Today was a travel day. We reluctantly left Monemvasia, but only after an early morning walk up to the old town and to view the church, then swimming at the castle, then finally to drive towards Corinth, our hotel stop for the evening.
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| Our lunch stop across from Monemvasia |
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| Just as we were leaving the restaurant we were called back to see the visiting turtle (who comes everyday to eat the octopus and fish bit that the restaurant owners toss into the harbor). |
The half-way point aligned to the town of Sparta, which upon reading the various guidebooks sounded very boring (apparently, the Spartans were too busy fighting to leave much trace of their civilization, which is a good warning I suppose) but the nearby town of Mystras sounded intriguing. It's one of the most important Byzantine sites in Greece, and was in fact the last rulers of the empire (1262-1460) found their artistic and cultural center, that is until they had to surrender to the Turks in 1460. Mystras dazzled us. Well worth the stop. We did let Sven out of the car in Sparta to see the sites, but the report was not very exciting. But we just had to let the archaeologist go see Sparta before we left the area!
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| Mystras cathedral pregnant cat |
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| Check out the breastplate!? |
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| What is left of Sparta (abandoned in 13th century, the buildings were dismantled to reconstruct Mystras) |
Corinth, a less than inviting stop. I must say this was my only disappointing hotel find of the trip. It was passable, but Corinth did not seem like a travelers destination. We got a lot of confused looks as we checked in to the hotel and walked the boardwalk. We needed a place close to the Athens airport for our flight the next day, but I didn't want to bring us back into Athens, so while we survived and there were no big negatives, we all heartily checked out early the next morning to go check out the amazing site of Ancient Corinth. We wished we'd checked out earlier so we could have avoided the heat, but we do have a teenager now, so certain things are just not possible.
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| Corinth Coast |
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| Evening setting the net at Corinth |
Corinth, a less than inviting stop. I must say this was my only disappointing hotel find of the trip. It was passable, but Corinth did not seem like a travelers destination. We got a lot of confused looks as we checked in to the hotel and walked the boardwalk. We needed a place close to the Athens airport for our flight the next day, but I didn't want to bring us back into Athens, so while we survived and there were no big negatives, we all heartily checked out early the next morning to go check out the amazing site of Ancient Corinth. We wished we'd checked out earlier so we could have avoided the heat, but we do have a teenager now, so certain things are just not possible.
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