Tuesday 29th April 2008

It was, reluctantly, time to leave Sapounakeika before we outstayed the very warm welcome of Glenn and Venice. They drove us back to our closed campsite and joined us for a meal of Cassoulet specially imported by us from France. It was time to say goodbye but we would certainly like to visit again – this very beautiful part of Greece and our good friends will definitely draw us back.
We spent the rest of the day relaxing and then clearing up and getting ready for moving the following day. We finally managed to find someone in the campsite to pay but Jane had great problems explaining that for four of the six nights only the motorhome was at the campsite. In the end, the lady used the 'phone a friend' option so that they could translate what Jane was saying!
Photos: Glenn and Venice's house and garden; A farmer and donkey from Sapounakeika with the village in the background – Glenn and Venice's house is the one with the light coloured roof at the bottom of the village; Paralia Tyros from Sapounakeika; One of the windows in the lounge.

Monday 28th April 2008

At 10:00 we met Wendy at the bottom of the lane and she drove us round the mountain on the coast road to Melana. The road goes past a promontory and a tourist sign indicates prehistoric walls and settlement. I had mentioned to Chris that Jane and I might go and look at them on our way through when we were leaving. Chris said that, if we found them, he would like to know where they were as he and Wendy had walked all over the promontory and had not found them. When we got to the Melana turn there was another sign to a temple of Apollo and Wendy told us that the walk would take us near to the site. That was however the only sign and the temple site was actually a very long way up the hill along a series of tracks and no tourist would have been able to find it unless they had local help or a very good map (unheard of in Greece). The Greeks have understandable concerns over a Turkish invasion due to the long occupation that only ended in 1821 and the very difficult relations that there have been over subsequent years. Although I can't believe that Turkey would be allowed to invade any part of Greece in current times, I am sure that this is the reason why good Greek maps do not exist. The mapping is controlled by the army (Hellenic Army Geographical Service) and even the better maps published with their assistance (e.g. Road Editions) are inaccurate and incomplete. Detailed walking maps are very difficult to obtain and most that I have seen are so lacking in detail that they are worse than useless. End of rant about Greek maps! However even with a good map, Wendy assured us that we wouldn't have been able to find the ruins as there aren't any. She has identified the site but has been unable to find any evidence of the temple. Given that Wendy spends much of her free time walking over this area, I will take her word for it.
We had a wonderful walk with wonderful company. Wendy's knowledge of wild flowers is excellent and she pointed out many to us on the way. I have to apologise to Wendy as the only one that I can remember the name of is the wild gladioli. Wendy was particularly please about seeing these as they are very rare. We must have been there just at the right time and the conditions must have been perfect as we saw many specimens. On the first half of the walk we had super mountain views and we were able to see some of the houses around Sapounakeika before we turned away towards the coast. We were then rewarded by spectacular sea and coastal views finishing with views down over Melana. By slowing Wendy down to typical SAS walking pace we were able to confirm Wendy's initial estimate of 3 hours for the walk. It was easy walking, mostly on deserted unpaved roads with the occasional donkey track. We all felt that we deserved a bottle of beer at the small kafeneion in Melana before we returned to Sapounakeika and, I must say, it went down very well.
Photos: View north over Sapounakeika and Tyros; Butterfly amongst the wild flowers; Wendy and Jane enjoying the views on the walk; A donkey carrying a hedge walks along the road in Melana below our kafenion.

