Two Years Before the Souvlaki

Good Friday and Easter

For the first time in our three years here, Orthodox Easter fell a week later than Western Easter.  Cretans celebrate Good Friday by eating grilled octopus, so we once again happily participated in the local tradition, this year in a taverna on the waterfront.

Later that evening, my sister Brittany arrived from California, and Saturday morning we celebrated Easter.  We celebrated early because Sunday morning Matt flew to Cambridge, England for a physics conference.  Graham and Maizie enjoyed the Easter baskets that Aunt Brittany the Easter Bunny brought, and they really had fun searching for the eggs. 

Waiting to look for eggs.

Maizie takes searching for Easter eggs very seriously.

Graham was thrilled to discover the plastic eggs were filled with candy.

Not the Peloponnese: Delphi

On the final day of our trip, we were no longer in the Peloponnese, having crossed the Gulf of Corinth via the Rio-Antirrio bridge the day before.  After spending the night in the modern village of Delphi, we drove over to the ancient site of Delphi, the "naval of the earth" in the classical Greek world, and home of the famous oracle.  The site was a major worship site for the god Apollo, and a temple dedicated to him is one of the major remaining ruins, along with a theatre and a stadium.  That stadium was the location of the Pythian Games, the last of the four sites of ancient Greek games which we saw on our trip.

Unlike the previous Sunday at Corinth, Delphi on Sunday, April 1st was open, free of charge, and crowded.  We quickly decided Delphi's proximity to Athens is a major cause of the throngs of visitors.   Although the views from mountainside location were spectacular, the ruins weren't that much more impressive than we'd seen earlier in the week.  Perhaps other visitors to Greece feel the call of the oracle more than we did; who knows?

Entering Delphi.

The restored stoa of Athenians.

The Temple of Apollo.

Another view of the Temple of Apollo.

The theatre.

The stadium.

Mom looks out over the theatre and the Pleistos Valley.

This is as close as we got to the gymnasium for the Pythian Games.

The Tholos at the sanctuary of Athena Pronaia.

The view up toward the main site from the Temple of Athena.

Then it was time to get back in the car.  We drove up the mountains toward Arachova, the ski village at the base of Mt. Parnassus where we had lunch.  After a good meal, we continued east towards Athens and the airport, completing the loop we'd started the previous Sunday.  My parents checked into the airport Sofitel hotel and prepared for their early morning flight to California. We repacked our suitcases, making room for all the goodies my parents had brought us from the U.S., and flew back to Crete, arriving home at midnight.  It was a fantastic vacation. 

Whew!  Good thing we wrapped up this Peloponnese vacation report, because we're about to head off again.  Tomorrow, Matt is leaving for a conference in Cambridge, England.  Last night my sister Brittany flew in from California, and on Monday morning, we're sailing to Santorini for a few days before continuing on to Mykonos on Wednesday.  We're celebrating Easter today, a day early - or six days late, for those of you on the Western calendar.  We'll likely be off-line while we're away, but be prepared for seeing pictures of our fabulous Cycladic adventure next weekend!

The Peloponnese: Olympia

For our seventh day in the Peloponnese, we toured the ruins of Olympia, the site of the original Olympic games from 776 BC until 394 AD.  The games were in honor of Zeus, and the large temple of Zeus housed a famous ivory and gold statue sculpted by Phideas, which was one of the ancient wonders of the world.

We'd spent the night before in the modern town of Olympia and, after a less than filling breakfast, entered the site.  Unlike some of the other sites we'd visited, ancient Olympia hosts more tourists and thus is not only better guarded, but many of the sites are roped off and off-limits to visitors.   As we'd come to expect from our week, visiting the site was greatly improved by the green grass, flowering trees, and colorful wildflowers growing among the ruins.  Ancient Olympia was beautiful and has recovered from the 2007 wildfires.

The colonade on the eastern side of the gymnasium.

The Palaestra, the training area for boxing and wrestling.

Graham on a column with wildflowers with the workshop of Phideas in the background.

The Leonidaion was lodging for the althletes, the original Olympic Village.  The hill in the background, Mt. Kronos, burned during the 2007 fires, but now it's green again and dotted with sprinkler towers.

