole day there wandering around looking at the castle, houses, churches etc

Photos

(if you click on a photo in the gallery it will open in its own page)

Mystras photos

Sorrento

When visiting Pompeii we decided not to stay at the campsite at the entrance (the reviews had put us off) but instead stayed at a campsite in Sorrento called Santa Fortunata. Beautiful views over the bay and the campsite itself was very leafy with terraces. It was good for a few nights. Very easy to get to Pompeii – a bus to Sorrento station and then a train, all for €2.80.