We officially went to our first concert in Germany...Jack Johnson & G. Love & Special Sauce at Freilichtbuhne Loreley, an outdoor concert venue about 45 minutes from our house.
The seats were unassigned, so Matt and I were able to grab a spot on the grass pretty close to the stage. We were suprised at how many people new the lyrics to his songs! It was pretty fun to see an American artist abroad...felt like a little piece of home.
Nafplion was the first capital of Greece after the Greek War of Independence (1821-28). We chose this small port town in the Peloponnese as a relaxing final destination on our tour of Greece.
Driving to Nafplion
First sight of water...
We stayed at Pension Atheaton, a small hotel located on a side street in Nafplion. It was nice, although cats surrounded the entrance most of the time.
We ate our breakfast on this veranda outside of our room each morning- jelly or chocolate filled croissants and juice.
Most of the narrow streets in Nafplion are lined with shops and restaurants.
We ate at a restaurant called Ta Panapia on our first night, and no, we didn't realize that we had ordered a whole fish. It actually turned out to be pretty darn good...we just had to work a little bit harder than usual for our dinner that night.
We ate lunch at an excellent Italian restaurant located on this square two days in a row- it had great food and a hydra-fan that sprayed water and created a little pocket of cool air amidst the heat.
In the picture below, you can see the outline of Bourtzi Fortress, built by Venetians in the 15th century to guard the entrance to Nafplion's harbor. This was our view as we ate dessert by the water...not bad.
Because we had just spent the better part of a week hiking through ruins and touring archaeological sites, we opted to avoid anything resembling work for our stay in Nafplion. So this is the closest we got to seeing Nafplion's two massive fortifications (Acronafplia and Palamidi, not sure which one is pictured below).
This is Arvantitia Beach, surrounded by large cliffs and located beneath one of the fortresses. The beach was very narrow and rocky, so on our second day at the beach we opted to walk along the cove to find a spot on some much larger rocks.
Just imagine us walking along the cliff, around the beach...
The white substance pictured below is actually salt that accumulates on the rocks from the water.
This picture is looking back on the beach area that was pictured earlier.
We came across these boys jumping off the cliffs into the water...
Just to give you an idea of how crystal clear the water was...we could see the rocks at the bottom of the water as well as fish swimming around us as we swam. We wished that we had brought some snorkels!
This is one of the rocky areas where we swam. We had to climb down this rusty ladder (to Matt's left) and basically just push off into the water. The water was incredibly calm...like a lake early in the morning, except this was a sea!
This picture is from dinner on our last night in Nafplion. We befriended an older English couple that was sitting next to us, and they ended up inviting us to stay with them if we were ever near their home in Northern England. Not sure if that will ever happen, but we did have a nice time talking with them about their European travels.
And so all good things must come to an end. The next day, we left after lunch and drove back to Athens for a short night sleep and our early morning flight back to Germany.
Here are some of the road signs we saw along the way- the Greek word was almost always followed by the English word.
We had to pay tolls pretty often throughout our trip...I think we spent about 30 Euro in all.
For our last night in Athens, we booked a room in the first hotel from the beginning of our trip. But since we were only staying for one night, we think they gave us the worst room in the place. We were literally put in a room on the roof!
This would not have been so bad, except the room was probably 90+ degrees inside!
The only redeeming quality of our room assignment was that we had this lovely view of the Pantheon right outside our door.
This was an amazing trip and we were very happy with all of the cities we visited. Now we're ready to plan a Mediterranean cruise back through the Greek Islands...Maybe next year!
The town of Olympia was pretty sleepy and it's only source of income seemed to be tourism. We stayed at the Hotel Kronio which met our two prerequisites- clean and air-conditioned. Archaeological Museum This museum houses many of the artifacts found during excavations of the Ancient Olympic site.
Emperor Marcus Aurelius Priestess Nike of Paeonios, "Winged Victory"- Stood in the corner of the Temple of Zeus (see Ancient Site). This was my favorite! Terracota disk from the Temple of Hera (see Ancient Site) Hermes of Praxiteles, messenger of the gods, was charged by Zeus to carry the baby Dionysos to the Nymphs. This statue was found at the Temple of Hera (see Ancient Site), although some scholars believe that this is a Roman copy of the original work by Praxiteles.
Sculptures from the Temple of Zeus (see Ancient Site) From the East Pediment- Zeus overseas the chariot race between Oinomaos, king of Pisa, and Pelops. From the West Pediment- shows the battle of Lapiths and Centaurs around the figure of Apollo, the god of reason.
Archaeological Site of Olympia The ancient Olympic games were held every four years between 776 B.C. and A.D. 393 in mid-August or September. Apparently a truce was observed so that athletes and spectators could safely travel to Olympia for the five-day festival. The events included footraces, short and long jumps, wrestling, boxing, chariot races, and pentathlon.
Philippeion- This circular building was built in the Ionic order in the 4th century B.C. Temple of Hera- Built at the end of the 7th century B.C., this temple is one of the oldest and best preserved examples of Doric temple architecture. Nymphaion- This was the site of a fountain from the 2nd century B.C., surrounded by a two- story, semicircular building lined with statues. Olympic Stadium- Built in the middle of the 5th century B.C., this stadium did not have stone seats, but was able to seat 45,000 spectators on the embankments. Interestingly, the shot put finals of the Athens 2004 Summer Olympics were held in this stadium. Starting line This monumental entrance to the Stadium was built in the late Hellenistic period. Temple of Zeus- This six by thirteen column Doric temple once held a 12 meter high gold and ivory cult statue of Zeus, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Trying to capture just how huge some of these sections of column really are... The notches in this section of column gave us an idea of how the sections attached to one another. Leonidaion- This large rectangular building was built in 330 B.C. to accomodate officials. The central court was converted into an open-air swimming pool. Chapel Kladeos Thermae- The mosaic floor in this thermal room is preserved from the 2nd and 3rd centuries B.C. Palaestra- These pillars make up one side of what was once a square building sectioned off into rooms for bathing and training (wrestling, boxing, and jumping). We stayed in Olympia for one night, less than 24 hours, and were off to our final destination- Nafplion.
