Monthly Archives: May 2018

It was time to wrap up our tour of Greece. We visited two museums that we missed earlier this month, mostly because they were pretty far down the list of must-see tourist attractions, through no fault of their own.

And not in a bad way. We feel that we have done our best by Greece in the last month. Our explorations have taken us to the big cities, the small towns, the major archaeological sites, the most comprehensive museums, and a perfect sampling of idyllic coastal villages. No wonder we’re tired.

We hesitated to draw hard and fast conclusions from our day at the beach yesterday, and another lovely meal in Hydra Town. 

Yes, I know that somewhere out there someone had a terrible commute today (except in the US where it’s a holiday) and also it’s raining and then there’s a full day of work ahead, followed by four more days before the weekend. I couldn’t help feeling sorry for that person as I contemplated the MondayContinue reading “Monday, Monday”

Or at least our luggage did. We are on the island of Hydra, where there are no cars or motorbikes. Want to get your luggage to your hotel? Rent a donkey or two and then follow the poor things up the hills and around the corners. The donkey master kept trying to encourage me toContinue reading “We travel first-class”

Who are we to say that some huge superhuman species didn’t roam the earth in 1500 BC? Homer thought so 700 years later, which is how he explained the construction of the Mycenaean fortress of Tiryns, very near to our town of Nafplio.

Back in Mycenaean times, if you were in need of some healing – and perhaps a spa holiday at the same time – you would have gotten yourself to Epidavros. There, priests acting on behalf of Asklepios, the god of medicine, would tend to your ills. It was sort of a combination of Lourdes, CanyonContinue reading “The Lourdes of Greece”

According to Homer, Mycenae was the citadel of Agamemnon, who summoned the lesser Greek kings, along with 1200 ships and thousands of men, to wage war on Troy and rescue Helen, the kidnapped wife of King Menelaus of Sparta, Agamemnon’s brother. (Yes, hers was the face that launched a thousand ships.) And this place wasContinue reading “Home of the mighty Agamemnon”

We left glum Pyrgos early this morning and arrived much earlier in Nafplio than we expected, by a happy accident of good timing. Our buses rocketed across the Peloponnese, so we have seen a complete diagonal swath of the peninsula. Now this is more like it.

The 300 Olympiads held in Greece had a very different attitude about the events than we moderns do. We celebrate those who even aspire to the gold, those who come to compete, those who almost touch the pinnacle of success. In the old days, it was much simpler. You either won and became a legendContinue reading “Let the games begin”