The center of the Leonidaion was originally a big swimming pool.

In spite of the steps leading up to it, the Temple of Zeus was off-limits.  A guard blew his whistle if you even stood on one of the pieces of the fallen columns.  They've so far only managed to reconstruct one of the huge columns.

The entrace to the Olympic stadium.

George is triumphant at having made it all the way to the far end of the stadium.

Another near-group shot, in the stadium on the judges bench.  Graham refused to participate this time because we were behind the rope and were being bad.

This picture of the treasuries was mostly taken for the blooming white tree in the background.

The Temple of Hera.

The partially reconstructed Philippeion.

The equestrian ride from the site to the museum was not enjoyed by either of our children.

Leaving Olympia, we drove north along the coast of the Ionina Sea to Patras, where we left the Peloponnese by crossing over the Gulf of Corinth via the Rio-Antirrio bridge.  We drove east along the north coast of the Gulf of Corinth until we reached Delphi at the foot of Mt. Parnasus.

Approaching the Rio-Antirrio bridge on our way out of the Peloponnese.

Snowy Mt. Parnassus, seen from the village of Galaxidi.

Passover

Today we're taking a break from chronicling our trip so we can provide you with some timely holiday blogging.

As we've noted previously, by moving to Crete, we went from being the least Jewish people in our neighborhood to the most.  It was a pleasant surprise that, at least during our first year here, we were able buy matzo in our local market.  Last year, after having vanished the previous September, a single box mysteriously appeared in mid-April.  This year, no such Passover miracle occured, and neither had we gone to Israel to stock up. So, in what has become a reoccuring theme, if we wanted matzo, we were going to have to make it ourselves.

It turns out that, as long as one isn't concerned with making kosher-for-passover matzo, it's actually pretty straighforward.  Graham and I used this recipe from Daniel Boulud.  First Graham mixed the ingredients: flour, warm water, salt, olive oil (not traditional, but certainly appropriate for Crete).

Graham stirring the dough.  That Robin Hood flour is what we use for a high-protein bread flour; it's imported from Canada, so the packaging is in English, so we can tell what it is.  Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure Robin Hood wasn't Jewish (or Canadian), nor is his flour kosher for Passover.

Once we had a dough, we ran it a little at a time through the pasta maker to make long thin sheets.  I cut them and Graham pricked them with a fork. 

I fed the dough through the pasta roller, while Graham turned the crank.

After a few minutes in a hot oven, the finished product looks pretty much like the real thing.

We held our seder on the second night, which was Saturday.  The pre-dinner portion of the event was held on the back patio, both because the balcony was still in full sun and so I could keep an eye on the leg of lamb roasting on the grill.

Attempting to explain the symbolism of the items on the seder plate during the first glass of wine/juice.

Once the lamb was off and the sun was nearly set, we moved downstairs for the matzo ball soup, which was followed by a Moroccan beet salad, Greek briam, and, of course, the grilled leg of lamb.

Graham insisted we include the Easter basket he made in school.

Graham is reclining. He is not a number; he is a free man!

Today, we baked our traditional macaroons, using the same food processor as last year.  I tried to get the kids to help skin the almonds, but Graham had no interest and Maizie started crying.  They did, however, eat the finished products.

Macaroons, year 6

The Peloponnese: Mystras

By the sixth day of our trip, we were happy to take a break from the Mycenaean, ancient Greek, and Roman ruins and visit the Byzantine ghost town of Mystras.  Located just a few kilometers outside of modern Sparta, the medieval town was a local capital and the second city of the Byzantine empire from the 13th through 15th centuries and was inhabited until the end of the nineteenth century, when the last occupants moved to nearby Sparta.

The old town is built on the side of a foothill of Mt. Taygetos, with a castle at the top and a palace roughly in the middle.  The site has two entrances, and we drove to the upper parking lot, entered, and then began walking up to the castle.  The views from the top were beautiful.  Spring was the perfect time to visit Mystras; the ruins were positively picturesque covered with wildflowers. 

A view of the castle and city walls of Mystras from the adjacent hill.

