Since we got here (Lechaio Beach if you're interested) life has slowed down. The weather has been warm, but with a persistant nrtherly wing that has made the beach swimming a little less comfortable. The beach is not up to NZstandards, but it is wonderful to wade out into water that is really luke warm and not have to leave because you are getting cold. The pool is a good size and again warm enough that you can hang around in the water for as londg as you want, especially as it is beautifully maintained by someone else.
On Tuesday & Wednesday we hung around the apartment. Thursay was a trip south to visit Ancient Epidaurus, a site that has been occpied from at least Mycinean times through to Roman. There is a large theatre that is still used for performances and has excellent accoustices, this being demonstrated by the guide of a tour party by clapping her hands all over the orchestra area with clear echos heard from where we were standing outside the theatre itself. The rest of the ruins indicate a wealthy and important centre, particularly for health and medical treatment, and there is a society dedicated to restoring parts of the ruins to their former glory. The town is set in a green valley with barren hills around. The restored parts of the ruins certainly give scale to the buildings and give an impression of how impressive they were when newly built. Like many settlements around here the town was sacked and looted more than once and was finally deserted after major earthquake damage.. Anyway after we had visited the theatre and the centre of the old town we were hot and decided to head for teh nearest beach at Palaia Epidavros.. The Greeks cannot keep the spelling of place names consistent, even in Greek, so you need to sound out place names phonetically to make sure you're heading in the right direction. Anyway we we found the town and saw a sign a a beach pointing down a barrow alleyway. With some doubt we manoeuved the car into it and headed round blind right angle corners and dodged the rubbish bins to suddenly arrive at the sea with the only way to go being a hard left hand turn onto an apparently pedestrian promenade. However there was a sign af a car at the other end so with much trepidation we rumbled over the beautiful paving to find a dusty unpaved parking area and small beach. Despite the perfect weather there were only half a dozen people on the beach so we grabbed a piec of shade under a permanent straw sunshade and made ourselves comfortable. The beach was mainly small shingle but once we were in the water we found a band of low weed and a silty bottom. However the water quickly got to a good depth and the temperature was great. We spent the rest of the afternoon here.
Unless you have visited Greece it is hard to comprehend what the roads here are like. In theory most allow 2 vehicles to pass, but between dodging potholes, pedestrians, parked cars and vegetation growing over the road it is difficult to stay on your side of the road. Mostly the pavement is tarseal with many patches with no pedestrian allowance. Corners are often blind and offer no extra width for large vehicles to turn. Even roads to major tourist sites though the local village can be single lane through the town centre and shared with pedestrians. There is a reason that large cars here are not common.
Today we visited the site of Ancient Corinth which again has been an important settlement from 3000BC through to Roman and Bysantiun times. The excavations seem to have focused on the commercial area and expose the Roman equivalent of a major shopping mall with 5 rows of shops around the centrl area and a couple of temples. There is a great view over the area down to the sea and the town is overlooked by the massive and shear Akro Corinth hill that lowers over the area and is topped by Roman, Bysantine and Ottpman fortifications.
Anyway, tonight we are eating in, so I need to start on dinner.
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