Monday already – feels like we’ve been here a week. Didn’t sleep very well last night and decided at 4am to take a Tylenol PM. Not a good idea. Bill had trouble convincing me to get moving at 8:00am.
We wanted to go back to the old town in daylight and take more pictures and wander around so we hiked back up there. It’s about a 20 minute walk on a paved road that runs alongside the “rock” with the sea to the right. Noone but us was walking – everyone else was driving or zooming along on their vespa scooters. Yet most of the people were parking only halfway up the road so they had to walk anyways.
Everything was very quiet in the morning. Most of the shops were not yet open and construction workers were busy. There is a lot of renovation going on in this old town – all closely supervised by the archaeological authorities to keep things as authentic as possible. In this tiny walled town with no cars and narrow pathways all materials are carried in by mules and construction debris is carried out one wheel barrow at a time.
We chose a quiet little garden cafe to have breakfast overlooking the water. I have to say the views and ambience here give the town of Oia on Santorini a run for its money.
A bit of history (from http://europeforvisitors.com)
Monemvasia dates back to the 6th Century, when inhabitants of ancient Laconia (now a Greek province) settled on a rock that had been split from the mainland by an earthquake in 375 AD. The rock offered a refuge from the Slavic invaders who dominated much of Greece from about 500 to 700 AD. Over time, Monemvasia developed into a major Byzantine trading port. The Venetians took control in 1464, when they built a massive fortress high above the town. (You can visit the ruined citadel today, if you have the time and endurance for a long hike to the rock’s summit.)
In the 15th Century, when the Turks invaded Laconia, the walled enclave of Monemvasia maintained a successful blockade for a hundred years. The Turks finally seized the town in 1540 and held it until 1690, when the Venetians once again took over until possession reverted to the Turks in 1715. Slightly more than a century later, in 1821, Monemvasia was liberated during the Greek War of Independence and the Turkish occupiers were massacred. The town declined in importance during the 19th and 20th Centuries, and most of its remaining population either left the area or resettled in the small port 2 km away on the mainland (which is now known as Gefira, Yefira, or the port of Monemvasia).
On the way back we stopped along the causeway to take a swim. There is an old house and a platform with ladder just calling out my name. The water in Greece is so clear, though very rocky and just cool enough to be refreshing. That woke me up!
By 11:30 we were back in the car on the road with a goal to be at the Athens port of Piraeus by 5:30. We debated taking the fast new road or the more scenic coastal route. Well I debated while Bill was sure he wasn’t up to driving a curvy road for an extra 2 hrs of driving time! The new road is very scenic going through the mountains.
This time we stopped in Ancient Corinth to see the ruins. This site overlooks the sea – maybe 3 to 5 km away and is surrounded by village with homes that were refreshingly nicer than you see in newer towns built in Greece. Ancient Corinth is the place that Paul delivered his Epistle to the Corinthians. The site has been occupied on and off since the 5th millenium BC. The small museum had statues and pottery dating from many different time periods. There isn’t much standing except some walls, foundations and seven columns from the Temple of Apollo.
One more time we tried to figure out how to get off the toll road to see the Corinth Canal but it eluded us once again. I got a quick peak of the narrow canal from the car as we went over it. The canal separates mainland Greece from the Peloponnese and was built by is only 71 feet wide – not wide enough for many modern ships.
We made it to the Port of Piraeus in plenty of time, dropped off the car with Hertz, then had to take bus to get to the part of the port where the ships for Crete leave from. I wondered how we managed to keep our sanity travelling with three young kids and everyone’s bags on and off of public transportation.
We boarded the ship fairly early. It was fun watching all the commotion in the port as trucks, cars, motorcycles and people loaded on – all the way up to the very last minute. Since Crete is an island everything has to come over on these trucks. Now these ferry boats have a dining room, a cafeteria, a couple of bars and lounges they are in now way anything like a cruise ship. They are practical transportation with some amenities. But our cabin had two twin beds, clean sheets and a private bathroom and we were glad to have it. Many people buy a seat only and are camped out all over the boat – in the lounges and on the floors.
It was dark by the time we left but I remember taking this boat in the middle of summer and the sun would be setting just as we were leaving Athens so you could see the entire city from the ship.