Sunday 27th April 2008

We had a slow start this morning to recover from the excesses of last night and in preparation for the excesses of today.
Tanya and Chris, two more Tyros friends, had invited Glenn and Venice to Easter lunch and very kindly extended the invitation to us when they heard that we were coming to stay. Nigel, Wendy and Alex were also coming along with four other friends from further away. We arrived at their house high above the village of Tyros and received a warm welcome from Tanya and a slightly smoke-blackened Chris. Their house is enormous and tastefully converted, retaining all of the typical Greek features. The large patio in front has magnificent views down the mountain and across the sea. A sheer red cliff provides the backdrop high above the house and there are mountainside views to left and right. This is one of the most beautiful settings for a house that I have ever seen and could easily grace the cover of a holiday of home make-over magazine.
Chris was slaving over the barbecue, having started cooking the goat at 08:30. He was constantly, adjusting the coals, obtaining more charcoal, basting and checking the goat and the kokoretsi (innards wrapped around a spit – sounds horrible but it is quite delicious). It is an honour to be asked to turn the spit with the goat or lamb and the male members of the family would take it in turns for the many hours that it takes to cook. Fortunately, Chris had adopted the more modern technique of using electric motors. Although we didn't have the honour of being asked to turn it, it was much more relaxing and we were able to chat to Chris and give him moral support instead. Chris and Tanya's four other friends had to cancel and this left just seven of us to tackle the 15kg goat – this was going to be quite a meal! Fortunately, Eleni, a local Greek friend of Chris and Tanya's turned up unexpectedly. Her husband was due to return from the plane way above Tyros but had decided to stay there with his goats, so Eleni came to join Chris and Tanya bearing gifts of savoury Greek Easter bread and red eggs. She was a demon with the red eggs, beating everyone else with hers. The tradition, similar to English conkers, involves hitting the end of your red egg against that of another person – the person whose egg doesn't break is the winner.
Chris's first ever attempt at spit roasting a goat was a great success and it was absolutely delicious, accompanied by a selection of lovely salads (made by Venice and Glenn), Eleni's bread and washed down with red wine. This was followed by two of Wendy's desserts, a trifle and a lemon cheesecake. Wendy told us that she was very keen on desserts and instructed us to eat as much as possible in order to stop her eating it all – we did not find that to be a problem, forcing down second helpings!
Nigel is teetotal and very kindly acted as a taxi for us and he also volunteered to take us down to the Paralia later in the evening for further Easter celebrations. With many thanks to Chris and Tanya, we made our way back to Glenn and Venice's. The weather had been quite cool and it turned to rain in the afternoon. It was still drizzling when we drove down to the Paralia to see if the celebrations had started. They hadn't, but chairs were set out and lots of people were milling around. We went for a walk along the prom and returned to the square and awaited developments. There were lots of dancers standing around in their traditional costumes and discussions going on between the mayor, two priests and the musicians. Eventually, a very short service was performed by a priest double act and then the dancing started. It was too wet for the musicians to perform so recorded music was used and the stately Greek dancers filed in forming a long ribbon with arms over each others shoulders and performing those slow, repetitive and intricate dance steps. More dances followed with opportunities for individual male dancers to show off their expertise and balance with jumps, kicks and slow, intricate movements. This was the adult group and they were followed by the juniors, aged about 16, who were equally enthusiastic but performed less complex dancing without the individual virtuosity. We had kept Chris long enough, so he drove us back up the hill and we thanked him greatly before we headed back up the path to Glenn and Venice's. Once again, we sat on the balcony and watched the proceedings that included a few more fireworks. The weather improved and we hoped that this would have allowed the musicians to play. There was a very good audience despite the weather and later there would have been free spit roasted lamb and wine. To be quite honest, with the amount of goat that we had consumed, the lamb didn't sound too attractive and we were glad to sit on the balcony with a very small snack for tea.
Photos: View from Glenn and Venice's house; The goat barbecue; Chris and Tanya's house; Eleni's Easter Bread looking like something straight out of a recipe book; The Easter meal; Eleni leads Tanya in a dance.

