It's all Greek to me!

like many of the signs we've been seeing...it's all greek to us!

 We safely arrived in Athens, and rented a car and headed straight to Nafplio on the Penelopenese Peninsula. We got in late to the our Pension in Nafplios, wandered through the narrow Venetian style streets (we only got the car stuck on one of them once), and were greeted by our very friendly Greek/Austrialian manager of the hotel.  We had our normal late dinner out, which started with an amazing Greek salad.  According to Rick Steves, there are four essential food groups in Greece, olives, feta cheese, phyllo dough, and tomatoes!  Yum!  He also says that the average Greek eats 55 pounds of feta a year…I think I ate at least a pound last night. We wished we had more time in Nafplio, it was such a sweet town and offered as much charm as you could imagine in any Grecian city.

check out the hunk of feta I got with my greek salad!

we got the last glimpse of the sunset as we rolled in to Nafplio (Bourtzi Castle on the island in the bay)

Today we had some whirlwind sightseeing.  We started with the Palamidi Castle high above the ancient city of Nafplio…the youngest of our sights, which was built in 1711 by the Venetians. 

Jon's practicing his archery skills behind the Palamidi walls

The amazing view down from the Palamidi Castle

 We jumped in our car from there and headed east to the ancient healing grounds and theater in Epidavros.  This ancient theater was built in the Hellenic period around 300 BC, fits up to 15,000 spectators and has perfect acoustics. From the center of the theater, Jon stood on center stone and said hello to me in a whisper and I could hear it all the way at the top row.  

The Epidavros theater dates back to the Hellenic times

We then headed over to Mycenae, to visit the ancient ruins dating back to 1500 BC!!   Starting at the infamous Lion’s Gate (where the media company gets its name), the Mycenaean people built a huge town using massive stones that was their capital for their empire throughout the Aegean peninsula and the Islands.   We both were amused to find out that Mycenae used to be a tourist destination for the Greeks during the Classical period of Plato and Sophocles (around 450BC) as it was already a 1000 years old! 

the lions gate, the rocks are so large ancient greeks believed a cyclopes must of helped build this gargantuan arch

this ancient city had an ideal location with a view of the Nafplio coast

We then drove back across the Corinthian isthmus, or as the Jon says with a lisp Ith-mith, miraculously found the car rental drop off in the outlaying neighborhoods of Athens, and popped on the metro to the Port where we sit on the ferry waiting our departure to Naxos! Phew! Nourished by some gyros and frappes, we are ready to slow it down to island pace.

the sunset over the Aegean sea

watching the sunset from the ferry