Athens to Monemvasio:

WARNING; THE CONTENTS OF THE NEXT FEW POSTS MAY GET A BIT TEDIOUS. IT SEEMS WE OFTEN FORGET WHAT WE DID ON OUR MANY TRIPS AND USING THIS TO TRY TO RECALL IT IN A PLEASANT WAY. PLEASE FEEL FREE TO SKIM THROUGH AND Just CHECK OUT THE PRETTY PICS. And if that gets tedious, just pour yourself a nice drink and tell us you enjoyed it!

We have now entered to “stay one night at each beautiful spot phase of this trip” for the next five nights. A feat not to be taken lightly on a 5 week trip! It quickly became mountainous (and more and more beautiful) as we left Athens. The roads were good and we actually preferred the country roads to the toll roads. Especially when we got the opportunity to stop at a roadside fruit/vegetable stand! We pointed but for whatever reason she decided what we should have, piled it into our bag, we paid and ate whatever it was along the way. Brant thinks perhaps she just gave us the stuff she was trying to get rid of but I think she was trying to show off her special stuff. She told us all about the stuff—in Greek.

We took a side trip out to a little beach that looked like a perfect Athens escape (45 minutes away)and was reminiscent of the movie, “ think of later”. It might be the perfect place to stop after arriving in the Athens airport. Then in about another hour we were at Nafplio which on first glance did not seem exceptional but the town had it all. A promenade next to the water, a pedestrian only town with many steps, cute shops, cafes, and a very long walk up to the fortress guarding the won. In fact this town had 3 fortresses guarding it. Our hotel room looked out to one on an island. We were shocked at what a terrific room we had on the water for about 50 dollars including 2 big breakfasts.

The problem with the town is that it’s hard to choose which bar to have the Aperol spritz (Brant votes for the one that serves free nuts) then even more difficult to choose a restaurant, which occur at frequency of every 10-20 feet. The one I chose after extensive research had an hours wait so we walked a bit and easily found another. Yup, I was forced to order squid ink pasta and I believe buckwheat groats with calamari and shrimp. On top of that a stray dog (which is very uncommon here because I think that cats evicted them) threw up next to our table. They offered to reseat us but we knew how busy they were and at the end they gave us a 10 percent discount. Despite language barriers the service has been good everywhere and the people kind and thoughtful. This was definitely a Greek family vacation town (as well as a romantic weekend town)—-lots of kids having fun. We finished the night with a free concert in the town square.

After another BFG breakfast we were off to Monemvasio. The drive once again through beautiful mountains to walled pedestrian only town. There were places to spend the night and of course more restaurants and bars.

SO the question—Would we come back? Yes, we left with much more to do. We would have liked to hike up to the castle. I think an evening cruise on the Corinthian canal would be interesting. Floating in the sea on the beach at Korfous would be wonderful after a long flight. And definitely, overnighting at Monemvasio would be unforgettable.