There were lots of wildflowers amid the ruined buildings.

Rising above the city is the snowy Mt. Taygetos.

George just outside the castle walls.

A group photo (minus Graham) with Mt. Taygetos in the background, taken at the very top of the castle

Outside the church of Agia Sophia.

Inside the church of Agia Sophia.

We saw lots of red poppies all over the Pelopennese  

In front of Agios Theodoros.

Looking up at the Palace and the Middle city from the Metropolis.

Graham is tired after walking (or being carried) all the way down from the castle, past the palace, to the lower city wall.

We are all grateful my dad moved the car from the upper parking lot to the lower, especially Graham, who wouldn't have walked back up it, and Matt, who would have had to carry him.

After we left Mystras, we drove up over the Taygetos mountains on our way to Kalamata.  At the top of the Langada pass, we ate lunch in a taverna with beautiful views of the snow-covered Mt. Taygetos.  After lunch, the kids fell asleep and slept on the three hour drive from Sparta through Kalamata to Olympia, our destination.

The view of snowy Mt. Taygetos from our lunch spot at the top of the Langada pass.

 

The Peloponnese: Tiryns and Sparta

On our fifth day in the Peloponnese, we checked out of our lovely hotel in Nafplio and drove to the nearby Mycenean ruins at Tiryns.  There was a scheduled strike of Ministry of Culture employees on Thursday afternoon, so we wanted to see the site before noon when the strike was supposed to begin.  Our guidebook claimed Tiryns was nicer to visit than Mycenae, with similar ruins but fewer crowds, but we were somewhat underwhelmed.  Unlike Mycenae, it had absolutely no signage or facilities for visitors; it mostly seemed like we were looking at piles of very large rocks.  Mycenae in April wasn't very crowded, anyway.  We didn't actually spend that long at Tiryns.  We left around noon and couldn't really tell if the three "workers" hanging out by the entrance observed the strike or not.

Tiryns did have some serious walls made out of very large stones.

Leaving Tiryns, we headed off to Sparta, a two-hour drive southwest of Nafplio.  Ancient Sparta, alas, is buried under the modern town, but we did stop at the Museum of the Olive and Greek Olive Oil, a very nice museum in the modern town.  We particularly enjoyed examining the reconstructions of ancient olive harvesting and pressing machines.

Graham demonstates a Byznatine-era olive mill.

There was a whole array of historical olive mills, presses, and storage containers.

After checking into our new hotel in the nearby village of Mystras, we went out for lunch followed by three plates of loukoumades for dessert.

The Peloponnese: Epidaurus

On our fourth day in the Peloponnese, we visited Epidaurus, home to an asclepeion, or healing sanctuary, and an enormous restored theatre. 

We visited the theatre first.  Built in the 4th century BCE, the theatre initially had 34 rows but was extended by another 21 rows during Roman times.  First excavated in 1881, it was renovated by 1954, when the first modern performance was held.  Today, the theatre holds 15,000.

The view from the cheap seats.

There were fantastic wildflowers blooming everywhere in the Peloponnese, and Graham kept insisting we take pictures of them, like this one.

Another stadium, although not the site of a major Panhellenic athletic event.

After checking out the theatre and the ruins of the healing sanctuary, we drove to the modern village of Archaia Epidaurus to see the Saronic Gulf and throw rocks into the sea.  It was a beautiful village.

Modern Ancient Epidaurus.

Back in Nafplio, we ate a late lunch and then walked along a paved path around the headland, which took us near one of Nafplio's three fortresses.

While the adults ate lunch, the kids ran around and played in this plaza.

As you can see, it was windy at the tip of the headland.

Here the path around the headland takes a shortcut through the cliff.

 

The Peloponnese: Palamidi and Nemea

Last Tuesday morning we toured Nafplio's Palamidi castle, an enormous Venetian fortress built on a hill high above the town.  Because we are smart, and also lazy, we drove up to the castle, rather than walking up the 857 steps climbing the 216-meter hill.  Palamidi was built between 1711 and 1714, taken by the Ottomans in 1715, and captured by the Greeks during the war for independence in 1822.

The cistern still had a little water.

