Our Blog - Greece 2024

This years fall trip was a week-long drive through Peloponnese in Greece. It is a peninsula at the southern tip of the Greek mainland and is connected to the mainland by the Isthmus of Corinth. This area was where a lot happened in Ancient Greek history (like the Peloponnesian Wars from 431-404 BC), and is the home of a lot of major ancient Greek city-states, including Olympia (home of the Olympic games) and Sparta (the warrior city-state). There was also a lot of fighting with the Persian Empire, and all of the city-states in the Peloponnese, with the notable exception of Sparta, joined Alexander's expedition against the Persian Empire. Greece fell to the expanding Roman Empire in 146 BC.

The Peloponnese possesses many important archaeological sites dating from the Bronze Age through to the Middle Ages. This is what brought us to the area this trip. We went through a good subset of the archeological sites as we drove around the peninsula, before a full-day back in Athens before heading home.

It was quite foggy during our connection in Munich!

We ended up doing a couple changes in our itinerary at the very last minute. We booked a private tour to Ancient Corinth on the day after our arrival, which was confirmed a few weeks ago. Then on Sunday, she texted to tell us that the archeological site is now closed on Tuesdays ("winter" season started November 1st). We reorganized the beginning and end of the trip and while she was booked already, the guide was able to find us a new tour guide for another day. Whew ... first problem averted! No big issues with the flights (just a small delay leaving Munich) and we were able to fairly quickly find our rental car and get on the road. Coming out of the airport, we ended up in the wrong lane, which we were able to rectify on the first exit and turn around. Unfortunately, it was on a toll road so we ended up paying 2 tolls to turn around, but second problem averted.

I was trying to determine the best way to organize this blog ... chronologically by the founding of the various sites, or in the order that we saw them. I went back and forth a couple of times and ended up with in the order that we saw them, as that just makes it way easier.

First stop on the new itinerary was to the Temple Of Poseidon, which sits at the very southern tip of mainland Greece. Then one night in a lovely little B&B in Ancient Corinth.

The next morning, instead of our guided tour, we headed up to a plateau over the city to the fortress of Acrocorinth. Definitely a workout to get from the parking lot up to the fortress! Back on track with the itinerary, we next drove to the ancient religious and healing center of Epidaurus and its amazing theater.

In general, the trip is a loop where we move hotels every night. However, we got to spend 2 days in a very modern hotel in Nafplion while visiting the ancient city of Nemea and the port city of Nafplion.

You may be wondering where Lucy was during our trip ... she stayed at a new place this time, and we got lots of updates showing her with her buddies. For the first few days, it was a couple French Bulldogs.

Leaving Nafplion, we headed West to the coast, visiting the Archaeological site of Mycenae and the Archaeological Site of Ancient Messene on the way to the port city of Pylos. We didn't stay much in town, but visited the ancient Palace of Nestor and the Methoni Castle just outside of town.

Then we headed inland again and up into the mountains to take a peek at the Temple of Apollo Epikourios at Bassae, which was built on a mountain plateau. Then back down to the water to Ancient Olympia, the home of the first Olympic Games.

We opted for the "long way" the next day, following the northern coastline back towards Athens, making a stop for our rescheduled guided visit of the Archeological site and museum of Ancient Corinth and another Temple of Apollo.

This was the first time driving on the Greek mainland (we had driven on the island of Crete many years ago), and I have to admit, the roads were pretty good. The ones going to and from the Temple of Apollo Epikourios in Bassae, which was on a plateau in the mountains, were a bit twisty but in good shape. It was nice that it was low season so we were almost the only people on the road!

Later in Lucy's "camp days", she was joined by another Corgi and they seemed to get along really well.

Then we headed back to the Athens airport to drop off the rental car. Similar to our first "road problem" when we arrived, we had a final "road problem" taking the rental car back. We ended up in the correct lane to find the rental car return, but the Hertz sign wasn't visible and so I went right back the return. Unfortunately, that meant we went around the airport, through the departures (had to take a ticket but no cost), through the short-term parking area, and finally to the rental car return. Whew ... hopefully that will be the final problem on the trip. We found the train to the center of Athens and 5 minutes after exiting the train, were checking into our hotel.

We spent 2 nights in Athens, which gave us a full day to re-explore the city (we were here many years ago). We spent all day looking at the sites of Athens outside of the Acropolis, since we decided not to go to the Acropolis and Parthenon this visit. Then the flight back home.