I had quite the odyssey getting from Eleusis into Athens. I don’t know if the traffic is always like that or if it was bad luck because of an accident, but holy crap! There was a lot of sitting still, eventually an illegal U-turn and an epic reroute (thanks to my excellent map skills), driving every crazy residential back alley in the suburbs, until I finally finished my twelve mile drive in just over three hours. Whew, I don’t ever…
It was about an hour drive from Lavrio north to the Piraeus port. I drove my tiny little Fiat onto another ferry and just like that, I was off to my next stop, the island of Aegina, smack in the middle of the Saronic Gulf. After driving off of the ferry I immediately headed clear to the far side of the island to see the amazing Temple of Aphaia. The whole island is only about seven and a half miles…
I caught a VERY early morning ferry from Euboea and sailed across the Euboean Gulf in the dark to Rafina Port. For the next couple of days I’ll be exploring the coastline along the Attica Peninsula just southeast of Athens. I first turned north to the ancient city of Ramnous. The majority of the site was off limits, apparently due to staffing issues. Lame! The only part that was open was the Temple of Nemesis, the goddess of retribution and…
I know, that was my first thought too. That’s a lot of vowels! Ha! Heading east from Delphi I made my way to the big and narrow island of Euboea. Access to the island is really easy, you just drive across a short bridge into the city of Chalcis and there you are. I’m not staying in Chalcis, but I did stop for a minute to check out the archeology museum there. The museum focused on the culture of the…
Just a short drive north from Nafplio and I’m in another ancient and famous Greek city, Corinth. It struck me recently that when I was young and learning about the history of this region, the true stuff and the mythology, the stories are so epic, the cities are epic, the characters are epic, but it all took place in such a teeny tiny little patch of earth. The cities are pretty small, Greece is pretty small. It’s really messing with…
It was a pretty short drive from Sparta to my next stop in Nafplio on the Argolic Gulf. So short that I had plenty of time to explore a couple of sites on the way. This region is the home of the really ancient Mycenaean culture. I had to drive up and over some mountains to get here which gave me some pretty incredible views on the way down. I first stopped to take a quick look at ancient Argos,…
In the southern part of Peleponnese is maybe one of the most legendary cities in the world. Everyone has heard of it, Sparta. Modern Sparta, however, is just an average Greek town and there’s nothing particularly appealing about it. There are a few sites within reach of it though, and that’s why I’m here. First, at the edge of town are the ruins of ancient Sparta. There’s really very little of them left. The site is free to visit and…
I’ve left the kingdom of Epirus and after a day of driving with a couple of uneventful detours to closed sites, I’m now on the very oddly shaped peninsula of Peleponnese. In addition to the much reduced winter hours, the whole country apparently closes every Tuesday, and since I was driving on Tuesday, I missed out on a couple of ancient theaters. They were small sites and last minute additions anyway. There’s really only one thing to see and do…
After my early morning ferry ride from Corfu back to the mainland, it was a fairly quick drive to my next stop in Lefkada. There was plenty of time to see some sights along the way, so that’s what I did. Roughly half way to my destination were the ruins of the Necromanteion, a former temple dedicated to Hades and Persephone, the god and goddess of the dead. The temple was built in the 3rd century BC, but was destroyed…
Leaving Ioannina my first thought was that it was nice to be driving on a straight road for a change. Ha! I left early and drove for about an hour to the ferry port in Igoumenitsa, then drove my little car that doesn’t smell like it’s burning onto a very big ferry bound for the island of Corfu out in the Ionian Sea. After about an hour and a half I was in Corfu Town. It was still early when…