Greece - Week 34

Monday 4th February 2019

We left our sleepy spot on the side of the Corinth Canal and drove to the parking area next to the bridge. We walked into the middle of the bridge and gazed in wonder at it all. It must have taken the workmen ages to carve out such a steep sided gorge and I’m sure the logistics of it all would give any manager a headache even today.

If you feel that way inclined, you can do a bungee jump from the platform that’s over 60m high. It was closed the day we went, probably for winter, not that we would have attempted it.

Crossing back over the road to get to Harriet, we noticed the railings covered in plastic bags, pieces of cloth and what looked like paper towels tied to the bars. We still don’t know why?

We carried on around the coast (avoiding the expensive toll road) until we found Camping Athens. Stopping at one point next to a builders centre, to make sure we were on the right road.

Half of me loves visiting cities, the other half hates it. There’s usually lots going on but the trade off is putting up with the constant noise and smells of the traffic. Athens was no exception and the campsite was very noisy with the 8 lanes of vehicles passing by at all hours just beyond the trees.
We did manage to do 2 lots of washing and drying though, and after a clean up inside Harriet, I cut Andy’s hair outside in the shade under the olive trees.

When we’d checked in, the owner of the camping ground gave us a city map and a leaflet explaining the public transport system. Armed with it all, we ran the gauntlet and crossed the 8 lanes of traffic (the zebra crossing was for decoration only) and went to buy a bus ticket from the kiosk on the opposite side.

The ticket came in an envelope and looked like a credit card. It had 5 goes on it and could be used on all the public transport systems.

We caught the bus to the metro and then took the underground train 4 stops. As we climbed the steps out of the station we could see the Parliament building where they change the guards every hour.

We walked in the opposite direction hoping to orientate ourselves ready for when the film crew were following us around over the next couple of days.

Our first impression of the place wasn’t good. If it stood still somebody had sprayed it with paint, and not in a good way. It was the first time for a long time we felt conscious of petty crime too which was a shame.

A bit disappointed we returned to the campsite. A Landrover was parked next to us and we said hello to the lady just getting out the door. She introduced her husband and in her broken English told us they were from Rio de Janeiro in Brazil!! They'd been all over Europe including Russia, in a Landrover!! wow.

The next morning Luke & Tom arrived. They set up all their filming equipment inside the van, and then the bit we’d been dreading, they started the interview. They had to keep stopping when the rain hammered down on the roof and then starting again when it stopped. At one point we even had hailstones mixed in with the wet stuff. The noise was deafening!

After lunch we piled into their hire car and drove into the city. They found a secure car park called Parking Tetris lol. They weren’t kidding either.

Still raining, we walked through the graffiti covered streets ...

... to the Museum of Illusions. Wow what a place. The staff encouraged us to take as many photos as we wanted and didn’t mind the lads filming either. It was only small but we had such a lot of fun. We felt like big kids, great fun!!

A few people had recommended Cape Sounion and the Temple of Poseidon to us saying how beautiful it was. It wasn’t far from Athens and we thought it would be a great place to film. So the next day we arranged to meet the lads there. On the drive down we could see the trees blowing in the wind and the further we got to our destination, the harder the wind blew! We parked up next to the entrance of the temple and became aware of the van being buffered. It wasn’t just windy, it was freezing cold too. Rugged up, we paid the €4 entrance fee and went to look around.

The Temple turned out to be 5000 years old and I still can’t get my head around the age of all these ancient ruins. It was brilliant to see, but because it was so cold we didn’t stay long and instead, shared a lunch in the restaurant. We tried a Greek Gyros which basically turned out to be a kebab.

Driving back towards Athens, we stopped on route to do some more filming. Luckily the wind had died down a little so Luke managed to get the drone flying. Drone shots are always great in my opinion.

Back in Athens, after dropping Harriet off at the campsite, we met the lads again, this time at the Acropolis. Unfortunately it had closed 15 minutes before we got there. The soldiers had just turned up for the night, we presumed, to guard the place.

Opposite the entrance we noticed a huge rocky mound with people on it. We clambered up to see what was going on, and as we reached the top the view blew us away. We could see the whole of Athens, with the Ancient Agora below and the Acropolis above, bathed in the most gorgeous evening light.

We watched the sun go down and all agreed how lucky we had been to discover this place. Serendipity at its best! Not only that, we had saved the €20 entrance fee each!

We found a restaurant for tea and had a lovely meal with the lads.

We said our goodbyes and went in search of a cup of coffee.

We spotted a great place called Little Kooks, which turned out to be a Christmas Nutcracker themed cafe.

Even the staff were in costume.

It was brilliant. Full of little alcoves with floor to ceiling decorations.

We ordered a latte each and a pavlova between us.

Over the 3 days we spent in Athens, the city had grown on us and on our way back to the metro, even though it had gone dark, we were just in time to watch the changing of the guards.

The following morning, it was time to leave the campsite and head south again back over the Corinth Canal. Our destination being Monemvasia. The drive down the Peloponnese coast was on a par with the Norwegian scenery we’d seen 6 months earlier. Beautiful rocky bays opened up before us and the teal coloured water looked to us like rippled glass.

We drove through little villages and towns, some clinging to the sides of the hills, some below us on the coast. Every little place seemed to have at least one church if not more.

We stopped at one of the lay-bys for food and then continued on our way again.

As we wound our way over the mountain roads we wondered if we were on the right track or if Sally (Satnav aka Google Maps) had taken us along one of her so called “short cuts”? By then it had gone dark and by the time we’d reached the little town of Gefyra, we wondered, as we climbed into bed, if the place had been worth the journey?

After spending 4 nights on a noisy campsite in Athens, it was lovely to wake up after a well overdue peaceful nights sleep, and to make things even better, the sun was shinning. We were parked next to a little fishing harbour overlooking a huge lump of rock in the sea. The views were stunning.

We walked into the little town with the sun on our back. Local people were going about their daily business, the shops were open and so were the cafes. Lots of people were sat outside in the shade chatting to each other, so we found a seat and ordered a latte each. We used their free WiFi to download more episodes of Suits from Netflix and wandered back for lunch.

We’d read there were 2 free electric points where we’d parked so we plugged the cable in. Happy days.

In the afternoon we went back into the town and walked down the causeway that connected the rocky island to Gefyra, It didn't look much.

We passed a few stone dwellings

and walked along the narrow road for about 20 minutes when a huge fortification wall, complete with a small arched entrance way, stood before us.

As we walked through we were amazed to find a small medieval town full of beautiful stone buildings and narrow cobbled streets. It looked like something straight out of a Harry Potter book.

We wandered around for ages, under arch ways, along the sea wall, and up and down so many steps.

Beautiful flowers were everywhere, in February too.

Monemvasia was definitely worth the journey and our favourite Greek destination so far!!

We woke up again to blue skies and sunshine, and while Andy filled the van with water from the tap, I made the beds, cleaned the bathroom and washed up.

Sunday again, the weeks go so quickly, I don’t want to go home.

Over a cup of tea we made a rough plan of where we wanted to spend the next 10 days or so. We would visit a few more place on the Peloponnese and then the last week of February, catch a ferry to Corfu from Igoumenitsa. In the beginning, the tag line for the trip was Nordkapp to Crete, but it turned out that Crete is a 7 hour overnight ferry crossing and costs more than our budget would allow. Not only that, I hate ferries, and the thought of sleeping in a strange bed on a wobbly sea was more than I wanted to do. So Corfu it was. It starts with a ‘C’ and has 5 letters like Crete and it’s a Greek Island, so it’s near enough lol.

We spent the rest of the day chilling out.