Friday, July 17, 2009
In a quick stop in Nafpaktos on the way to Delphi we spotted Duran Duran!
Friggin A! I loved those guys in the 80's. They still got it.
Celebrity Sighting!
Olympia!
Today we saw where the ancient Greeks started the Olympic Games. It was amazing to walk in the same footsteps of all the elite of Greek society who did so for over a thousand years. There weren’t many events (5 or so) so winning was a BIG deal when there’s only a handful of winners every 4 years. Winners were celebrated in their home cities as heroes. They would earn free meals and not have to pay taxes for life! No women allowed either, just being caught watching the events was punishable by death for a woman.
Here's what it used to look like:
Here's what it looks like today:
Here's an impressive statue of "Hermes" which is in the museum.
The javelin area, with me showing how it's done.
The original track! I didn't break any records like I did in Nemea.
And here's the World's Most Expensive Slurpie! Next time we ask for the price before buying! ($6.50 for it)
Sphacteria
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
The island of Sphacteria just a few km from Pylos played a big role in the Peloponnesian War, see here. Spartan troops got trapped on it and were blockaded by the Athenian ships. They circled the island hoping to starve them out. The spartans ended up suing for an end to the war which Athens refused. The spartans on the island ended up surrendering (something they'd NEVER done before).
At the closest point to the island, I decide to walk/swim to it rather than hire a boat. A much more satisfying way to get there! Here's me on the island barefoot. If you look close you can see goats to my right.
During the war slaves were bribed with promises of freedom if they could smuggle food onto the island by swimming. not many survived the water and the Athenians!
We also visited "Nestor's Cave" on the mainland via some very beautiful scenery. That's the Ionian sea behind me where it meets the Mediterranian.
Here's a view from the cave
Sparta!
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Couldn't resist doing the kick from "300"...
At last Sparta! We drove a few hours deeper into the Peloponnese today and made it to one of my top goals of the trip. It's well known there is not a lot left over from classical Greece. but actually that's wrong, there's a lot of ruins, just not a lot of buildings and structures - there's plenty of pieces!
Here is the famous modern statue of Leonidas
Here's a statue of a hoplite warrior - some think it to be of Leonidas. There is a little 4 room museum in the town.
Just past the statue up top are the ruins. Here is what the ancient ruins look like today. The place was pretty empty and we pretty much had all of ancient Sparta to ourselves for a while this afternoon.
Something I really wanted to visit was the Eurotas river that I've read about in historical books. It was quite difficult to find, we walked up and down it looking for a path to it. We eventually got an escort from an elderly farmer to the river by his farm.
Here it is. Something pretty amazing about the river is...
... there are actual Spartan ruins sticking out of the river bank and in the river itself! Walking along the river we actually found 2 pieces of marble columns, here's one of them. Maybe I have a future in archeology?
We'll only spending one day here, but it was pretty memorable.
Tomas
Day 7 - Ancient Mycenae and Epidaurus
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Two big archeological sites today! First, we drove to Ancient Mycenae, an ancient citadel that is 3500 years old! It was the stronghold of Agamemnon from the Iliad.
Down the road a little is the "Treasury of Atreus" a.k.a. the tomb of Agamemnon even though it wasn't actually him that was buried there.
Then if was off to Epidaurus, a site with the best remaining ancient theatre described as "acoustically perfect" (my guidebook says is was built according to Fibonacci's sequence).
This is a two-story building where ancient Greeks came to be cured by the Gods (after they took in the latest off-off-Broadway show at the theatre??).
And tomorrow, we're off to Sparta to see King Leonidas!
Claire
Ancient Corinth and Nemea
Friday, July 10, 2009
Corinth! (ally of Sparta) was one of my "must see's" when we first started thinking about what to do and see in in Greece.
It's connected to my favourite time frame of 500-400BC in several big ways.
1. Its where all the city states of Greece met to develop a strategy on resisting the impending Persian invasion of Greece in 480BC. It resulted in the defense at the Thermopylae pass and the battle of Plataea.
2. Its was an early instigator of the Peloponnesian War by attacking an ally of Athens. Corinth got Sparta involved in the whole mess originally, too.
3. Fought the Athenians in Syracuse which is a pretty amazing battle and really did the Athenians in.
A few pics:
The acropolis area
Temple of Apollo, beautiful
