After
spending 2 lovely days/nights in the mountain village of Dimitsana, we
continued along the road through Steminitsa and to the village of
Andritsana. We
stopped off here to have some lunch and it’s one of those villages where time
has stood still, with its old wooden houses, a few places to eat but not a lot else. We continued on a further 15kms along the road, and came to The Temple of Apollo
Epikourio at Bassae, a UNESCO World Heritage Site that sits high up at 1131m. Building
of the temple, dedicated to the god of healing and the sun started in 5th
century BC and is considered one of the best preserved monuments in the country. The only problem is that it is covered in a
giant marquee, to protect it from the elements.
Mel decided he had seen enough Greek stones to last him some time, so
had a kip in the motorhome whilst I had a leisurely walk around.
Once inside the marquee, you can’t fail to be impressed by the size of
the thing, which archaeologists are slowly restoring. It remained
forgotten for 1700 years, until the 18th century and given the isolation
of the site most of it remained intact. That is until some Brits bribed
the Turkish commander of the Peloponnese to get their hands on it and in 1814
many of the marble frieze sculptures were boxed up and shipped to Britain and
installed in the British Museum, London. Similar story to the
controversial Elgin Marbles (of Athens) that also sit in the British Museum. In
my opinion we have had them long enough now and should be returned to Greece,
their homeland!
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| The classical temple |
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| The remaining friezes on the top |
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| Scattered remains of the old archaic temple dating back to 7th century BC that remained in use until the classical temple was built - now under the big marquee in the background |
We
decided to continue along the road, that eventually winds down to the sea and
we settled on stopping at a little beach town of Kalo Nero. (N 37.29780 E21.69521). Not
before having to manoeuvre around these mountain goats who were sunning
themselves in the road and weren't prepared to move.
Mel
had done all the driving (yet again!) and we had driven further than we normally would (82 miles), but I was feeling a bit under the weather and just wanted to get to a beach and relax for a few days, rather than stop another night in the mountains. Mel was just ready for his 'Fix' (Greek beer)! Which he had, followed by some delicious Greek food next to where we were wild camping.
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| Mel drinking his 'Fix' Greek beer at the beach taverna |
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| Pretty and unusual flowers walking up to the castle |
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| Top of the castle, with great views overlooking the lower town |
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| It's free to get in but there’s not much left to see inside the castle apart from this old theatre, but you do get some great views |
Road signs in Greece usually have the Latin written underneath on the main roads but not in this little town. Good job we learnt the Cyrillic Alphabet, which is similar to what the Greek’s use, to navigate our way around!
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| Found this little fella/lady wandering the roads on our way back to Kalo Nero beach. Must be moving house day! |
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| More pretty flowers in the village |
It is hard to believe it's 4th November and we are swimming in the sea here. It is so warm and crystal clear. We love this beautiful Ionian Sea.
We have had 4 lovely days/nights wild camping here. Over the nights we have been joined by 2 Dutch motorhomes, 4 Germans, and 4 Greeks - it's been so relaxing and peaceful. The waiter at the local taverna told us that in the summer there were about 45 motorhomes here at one time. Glad we weren't here then!
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| We wrote some words on stone to remember our time here - it might become one giant paperweight for us! |
Sally
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