Saturday 26th April 2008

Glenn, Nigel (his friend of many years) and the builder that converted their house, have just jointly bought what is affectionately known as 'The Yacht'. We went down the coast just south of Tyros to assist with the first launch and met Nigel and wife Wendy at the house that they had just built with the aid of their builder and boat partner. It is a beautiful house commanding lovely views down over olive groves to the sea with the island of Spetses in the distance. The generous bedrooms are downstairs, giving the upstairs living rooms the best views. The house has a few olive trees but not a huge amount of land, so it would be ideal as a holiday home. If we were in the market for a holiday home in Greece, this would have been very tempting given its position in such a beautiful area of our beloved Peloponnese.
The 'Yacht' is actually a small rowing boat that will be used for fishing expeditions. It had new oars but the promised rollocks had not been delivered by the builder so Nigel had to improvise with some rope. The launch involved manhandling the boat over the pebble beach that also had some large rocks on it. A path was cleared and a discarded pallet was used to reduce the risk of damaging the bottom of the boat as we pulled it over the beach. Nigel made the tactical move of getting into the boat as soon the stern was in the water – he insisted that this was to assist by pushing off with the oars but we thought it was just to avoid getting his feet wet. The boat was soon afloat and after ten minutes checking for leaks, it was declared seaworthy although rollocks would need to be obtained. Hauling the boat back on shore, I snapped the anchor rope in the process – it was a good job that they hadn't relied on that holding the boat!
We retired to Nigel and Wendy's house back in Tyros (higher up the hill from Sapounakeika) for lunch and spent a very pleasant few hours chatting to them and their 15 year old son Alex. Alex was on a strict regime, rigorously enforced by Wendy, of revision for his impending International GCSEs but was allowed to join us for lunch. He was very good company and very mature for his age. He rebuked Wendy for speaking to him in Greek, saying that it was rude to speak to him in Greek whilst in our company. This was almost certainly to deflect his mother from questions or instructions about his revision! Wendy mentioned that on Monday she was pre-walking a walk for the SAS (Saturday Afternoon Strollers), a group that they run when they are in Athens. They often have over 100 people attending the walks around Athens but this was to be a weekend away in Tyros. We told them about the BAGS (Butleigh Ambling Group) that I had set up in our village but the numbers attending our walks were much more modest! Wendy invited us to join her on the Monday walk and we accepted immediately – we couldn't miss the opportunity to walk in the area with such a personable and expert guide.
In the evening we wanted to go to the church for the Easter service. This has to be conducted in every Greek Orthodox church (not all of the small chapels) and there are three in Tyros and Sapounakeika, but only one priest. This means that they cannot all climax at the traditional time of midnight and the service in Sapounakeika was the earliest of the three. Glenn volunteered to sit with a nervous Sam, as fireworks were already going off, whilst Venice, Jane and I walked up to the church. I was just ahead of the girls and as I walked into the yard in front of the church, the priest came out with his lectern to continue the service. At this point all hell broke out as the boys (including many overgrown boys), who had been throwing the odd banger outside the church, started throwing them into the small square in front of the church. The bangers were exploding all around the small group of faithful parishioners that had gathered close to the door and they increased dramatically in intensity when the priest spoke the words “Christos Anesti” (Christ is risen) and the bells rang out briefly. The noise was deafening as the explosions of these giant bangers, often landing at my feet, echoed around the square. I was trapped in the square, unable to leave as the bangers were concentrated in the area of the steps out of the square. It was impossible to hear the priest – the PA system that he was using was on the blink meaning that only one word in ten was amplified. This lead to a surreal effect of staccato speech in an incomprehensible (to me) language with an occasional emphasised word in amongst the deafening explosions. Eventually, the frequency of bangers diminished and I was able to make a dignified exit. Close to the church was the traditional bonfire, lit just off the road and a few metres down in the deep gorge that runs beside the village. The fire was quite dramatic with flames over 3m high engulfing the bushes around it. It looked as though it was out of control but the people standing on the road by it seemed totally unconcerned. They continued to light bangers in their hands and throw them close to passers-by – I provided a handy target. It was well intentioned – everyone got the same treatment and the trick was not to jump when they went off, a technique that I quickly developed.
This area of Greece (Kynouria) stretches from Astros to Leonidio (over 45km), was very isolated until a coastal road was built in the 1950s. With no roads on the coast and backed by 40km of high plane in front of the impenetrable range of Mount Parnon (6,345ft), the only means of transport was mule or boat and many inhabitants never left the area. The region was settled in ancient Greek times by a people who spoke an ancient Greek dialect similar to Dorian but with elements dating back to the early Bronze Age Pelasgians. This dialect this still survives today as Tsakonika, with many older inhabitants only speaking this language. Venice has learned enough Greek to communicate well generally in Greece (something I would love to be able to do) but the Tsakonika dialect is yet another hurdle that she has to face.
Along with the language, the Tsakonians have their own traditions one of which relates to Easter. Officially called 'Aerostats' and unofficially 'Flying Condoms', they are giant (approx. 2m high), brightly coloured, cylindrical paper hot air balloons. They are launched at midnight from all of the Tsakonian villages as soon as the priests announces “Christos Anesti”. We sat on Glenn and Venice's balcony until 01:30 watching as the balloons were released one after the other from the town of Paralia Tyros (Tyros Beach) below. Looking like giant fireflies, they rose quickly and drifted gracefully south in the light breeze. It was a magical sight as a string of bright dots ran across the dark sky and over the mountains. There were also three very impressive firework displays in separate locations in Paralia Tyros. Starting at different times, we had a wonderful view of them all and when all three were going together it was difficult to decide which one to watch.
Photos: The priest has come out into the square and the bellringer is prepared for the announcement of “Christos Anesti”; Red flares light the faithful – you will have to imagine the deafening noise from the bangers!; Fireworks burst over the bell tower whilst the Greek flag flies proudly.

