Greece 2022 - Day 2: Road Trip out of Athens

Today was a long, but fabulous day.  We took a private tour of the Peloponnese with numerous stops to visit some spectacularly ancient sites.  

Our driver, Tom, met us outside our hotel promptly at 8am.  We knew it was going to be a good day the minute we laid eyes on Tom, a heavily tattooed bald man with a big beard.  Tom whisked us away in a shiny, black Peugeot van and kept us entertained as we crawled at a snails pace out of the early morning Athens traffic.  Tom and Ian bonded immediately over their mutual baldness.  Apparently, Tom had just made the decision two days ago to shave his head due to progressive thinning.  Within the first 30 minutes of the drive, the mantra for the day had become "bald is beautiful!" This phrase would be repeated several dozen times throughout the day in both English and Greek.

Our first stop was a quick visit of the Corinth Canal, a 6 km long, 20 meter wide, and 8 meters deep passage that connects the Gulf of Corinth in the Ionian Sea with the Saronic Gulf in the Aegean Sea.  The walls of the canal are a dizzying 60 meters high. 

Next stop...the Theatre of Epidaurus.  An ancient Greek theatre built in the 4th century BC and considered to have the most perfect acoustics and esthetics of all Greek theatres.  It is said that people in the back row can hear a performer whisper from center stage!

We then moved on to visit the Akronafplia Fortress build high above the modern day city of Nafplion.  The fortress used to be a town of it's own, but with the arrival of the Venetians and the Franks in the 13th century, it was turned into part of the towns fortifications.  

After exploring the Fortress, we had some free time to explore the town of Nafplion and grab some lunch.  We wandered the less travelled back streets and stumbled on a very cute taverna.  The decision was made to have lunch here when we saw that "street kittens" came with the dining experience.  The Greek salad, Calamari and homemade white wine were all spectacular!

With our bellies full, we moved on to our next stop...ancient Mycenae.  Mycenae was one of the major centers of Greek civilization, with its beginnings dating back as early as 2000 BC.  At its peak in 1350 BC, the citadel and lower town had a population of 30,000 and an area of 32 hectares.  The entrance to the citadel is called the Lion's Gate named for the spectacularly well preserved relief sculpture of two lions in a heraldic pose crowning the gate.  The sculpture was erected in approximately 1250 BC.  

The Archeological Museum of Mycenae, at the base of the ancient site, houses many of the excavation finds from over 100 years of work at the site.  There is a vast collection of ancient pottery, jewelry and sculptures that were all dug up at the citadel and the ancient town.  

The last, and possibly best, stop of the tour was the Treasury of Atreus or the Tomb of Agamemnon, a large bee hive tomb constructed in 1250 BC.  The stone support, or lintel, at the top of the doorway is a giant slab weighing 120 tons and is 8 x 5 x 1 meters.  Inside the tomb looks like a massive pizza oven.  It's crazy to imagine how these massive structures were built at a time when the only power was man-power.  Not to mention, the acoustics inside the tomb were mind bogglingly amazing.

Back in Athens, Tom dropped us near Syntagma Square so we could watch the infamous Changing of the Guards.  We bid farewell to Tom and thanked him for a specular day, promising to leave him a 5 star review.  We managed to wrangle our "Viking" driver for a quick selfie before he squealed away.

Off we went to the parliament building to watch the Greek Guards do their hourly ritual as they protect the tomb of the unknown soldier.

After grabbing an espresso, we went back to the hotel to recharge before heading out to for a late night dinner.  We decided on a simple Greek taverna on a side street.  The lamb souvlaki plate was like comfort food after a long day of exploring.

After dinner, we made our way back to the hotel where we sat on our balcony in our robes and slippers, drinking tea and listening to some random dude play the saxophone in the square below.  A perfect end to a perfect day!