Graham had a lot of fun running around and exploring the old fortifications.

Matt at the top of the long flight of stairs which we chose not to climb.

A view from the Palmidi of Napflio, its harbor, and the Plain of Argos in the distance.

After touring the fortress (and stopping by our hotel to swap out camera batteries), we piled back into the van and drove north to Nemea, home to an ancient site as well as modern wineries.  We stopped by ancient Nemea first.  Graham enjoyed playing hide and seek among the partially reconstructed Temple of Zeus, some Roman baths, and a scattering of broken columns and large rocks.

Three columns of the Temple of Zeus have survivied from antiquity.   Unfortunately, they've only gotten around to rebuilding five more so far.

The rest of the columns were lying nearby.

The Nemean Games were one of the four Panhellenic Games of ancient Greece.  Because we missed the ruins of Corinth, the site of the Isthmian Games, Nemea's was the first of three athletic sites we visited on our trip.  Nemea's stadium, currently being excavated by a team from UC Berkeley, was a short drive away.  We had the stadium to ourselves.

Matt at the ready on the starting line at the Nemea staduim. 

Maizie competing in the toddler division.

 After a quick lunch, we sampled Nemean wines at the Anastasiou and Palivos wineries.

Inside the Anastasios Winery tasting room with our purchases.

Outside the Palivos Winery.

The Peloponnese: Mycenae & Bourtzi Fortress

We spent the first four nights of our Peloponnese road trip in Nafplio, an extremely cute town that was actually Greece's first capital following independence from the Ottoman Empire.  Monday morning, our first full day in Nafplio, we got up and drove north to Mycenae, a major town in BC Greece.  The Mycenaean era, when the Myceneans controlled much of southern Greece, is from 1600 - 1100 BC, although the site has been occupied since the Neolithic era (before 3500 BC). 

The lion gate into Mycenae.

One of the tholos tombs without a roof.

The view of Mycenae from the parking lot.

The entrance to the Tomb of Agamemnon.

After visiting the site, its museum, and an adjacent tomb, we drove to nearby Larissa Castle, a twelfth-century fortress on a small peak overlooking the modern town of Argos.  It was sadly closed for renovation, but we enjoyed looking at the massive walls and the view over the plain of Argos, Nafplio, and the Saronic Gulf.

About as close as we could get to Larissa Castle.

We then drove into nearby Argos for ice cream and ouzo tasting before heading back to Nafplio, where we took a small boat out to Nafplio's Bourtzi Fortress, which guards the city's small harbor. 

Riding the ferry to the Bourtzi Fortess.

The obligatory photo of Graham on a cannon.

The view of Nafplio and the Palmidi fortress from the Bourtzi fortress.

The Peloponnese: Corinth

On Sunday, March 25th, Greece's Independence Day, instead of watching the parade, we flew to Athens.  My parents, who had flown in from California the night before, met us at the airport, and after we picked up our enormous Volkswagen rental van, we set off for a week-long road trip through the Peloponnese.  The Peloponnese is a peninsula in southern mainland Greece, set apart from the rest of the mainland by the Gulf of Corinth.  Approximately one hour after leaving the airport, we crossed the extremely narrow Corinth Canal and entered the Peloponnese.

High up above the Corinth Canal.

After walking out on the very high bridge over the canal, we drove west past the modern town of Corinth to ancient Corinth.  Settled since 6500 BC, the archaeological site houses classical Greek and Roman ruins.  Unfortunately, the site was closed for the March 25th holiday, so instead we visited a playground across the street, peered at the ruins through a fence, and ate lunch at a restaurant overlooking the ruins of the Roman agora.

Temple of Apollo, as seen through the fence.

We then set off for Acrocorinth, the acropolis of ancient Corinth that was occupied through the early nineteenth century.  The acropolis became a fortress under the Byzantines and was further rebuilt by the Venetians and the Ottomans.  Like ancient Corinth, it was closed for the March 25th holiday.  We checked out the exterior walls of the fortress and the views over the Gulf of Corinth, and then drove south to Nafplio, our base for the next four nights.

Outside the fortress of Acrocorinth

The Gulf of Corinth as seen from Acrocorinth.