Friday 25th April 2008

I went to reception again this morning only to find it closed again so I went to see one of the campers. Needless to say, they are all Greek but I luckily chose one who spoke a little English. He told me that the campsite was closed and only people who had permanent pitches were there! There were no office staff but there was a caretaker who was often around the site. Fortunately, whilst we were talking, he spotted the caretaker and I ran over to intercept him. He spoke less English but I think that he understood that we would be away for three days, returning on Monday. With a bit of luck there will be somebody to pay then as he thinks that the office staff may be there.
We packed far too much into a suitcase and had lunch before Glenn arrived at two o'clock. It was easy to spot him in the car with the English numberplate and we greeted each other with broad smiles. After picking up Jane and the heavy suitcase, we gave Glenn the obligatory and quick guided tour of our palatial temporary home and then set off. We passed through Tyros Beach and climbed up the hill to Sapounakeika – we had a quick lesson on the pronunciation and I am sure that we will get the hang of it before we go. The road became narrower and narrower until it was just an alleyway and I was glad that Jane was in the back of the car, probably with her eyes closed. Glenn guided the car expertly round bends and passed steps with only an inch or two on either side before reaching the house and dropping us off. Venice was there to welcome us, along with Sam the black Labrador and the 31 year old parrot, Rosie.
The house is in a spectacular position, high on a hill with breathtaking views over Tyros Beach and the sea to the Akte Peninsular and the island of Spetses. It is everything that I would want if I ever bought a house in Greece – an old house in a small village, renovated in traditional style but with all mod cons and, of course, that view. Built into the hillside, one enters on the top floor with its kitchen and living rooms and then descend to the bedrooms. The original alcoves and wall cupboards had been preserved and the whitewashed walls and blue painted window frames gave that wonderful clean and light appearance so typical of Greek houses.
Glenn and Venice had seen the old abandoned house when they visited their old friends Nigel and Wendy in Sapounakeika last year for Greek Easter and fell in love with it and its position. Within the space of just a few days before they had to return to England, they had the house inspected by a builder, got an estimate of the building costs, agreed a price with the seller, opened a bank account and signed contracts. Quite some achievement! Then came the small matter of sorting out everything at home as they intended to sell their house in Somerset and move out to Greece. After 20 odd years of living in the same house, there was much to sort out and many trips to the local tip. In August, Glenn drove to Greece with the car stuffed full of possessions and arrived in Sapounakeika with only two night stops on the way. They had rented the house above theirs for the short time before the house would be ready. This meant that they were able to sit on the balcony and watch the work on the house. That was the theory but they often found themselves watching nothing happening. The original deadline of the end of August came and went, then September, October and November. As Christmas approached, they took decisive action. To the builder's disbelief, they carried out their threat and moved into the house that had no doors and windows. Glenn rigged up a temporary front door and covered the windows to keep the worst of the weather out. The builder was shamed into action and carpenters, plumbers and electricians galore appeared and the house finally started to take shape. It was worth the hassle – they have a beautiful house.
One of the big advantages of an old house is that it has established grounds. Their house had vines, olive trees, lemon trees (too many!), orange trees and a family tree (an orange tree with a lemon grafted on so that the tree has both fruits). Glenn had created a number of vegetable patches with all manner of plants – french beans, broccoli, aubergines, courgettes, potatoes, okra, potatoes, tomatoes, beetroot, celery, carrots and squash, to name but a few. It was great chatting to them and hearing about their plans for the future. Venice has been finding recipes for lemons as they have so many that they cannot possibly use them all. They can't give them away as all of the neighbours are inundated with them. We have already been told that we can take as many as we want with us when we go. The Lemon Pickle and Lemon Curd are especially good and we are attempting to eat as much of them as possible whilst they are still available!
Photos: The Reunion – Glenn, Venice and us.

