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Part 4: Porto Heli, Epidaurus, Mycene,
Athens
6.6: Porto Heli
-> Epidaurus -> Porto Heli
Hotel Porto Heli, Porto Heli.
Weather: sunny, blue sky with some
clouds in the morning in Porto Heli. Over the day the sky closes then
reopens again. Brief rain around 6pm in Epidaurus, then sunshine and
blue sky which cloud cover with closes and opens again.
We get up at 9am, get ready and have breakfast at 9:50am. After that we
relax in the hotel pool.
The prepaid Internet card I bought yesterday (5h, 15 Euro) stops
working, because the bandwidth limit of 10 MByte has been reached. 10
MB is sufficient for surfing on a few web pages nowadays, not for 5
hours of web surfing. I explain this in the reception, they make a
phone call and after 10 minutes the card is active again and has no
bandwidth limit anymore. This kind of problem must happen frequently.
We only leave the hotel after 4pm. The idea is to do the Epidaurus
theatre today, otherwise tomorrow things will be too rushed. Also,
today the weather is good. We first stop at a food supermarket where we
buy some groceries, then drive to Epidaurus. The drive takes almost one
hour and a half because we get lost (we turn right at one point driving
towards the village of Epidaurus, not the archaeological site).
It's almost 6pm when we arrive at the site. There are some tourists,
but not too many. Almost soon it starts raining and continues raining
until 6:10pm. After that it stops raining, the sun pops out and we get
some blue skies. The entrance ticket to the site costs 6 Euro. The
theatre is impressive and so is the acustics - perfect sound conditions
everywhere. Near the theatre is the other part of the
archaeological site. This is just ruins, which are in part being
restored. Not that much to see.
At 7:35pm we finally drive back. This time we just need one hour for
the 53km separating Epidaurus from Porto Heli. Although we drive quite
fast on
these mountain roads, people overtake us all the time.
At 8:35pm we arrive in Porto Heli. We walk along the waterfront looking
for a restaurant. Decent food, but the bill is a surprise. In the menu
they indicated 14 Euro for the seafood spaghetti, for two people. The
bill states 28 Euro for the spaghetti - apparently it was 14
Euro/person (!).
After that we don't do much. We just walk a bit around the waterfront,
with Shirley inspecting the shops. Not that many shops and
many are already closed anyway. Overall there is not much activity
in Porto Heli right now. No pubs with music full of people, very few
people, not much life. Perhaps right now is low season.
7.6: Porto Heli
-> Tyrins, Argos, Mycene, Napflio -> Porto Heli
Hotel Porto Heli, Porto Heli.
Weather: same pattern as yesterday,
without rain: sunny, blue sky with some
clouds in the morning in Porto Heli. Over the day the sky closes then
reopens again in the evening. Much hotter than yesterday (up to
30°C at noon, but only 21°C in the evening).
We get up at 9am, get ready and have breakfast around 10am. At 11am we
leave the hotel and drive to the Tyrins archaeological site near
Napflio. We briefly stop in Giannolouva for a photo shoot, then
continue driving towards Napflio.
The 80km drive between Porto Heli and Napflio takes 1:30h and is no
fun. It's mostly a mountain road with lots of narrow curves, passing
through many villages, there are speed limits everywhere, even where
they make no sense (and they warn of radar speed checks).
At 12:45pm we are at the Tyrins site (ticket costs 3
Euro/person). This site essentially consists of a long thick wall made
of huge stones ("cylops wall"), perhaps 200-300m long, with some ruins
behind. Kind of interesting, although very little is left of
the ancient structures.
We spend 40 minutes in Tyrins, then continue to Argos, arriving there
10 minutes later. In Argos we visit the archaeological museum (2 Euro),
a relatively small museum with some interesting artifacts.
At 2:40pm we have lunch in Argos, in a restaurant in the main square
next to the church. We have some noodles, which this time are a bit
better than usual, but overloaded with cream and cheese. This is a
general problem in Greece - in all restaurants where we have pasta
it is full of cream and cheese. Overall the food in Greece is
heavy on meat and fats. Lots of grilled dishes in the restaurants.
Ar 3:30pm we continue to the next site, the ancient Mycene, arriving
there around 4pm. This actually should be the highlight of our visit to
Greece, the famous site of Mycene. We visit the grave of Atreus and the
ancient city of Mycene (combined ticket is 8 Euro/person), but what is
left is not too impressive.
The grave of Atreus is largely intact, but inside it's just an empty
room with no decorations, paintings etc. In Egypt in the valley of the
Kings all graves, which by the way are even older than the Atreus one,
are richly decorated with wall frescoes. The walled city of Mycene is
interesting, but almost nothing is left of the structures. Of all
buildings only the base walls are left - again no decorations, mosaics,
nothing. It's just interesting to note that the site of the city lies
on top of a hill overlooking the plains, near to what probably in
previous times was a small river.
We stay in Mycene - even visiting the museum which is kind of
interesting - until approx. 6pm, then drive to Napflio, arriving
there at 6:30pm. Napflio has a cute old town, with renovated old
buildings in a nice setting. The city is heavily oriented towards to
tourists. We have a small thing in a cafe, then
at 8:20pm start the long drive back to the hotel in Porto Heli,
arriving there shortly after 10pm.
