Friday 2nd May 2008

We were thinking of going into Gythio today but decided on a day of rest. Jane did the washing and I spent many hours catching up with the blog for the whole of the Easter period. The weather was so hot that we put out our awning for shade, one of the very few times that we have used it. We wanted some bread for lunch and walked the few metres from the campsite entrance to the local entrepreneur – a combined fuel station, supermarket and kafenion. It was all on a very small scale, but he had bread, beer, wine on tap and local farm supplies such as olive barrels, wine making equipment, spark plugs – a genuine Greek 'pantopoleio' (everything shop).
We are really getting into barbecues now so today it was chicken legs with roasted lemony potatoes and roasted vegetables cooked in olive oil and tomato sauce.
Photos: Barbecue view!

Thursday 1st May 2008

Approaching Monemvasia from the north as we did yesterday is particularly impressive. A huge unassailable cliff rises from the sea and the island is joined to the mainland by a narrow strip of land and a bridge. The only sign of occupation is the remains of a castle on the top and it is very difficult to believe that over 40,000 people once lived on the island. Approaching from the south as we were today is it possible to see houses crowded into a small area of low land at the far end of the island between the sea and the sheer cliffs.
It is thought that the first people to settle here were the Minoans but the decisive moment in its history was 375 AD when a huge earthquake separated Monemvasia from the mainland leaving just that spit of land. This created the potential for a settlement with incredible natural defences and as we approached today we could really appreciate those qualities. We parked on the island side of the bridge and started the long walk along the narrow strip of low land on the southern side. Towering above us all of the time was that massive cliff and if we were attempting to invade the island we would have been open to constant attack from above as well having to face the defenders in front of us. We then reached the gate to the lower town surrounded by defensive walls. Should this lower town be overrun, the inhabitants could retreat to the upper town, a very large area at the top of those cliffs. The only way up to the upper town was through the lower town and up a winding path through a series of walls. The name Monemvasia means 'one entrance' (moni emvasis) and this made it almost impossible to conquer by force. The defensive weaknesses of the island were food, which had to be brought from the mainland and the lack of springs and, for this reason, every building in the lower and upper towns had a huge cistern in the basement to store water. These made the difference between life and death for the inhabitants in times of attack. The island overlooked the main shipping channel to the Bosphorus and this combined with its defensive capabilities lead to the creation of a wealthy merchant city. It also meant that it was an attractive prize for foreign powers and, despite its apparent security, it was attacked by a succession of invaders. The town of Monemvasia was founded by the Byzantines in 585 AD and was attacked in the 800s by the Saracens (failed); Normans in 1147 (failed); Franks in 1246 (succeeded after a 3 year siege but handed back to the Greeks 14 years later); Venice in 1464 by invitation in order to prevent the Turks, who already controlled much of this area of Greece, from taking the island; the Turks in 1537 when Venice handed Monemvasia to them as part of a treaty (at this point many inhabitants left for Crete and Santorini); the Venetians (again) in 1690; the Turks in 1715 (surrendered without resistance). In 1821 in the war of independence against the Turks, after a four month siege, Monemvasia became the first fortress to be taken by the Greeks. Definitely a chequered history!
When we last visited Monemvasia, at least 15 years ago, I remember the lower town being mainly ruins with only a relatively few occupied houses and a couple of very expensive hotels. It was a major tourist attraction even then but a huge amount of restoration has been done in the intervening period. There are very few ruins left and many of those are in the process of being restored. It will be interesting, when we get home, to compare today's photographs with the slides that I took on our last visit.
The upper town (the kastro) remains ruins but this time, so covered in wild flowers and bushes, it was difficult to see any buildings with only low level remains. It was still obvious that there was a large settlement here spanning hundreds of years including a Turkish bath, massive public cisterns and, of course, the castle itself. The only complete building was the church of Christos Elkomenos (the 'dragged Christ'), built originally in the 11th century but rebuilt and repaired over the years. The views from the kastro are magnificent and the view down from the main gate over the labyrinthine route from the lower town emphasised the difficulty faced by any invader attempting to storm the upper town.
It was another hot day and we were glad to return to the lower town and find a restaurant with a view over the sea and to the mainland where we had camped last night. A Greek salad and tzatziki (quite delicious and very heavy on the garlic) with ice-cold drinks went down very well.
May the first is a national holiday in Greece and it is traditional to collect wild flowers to create a wreath which is then hung on the door of the house. We saw many people collecting wild flowers, bunches of flowers under car windscreen wipers, wreaths on doors and even women with flowers in their hair. The wild flowers were lovely and there were certainly plenty around even after the picking!
We then headed off to our next destination of Gythio, almost due west on the next prong of the southern Peloponnese. On the way we stopped to buy a large net of oranges from a roadside seller and I promised to make some fresh orange juice over the next few days. We also stopped at a modern church, built in the 1960s with beautiful frescos added in the 1980s. The frescos covered the whole of the inside of the building and is was good to see such high quality painting done in traditional style.
This time we had no problem in locating a campsite as there were three to choose from and, as the weather was still very good, we decided to barbecue the souvlaki that we bought yesterday – delicious.
Photos: Monemvasia as seen from the north; A view from the gate into the upper town showing the approach from the lower town; The church of Panagia Chrysaphitissa in the lower town – the small white building to the right houses the sacred spring, unfortunately found to be brackish but we still saw some people tasting the water; The church of Agios Niktrarious in Sykeas; An example of the frescos in the church.