Thursday 24th April 2008

We didn't have far to go to get to the campsite identified by Glenn at Ziritsi Beach but we wanted to stop at an interesting site on the way. We stopped at the Champion supermarket as I wanted to buy some bread and meat. Jane stayed in the van (“supermarketed out”) and she thought that she had lost me! I joined a queue at the butcher but I was third, so I knew that it wouldn't take too long. The couple of ladies at the front of the queue had a brief discussion with the lady butcher and she got some pork from the cold room. She deftly cut this up into chops – lots of them, then she got some more out and did the same, then she took the chops from the display, then she got more from the cold room and then more again. Each time we thought that she had finished, but it was just to give us false hope! To amuse myself, I started counting how much they were buying – 45 kg of pork chops – and tried to avoid the eyes of the prettily displayed sheep heads. With that over, it was the turn of the couple in front of me and the butcher got a whole lamb from the cold room . For a moment I thought that she was going to cut it into portions but, fortunately, she just put it in a giant plastic bag and handed it to the couple with the back legs sticking out of the end. They were going to have a lovely spit-roasted lamb on Easter Sunday. And then it was my turn – two chicken breasts. After half an hour, I emerged from the supermarket – I would not have waited if I had realised how long it was going to take.
On then through Nafplio to the House of Tiles at Mili (one of the few fairly obvious Greek town names - Mills). As our guidebook says, this sounds like a shop but it actually a site that was occupied from the Neolithic (6,000 BC) up to Roman times and was even occupied during the Second World War when the Germans built pillboxes there, damaging much of the Roman remains. However, the most interesting aspect of the site concerns the time around 2,200 BC when the pre-Greek speaking people built a very large building (82ft by 40ft) close to a large number of other dwellings. This building is unique for this period, not only because of its size but also its sophistication. It was a two storey house with a stone-built first storey and a mud brick second storey with a roof covered with square tiles, many of which were found during the excavation (hence the name of the site). Walls were plastered and prepared for frescoes but these were never completed as the house was burned down. At this time other sites were also burned and it has been deduced that they were attacked, possibly by a people from Troy who may have been have also been the first Greek speaking settlers. The next people who occupied the site did something rather strange, they covered the collapsed house with a large mound of earth. This was a lot of effort to go to and meant that they could not use the land for building nor could they reuse the stone from the building, the common practice when building over an existing site. Why did they do this? Did it have some sacred significance or was it in respect of the previous settlers? Nobody knows!
We drove on down the coast and were treated to spectacular views over the sea (it was even clearer today) to the Akte Peninsular on which sits the mountains of Didimo and Aderes. We stopped at the small settlement of Paralio Astros (Astros Beach) and parked the motorhome, flanked by palm trees, and had lunch looking at that lovely view.
Arriving at the campsite, down a long road that turned into a dirt track, there were plenty of people in their caravans but nobody in reception. This is often the case in the middle of the afternoon so we parked up and waited until 17:00. Reception was still unmanned, as it was also at 18:00 – we gave up and decided to find them in the morning. Glenn had kindly offered to pick us up at 14:00 tomorrow, so that gave us plenty of time to find the owners and explain that we were going to be away for the next few days.
Photos: The House of tiles – the main door into the building (on the left) could only be reached down the long corridor (on the right) and round the bend (subsequently cut by a Mycenaean tomb. It is thought that this was a precursor to the labyrinthine entrances to Mycenaean palaces; A wild flower at the House of Tiles; View over to the Akte Peninsular; Chapels are everywhere in Greece. I decided that this one, at Astros Beach, must be dedicated to the patron saint of quarrymen. Given the safety standards of Greek quarries that I have seen, they need some protection!

