Stayed at the campsite at Stoupa for a week and went on some great walks and a good bike ride. The countryside is fantastic for hiking but you have to watch out for paths on the map that disappear on the ground!
The site of ancient Messini was the former capital of the area founded in 371BC. It is north west of Kalamata in a beautiful location with a well preserved stadium and amphitheatre. It is not so well known as some of the other sites and had very few people. There is a small museum with several statues. Well worth visiting.
We travelled on the Anek Superfast ferry which from Venice took a long time – 32 hours. But it was a pleasant trip and as Anek is a Cretean company all the food was from Crete and surprisingly delicious.
The ferry was of course late and didn’t get to Patras until 1am. We’d decided to go to a campsite 30 minutes away rather than stay by the roadside and the man at Camping Kato Alissos couldn’t have been more helpful staying up until 2am to let us in!
There’s nothing tastes quite like Greek olive oil. We usually bring back a 5 litre can from wherever we go Spain, Italy etc but this time we got into olive oil in a big way. I’ve been reading about and starting to follow the Mediterranean and particularly the Cretan diet in which olive oil plays a big role. Everywhere in the Peloponnese people produce their own olive oil every year and use it liberally on just about everything!
I think the the best we tasted came from a lady who had a little shop that sold bits and pieces in the ‘top’ road in Methoni. Unfortunately by the time we used it we’d left so couldn’t get any more, but another year I’d buy straight from her.
Just signs for olive oil at the side of the road and it’s all delicious. So now we’ve got cans and bottles in every storage area and just have to find room for some wine.
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.
The on-site museum has a fantastic amount of material recovered from the site.
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.
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!!!! )
Especially for Bego
In a delightful restaurant in Napflio.
And then mixed green In the taverna at the tiny hamlet of Fokiano where we stayed on the beach
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.
A wonderful walk to the second most southerly point of mainland Europe. Parked the van on a lay by and set off following our walking book. A good day for walking – a bit cloudy. We set off early to do the walk in the morning and then drive on to Monemvasia in the afternoon (more of that in another post).
Staying at a Camperstop- the car park of a taverna in a little cove, right on the beach. Here’s the view from the van
