Nafplio – first capital city of modern Greece

We had a bit of a rough night at Sampatiki.  Zeus decided to act all ‘God like’ and send thunder and lightening, and rain – lots of it!  We knew it was coming, having checked the weather forecast on google and had put our ear plugs in so we would get a good nights sleep.  However, the rain was that loud on Sonny’s roof that we woke up a few times.  At one point I woke up and told Mel someone was banging on the door.  Mel got up to check, only to realise I had been dreaming and it was probably the thunder that had woken me.  We eventually surfaced around 8ish and after our feast at the taverna the night before we didn’t want any breakfast.  It was a cup of hot lemon each to detox and some coffee and then we were on our way to Nafplio.  Moving off the 3^rd peninsular onto the thumb!  The rain still kept coming on and off and we saw a couple of lovely rainbows.

Somewhere over the rainbow.....

The sun eventually came out, and it was a lovely 45 mile route around the coast to Nafplio. We parked up by the port (N37.57117 E22.80095), overlooking the Bourtzi Fortress.

Nafplio Port, overlooking Bourtzi Fortress

After a quick bite to eat, we headed out for a walk along the harbour, where there were a few boats parked up offering day trips.  Plus, a couple of tourist trains sit at the end of the walkway - but no tourists to take around the town this time of year.  From here you get a good view across to Bourtzi, that sits on a little islet in the middle of the harbour.  It is the town’s third fort and was built in 1473 by the Venetians to control the shipping lane to the town.  It remained a fortress until 1865, and was then used as many things before being converted into a hotel.  Our Rough Guide book tells us that Bourtzi is the most photographed in Nafplio.  So, not wanting it to loose its ranking status, I took a few photos of it!

Bourtzi Fortress

Bourtzi with a large sailing boat just leaving the harbour. It had a Union Jack flag on the back, so guessing they are Brits.

The old town is full of pretty streets, with some very upmarket shops.  You can tell some money has been spent on it and clearly gets a lot of tourist in the summer months.

There are 4 museums here – archaeological, folklore, war and a Komboloi museum

We had never heard of Komboloi.  It is a collection of worry beads and rosaries from Greece, the Middle and Far East and parts of Western Europe.  Apparently the Komboloi (worry beads) is one of the most famous features of Greek life, used to relieve stress.  Made from various materials some date from 1550.

The Lion of St Mark from the Venetian days in the main square

Mosque and Turkish fountain

Shops cashing in on that famous Greek philosopher!

Loved this cute display

The funniest part of the day was that we spent about 20 minutes wandering up and down the streets looking for the church of Saint Spyridhon.  The first president of Greece, Ioannis Kapodistrias was assassinated on the doorstep of the church on Sunday 27 September 1931.  Shot and killed by a couple of vengeful Maniot clansmen and our guide book said the church still had the scars in the stone let by the bullets.  But when we eventually found it, boy was it a disappointment.

Yep, this is it - The finger marks the spot of the remains of the bullet hole!

By this time it was getting too late to visit the Palamidi and Akronafplia fortresses on the hill, so we headed back to the motorhome and decided to tackle them the next day.  When we got back there was one other motorhome parked up (Greek) at the harbour and a few fishermen.  There was a Brit camper there earlier in the day, who we had got talking to but he told us that he was moving on, to the beach. The next day we walked to the top of the Palamidi Fortress - 999 steps (according to locals) to the top.  It's Nafplio’s principal fort and was built by the Venetians between 1711 and 1714.  It was a steep climb, you can actually drive to the top but we needed the exercise.

Palamidi Fortress, high on the hill

Palamidi takes its name from Palamedes (Nafplio's famous legendary son), who was responsible for a range of inventions including dice, lighthouses and measuring scales -according to mythology!

It’s a lot of steps to climb.  I didn't count them but it felt a lot more than 999!

Having a rest before the final push to the top

It costs €4 to go in and walk around the fortress but there isn’t a lot to see and given that we have already walked around umpteen fortresses in Greece over the last 7 weeks we decided not to go in but just to admire the views from the top.

A factory on the outskirts of Nafplio burns the remains of the olive trees (once the olives have been picked from them) to make a bi-product.  Unfortunately. that means from October-December (picking season) it produces smog across the town.

Akronafplia to the west of Palamidi is another fort occupying the ancient acropolis.  Most of it lies in ruins, although the end of the lower part of the castle was converted to a hotel. Once again as is the history of Greece, the fort went through a change of hands following sieges from Byzantine to Ottoman occupation.

We got chatting to a Greek man who was wandering around the site.  His English was very good and he told us he is married to an English lady from Hemel Hempstead (which is near to where I used to live - small world).  He met her 54 years ago when she was out visiting the country. He said it had been 25 years since he was last here and nothing had changed.  It was still crumbling away and the hotel was closed.  Apparently, the hotels used to be owned by the government and they were pocketing all the money and so when the crisis came, they all closed.  He did say that things were improving financially in Greece but very slowly.  From Nafplio, we have moved from the harbour a few miles around the coast to Karathonas beach.  

Times must be hard here, as they have made their own walkways to the boats using old pallets

The weather isn't brilliant but there are a couple of people swimming, some joggers, a couple of camper vans and of course a wild dog!  For us, it's just a quick stroll along the lovely sandy beach before the rain comes again!

Sally x