Wednesday 23rd April 2008

We decided to stay another day at Tolo and started by having breakfast outside. We had been doing this ever since the weather became hot and today was going to be very warm, at 08:30 it was over 20°C and very pleasant sat in the sun. Over the last two days we had been watching a pair of tits ferrying supplies of wriggling bugs to their nest in the olive tree next to our pitch. Surprisingly, the nest was very low, less than a metre above ground but it was deep in a natural cleft in the tree. When the parents were away, I went up to the tree and could hear the extremely faint chirping of at least three tiny chicks. They must have been very young but were well protected – I couldn't see them and the gap was so small that even a cat's paw wouldn't fit in. This was fortunate because there were at least four campsite cats and one was almost invariably sat by the motorhome, hoping that we would feed it. Today there were no cats, so I set up the camera on a tripod at a distance from the tree and waited. Keeping very still, my patience was rewarded when the parents returned. Although originally concerned that the scene had changed, they soon returned to their normal routine and posed nicely at the entrance to the nest.
When we walked into Tolo yesterday it was quite hazy in the distance but today was much clearer. We were heading for an Internet café with Wifi. We had spent a hour on the Internet at the campsite yesterday but were unable to get the laptop to recognise their wireless network and had to use their computer. This has happened once before on the Odyssey and must be due to some incompatibility between the laptop wireless adaptor and the wireless router. However, trying to have a technical discussion about wireless protocols with a Greek in a campsite is a non-starter, so it will have to remain a mystery. We got to the Internet café only to find that it was closed for another hour and a half but we had other things to do and had promised ourselves an ice cream from the scrumptious collection offered at a shop at the other end of the main street. On the way we discovered another Internet café that was open – no Wifi but we were able to plug the laptop into their network. We updated the virus protection and Microsoft security patches, downloaded many BBC podcasts and wrote lots of emails. Two and a half hours later, we were dying for an ice cream and the 'cream and sour cherry' did not disappoint!
Back to Henrietta then for homemade 'Soutzoukakia Smyrneika' (spicy sausages from Smyrna) a lovely dish made from minced beef, breadcrumbs, a beaten egg, garlic and cumin, rolled into sausage shapes and baked in a hot oven (or fried, if preferred). They are served with a thick tomato sauce and we had them with rice and fresh flat green beans.
Photos: Our pitch at Tolo with the Tit's olive tree in the foreground; The Tit at the entrance to its nest that is deep down inside the hole.