8.6: Porto Heli
Hotel Porto Heli, Porto Heli.
Weather: overcast in the morning,
until the afternoon the sky opens up and becomes blue. No rain. Not as
warm as yesterday and quite fresh in the evening (a little bit over
20°C).
As usual we get up at 9am and have breakfast. We don't do much the
whole day and just relax in the hotel. In the evening we explore a bit
Porto Heli. This is a very small place, with essentially just one main
road with shops, cafes and restaurants. It is mainly a harbour where
boats anchor for the night, but there is no historic core. Porto Heli
lacks the charm of a typical mediterranean old harbour city.
9.6: Porto Heli
-> Athens
Athens Golden City Hotel,
Marni street, Athens. 80 Euro for a small double (breakfast included),
with attached bath+shower, elegantly and classy furnished room, A/C,
TV, phone, no fridge. Fast WLAN in the room at no extra charge.
Friendly and flexible hotel staff - they make a baby bed available for
us, even if they apparently did not know of our booking (didn't they
receive the notification from booking.com?). Room is ok, but is very
small and outside the street is noisy.
Weather: sunny and blue sky the
whole day. Sky is never overcast, just some little clouds in the
evening in Athens. Warm, up to 30°C in the early afternoon, fresh
in the evening (chilly wind before sunset in Athens).
We get up at 8:30am, get ready and have breakfast. Today the hotel
restaurant is full of people (there is a conference). After the
breakfast we get back to the room and get ready. By the time we finally
leave the hotel it's 11:05am.
The drive to Athens proceeds smoothly, across mostly mountainous
terrain with lots of curves which limits the average speed. Several
photo opportunities in spots with breathtaking scenery. Was planning
to stop at the bridge over the Corynth channel for a photo of the
channel, but apparently we just cross it without noticing it.
We are in Athens a bit after 2pm, then it takes some time to find the
hotel and we only check in after 3pm. Then we leave the
hotel for the museum.
Driving in Athens is not that crazy
as expected. The traffic is not that chaotic and there
are enough street signs. It is also easy
to get around, as you can use the Acropolis as a reference point.
At 3:50pm we arrive at the National Museum (we easily found a free
parking space in a side street of the museum - the museum actually is
in
walking distance from the hotel).
The first hall of the museum with the golden treasury of the Myceneans
is impressive.
These people really had lots of gold. The
other exhibits shown cover the entire history of all Greek
civilisations from
the stone age (neolitic) to the Roman times.
After 6pm I'm out of the museum and join Shirley and Alissia, who
finished early. We
drive to the hotel to briefly fetch some stuff, then drive to the
Plaka. It takes some effort to find the Plaka or a place close
to the Plaka. We only need a few minutes to find a (free) parking.
Apparently it is not that difficult to find free parkings in Athens.
At 7:15pm we start walking towards the Plaka. Since it's dinner time,
we stop in a restaurant for dinner at 7:30pm. Just for a change this
time the dinner is good and even cheaper than usual. After dinner
we go for some shopping in the Plaka, then drive back to the hotel. We
are back in the hotel shortly before 10pm and park the car for the
night in a
side road next to the hotel.
10.6: Athens
-> Munich
Home, sweet home
Weather: sunny and blue sky in the
morning in Athens; a bit less blue sky in Rome
We get up at 6:10am, get ready and leave the hotel at 7:15am. Initially
we get lost a bit, then manage to get on the airport motorway (toll
is 2.70 Euro) and at 8am are at the airport. There I meet the guy from
the Pegasus car rental. He checks the car and finds a scratch on the
left side (happened yesterday while the car was parked near the museum
- some idiot scratched the car while we were away). The guy suggests 50
Euro for the scratch (car is insured, but there is a 400 Euro amount
which you have to pay yourself).
We then check in, proceed to the gate and board the plane. The flight
leaves more or less on time and arrives in Rome Fiumicino airport
shortly before 10am local time. Then the fun begins. We proceed to the
transfer counter and try to get the boarding pass. After five minutes
of waiting I go to the lady at the Lufthansa counter. 'Oh... this
is an Air One ticket, you must go there', and points to a counter to
the right. Fine, so I get to this other counter (Alitalia). I queue up
at 10:10am, then half an hour later it's finally my turn. These people
are extremely inefficient - they manage to process just two passengers
per hour. At 10:45am we are told that this is the wrong counter and are
sent back to the original counter. There another lady tells us that
it's too early for the boarding pass for Munich, since the flight
leaves at 1pm. So at 10:50am we walk to a restaurant where Shirley has
some pasta.
At 12pm the transfer counter is still empty, so we proceed to the gate,
since they told us we can get the boarding pass at the gate. But the
gate is also empty. At 12:20pm I'm back at the transfer counter and
finally the Lufthansa counter is staffed. Although the lady claims she
is not responsible, I finally get the boarding passes. But the seats
are all non-contiguos and we are three with a small child. Sigh.
Luckily once on the plane the Lufthansa cabin staff manages to reseat
two people so that we are all in the adjacent seats.
The plane leaves with half an hour of delay (but what can you expect
from a European airline?). Then everything proceeds smoothly and
shortly before 5pm we are back home.
Copyright 2007
Alfred
Molon
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