Wednesday 30th April 2008

Leaving the campsite we drove to Paralia Tyros where we stopped to get supplies including some meat for barbecuing as the weather was definitely improving and the forecast suggested a period of good weather. Giant pork chops, chicken legs (pounded flat for the BBQ using a very large brass weight), pork souvlaki (kebabs) and home-made sausages together with local Tyros hard sheep's cheese were purchased from the butcher.
Our target today was Monemvasia but there were lots of interesting place along the way. We stopped at the large town of Leonidio south of Tyros and wandered around the town. We were surprised to see a restored traction engine parked proudly on the river promenade – that must have been a real status symbol when it was first brought to this area. Leonidio is a bustling market town full of shops, cafés and restaurants. We intended to BBQ that evening, so we contented ourselves with that wonderful Greek fast food, souvlaki pitta – the first one since we arrived in Greece. Whilst we were walking along the main street eating the pitta, we bumped into Chris and Tanya with two visitors. It was great to be able to thank them again in person for the our special Greek Easter and wish them the best for the future.
Just outside of Leonidio we came to my favourite Greek chapel. I had spotted it from the town centre and remembered well the time many years ago (at least 15) that we had approached it from the other direction, down the gorge from Kosmas. The relatively modern Byzantine-style whitewashed church has a backdrop of a huge reddy-brown cliff and became the subject of one of my first attempts at producing a print from a slide in my darkroom back in Somerset. The print graced one of the walls of our house for many years but the colour balance, always very difficult in a novice's darkroom, was not quite right. I was determined to take a digital photograph and try again. The light was perfect as I walked up to the church where I met George, a local man, sitting in the shade under a tree. We had a long, wide-ranging discussion about life in Greece, life in America (his brother and family had moved to America, near New York and had been there for many years), life in England, how to keep healthy and many other subjects. This was quite an achievement given that George spoke very little English and I can only muster about fifty words of Greek. I understood that life in Greece was not easy, but it was a great life; life in America was not good – too fast, too much pressure and the work was too hard; George thought that England was a lovely place and the football teams were very good (it is Chelsea v Liverpool tonight – I told him that Chelsea would win, I wonder whether I was correct); the way to keep healthy is to have a spoonful of olive oil every day washed down with a glass of water. I also found out the name of the saint to whom the chapel was dedicated but two minutes later, I had forgotten – I must find out from Wendy, she is sure to know. I finally got some photographs taken, said goodbye to George and returned to the motorhome and Jane who was wondering what on earth I had been doing.
The drive up to Kosmas is long, windy and incredibly beautiful. I still think that Cheddar Gorge is beautiful but this is on a huge scale. Towards the top of the gorge we stopped at the whitewashed Monastery (actually a convent) of Profitas Elonis set into a sheer cliff on the side of the gorge. Regular readers and experienced Greek travellers will not be surprised to hear that shepherds discovered a spring and miraculous icon here and that is why the monastery was founded. I resisted the temptation to purchase another mug as they were much less naff than the ones at Mega Spilio but I did buy two kilos of local mountain honey from a lady at the entrance. Both are delicious – one is 'four seasons' honey and the other is a pure pine honey.
We drove through the pretty village of Kosmas that was worthy of a stop but we had already done too much of that and needed to get on. Just outside the village we reached 1200m and then started the long descent to the coast through more lovely scenery. The guidebook and the ACSI guide told us of the Camping Paradise site on the beach a few kilometres south of Monemvasia and we headed for that. We failed to find it and at the point that we were about to turn around, we came across three motorhomes parked on a beach. We stopped to enquire about the campsite and found that everyone else had looked for it and failed to find it but we were told that this was an accepted place to camp. Having no other option, we decided to stay with the others and had a simple dinner whilst looking over the sea to Monemvasia in the distance.
Photos: The sleepy side of Leonidio; The very picturesque chapel north of Leonidio; View from the monastery of Profitas Elonis; The monastery itself with the monks cells on the left and the church housing the miraculous icon just below the sacred spring; Any icon you like can be bought at the monastery shop.

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.