How many steps are there to the Palamidi Fortress – depends it would seem on who wrote the guidebook. But between 850 & 999, on second thoughts one can always get a taxi, or I bet there’s a donkey lurking in some back alley waiting to take you on a hair raising trip for a few thousand drachma. Poor donkey! Why do they never look happy?
The fortress takes its name from that very clever Greek, Palamedes, who according to mythology, invented the dice, lighthouses, scales and a form of chess, amongst many other important things, to many to list.
- K: Gid Coe sounds different when listening from abroad 📻
- H: 😆
- H: Have done 6 trips up and down the stairs this morning so that’s 210 steps up 😁. Only 23 more to do 🥴
- K: 😂 😂 😂
- H: Me neither. Just done another 4 trips up and down our stairs. 😆
Epidavros – was once a famous healing centre and sanctuary with temples, altars, statues, stadium and theatre, a theatre that is now it’s star attraction, the rest of the site is really just a pile of rubble. Built in two tiers in perfect symmetry, with amazing acoustics, it’s a tribute to the mathematicians of the time, and probably still now.
H: Like J’s rendition of the opening to 12th night😁
K: if music be the food of love, play on.. wonder how she’s getting on with zorba? 🤔
H: I think she got banned cos she was getting too friendly with the men on either side of her 😁.
K: palamidi starting to look nice in late afternoon sun. shame you’ve still not made it to the top?
H: Not half way yet 😅. But am having to do office work at the same time😁
- K: that’s dedication taking your road closures and dumped cars to Greece!
- H: Just done another 5 so over halfway now 😁
- K: Yay!
- H: 14 to go 😆
- K: are you stopping for tea or shall I go and play gooseberry to J and Zorba!
- H: Definitely stopping for tea. Need a baklava to replace the sugar have used up 😁. Think might have stifado tonight after all this exercise 🙂
- K: Imagine you will be stifado! I quite fancy keftedes with some piperies psites..
K: nibbles.. 😆
H: Dates? Or prunes?
H: Now down 20 trips. Just looked at itinerary and that says 850. So actually only got 5 more to go 😆
K: guide book says 999 what have explore done with the others? 😱 but then it’s American, they always boast.. bigger and better!
- K: my lovely guidebook from 1968 as published in London says 857..
- K: btw they’re olives.
- H: Friend says ‘I so wish we had smell apps!! Feeling nostalgic for Greek holidays, so made a Stifado . An amazing Greek beef casserole with caramelised onions nutmeg cinnamon and clove red wine brandy and rosemary. When life returns will have to have an evening with lots of food drink and merriment xx’
- K: 👻 👻 👻 but sounds 😋
H: So this is the view from J’s room…..
H: This the view from ours😆
K: 😂 😂
K: This is J’s roommate
J: Please God, she`s not going to tread the grapes for my wine in those shoes, is she….albeit they are probably preferable to her bare feet!
H: Challenge completed😃. 875 steps done! Like the idea of the blog. 😁. Have been giving our greek day to the folks on our daily skype call. They are liking the depths of our imagination 😆
H: I decided yesterday that as we should have been going to the Palamidi Fortress by climbing 850 steps, I thought I would replicate this by going up and down the stairs in the communal hallway in my flat block. There are 5 flights of 7 stairs – so this entailed going up and down 25 times. I did 6 fairly quickly as had 3 bags of shopping, followed by another trip with the post and rubbish and 1 for luck. After lunch I did another 4 and a further 5 at cup of tea time. Just before dinner, another 5. The final 5 were completed by 8pm. And the final upshot of this….I arrived at the fortress too late and it had closed, my neighbours must have wondered what the hell was happening outside their doors and I have sore muscles today.
J: Oh damn it, I`m in fits of giggles and now I am also suffering fitness envy, says she….reaching for another bottle of wine. Would it go with a dozen Cadbury`s cream eggs do you suppose?
C: Shame all that effort and it was closed. Had a look at a pic of the fort and yes it’s on quite a big hill, shame there was no cable car as Tbilisi, that would have saved you getting such sore legs.
J: Zorba offered to piggy back H but she was too proud to accept, so he piggy backed me instead, as I have absolutely no prise and I got there just before it closed….ya boo! Merely yet another ABC!….albeit with great views.
K: I got a taxi, chilled at the top, had a bottle of wine and a few olives with a melitzanosalata and pitta. got bored waiting and took a donkey ride back down.. sorry you guys couldn’t make it! Anyhow, what’s with all the exercise murlarky! we’re on holiday, supposed to be away from Matts daily exercise regime.. xx 😂
J: Typical of you to get everything jus right. You have the luck of the devil. The café had closed when I got there and there was not even an olive to be had, let alone a refreshing drink and some sustaining food. Then, to cap it all, I was lumbered with having to guide Carol back down, where we passed H still struggling up hill….but then we all know that I`m well and truly on the downhill slope!! I am now quite bruised from Carol repeatedly thumping me. Well that`s my exercise over for a while yet. I`m now only doing arm exercises, ie. lifting bottles, and sometimes glasses, of wine.” Yamas!” (My laptop doesn`t have the Greek alphabet, I wonder why…..!)
Nafplion – or Nafplio or Nauplia or even Navplion – take your pick. A charming town with easy strolling, narrow, winding streets full of atmosphere, wonderful Venetian architecture and a lovely beach promenade. Over the years it as been ruled by Ottomans and Venetians, it was the first capital of independent Greece (1820’s) after the war of independence against the Turks, and where the first ‘Greek’ Printing Office, Parliament, Theatre of Greece and Pharmacy were constructed.
Zorbas Explorers in the Peloponissos 