Monemvasia by morning, Mystras by afternoon, and Corinth in the evening

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.

Our lunch stop across from Monemvasia

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!

Mystras cathedral pregnant cat 

Check out the breastplate!?

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.

Corinth Coast

Evening setting the net at Corinth

Monemvasia: too pretty for just one post

This is how I feel.... Just can't handle the perfection of this town.  

Some other highlights...

Being able to see the stars from the balcony.

 Upper Town.  Now, it's mostly in ruins (other than an intact cistern and an amazing church) but it would have been where the majority of the population lived.  Lower Town would have been more mercantile in nature.

Lots of spiders on the path up to Upper Town

 The Cats.  Everywhere.  Looking for an easy meal, and finding it with our girls.

  

 The Ambiance, and the Quiet Streets.  Oh, and everything else...

'Our' Mansion, owned by a prominent Monemvasia family.

The girls' room

Monemvasia

Our rental house is the apartment seen on the left, right on the ramparts.

This improbable rock was somehow home to an amazing medieval walled town.  You can't even tell from the mainland that this rock could be home to houses, much less the most powerful town in the declining days of the Byzantine Empire (mid 1400s).  The town is a work of art. Roof tiles drain rain into underground cisterns (so the town could withstand siege), architecture displayed signs of Byzantine, Venetian and Ottoman civilization, and upgrades recently (by mostly wealthy Athenians) show the tremendous pride that Greeks have in their fascinating history.  The quiet town is a gem, truly.

Monemvasia means "single entry" and we were a bit taken aback about walking through the entry way into cobble-stone streets and leaving our car behind.  We were soon to discover how good it felt, though, as inside the walls lived 80 or 90 free-range cats, a plethora of shopkeepers who were overjoyed to share their town and country with us, a whole pile of ambiance, little scampering lizards, and a mansion rental with a balcony directly on the ramparts.  We could have stayed for a week.

Entrance to the walled town

Underneath our rental was access to the sea!

The gorgeous Stelaki Mansion

A shopkeeper shared with us that 80 or 90 cats are kept on the island to help with the mice problem.  They are (lightly) fed and taken care of by a vising vet.  And they especially liked this cafe!  We counted 18 or 20 curled up beneath the tables and on chairs.