Monemvasia

Wednesday 20th October 2010

Monemvasia

More thunder and lightning in the night. Still raining in early morning. Got up around 9am and water still streaming down the river past the cottage. However, after breakfast of bread and cheese, with a cup of coffee, the stream bed had dried up. We drove into Monemvasia, over the causeway and parked on the roadside leading up to the old town (I found it easier to drive all the way to the top, turn round and then find a parking spot when heading back down the road. This means that you may find a parking spot nearer the top and are pointing in the right direction when you come to leave).

We walked up the road and into the old town. What a warren! A maze of narrow passageways and twisting stairways leading to one curch after another. We went down to the Portello and out on to a narrow shelf of a sun trap, just above the breaking waves. Back inside and we went up to the castle walls, hoping to get around and back in but unfortunately when we got tot he top of the wall there was no way down other than the way we had gone up. So we retraced our steps and lost ourselves in the maze of of the lower town again until finally we came out on the main street and stopped for some lunch. The lady running the cafe did an excellent job of getting us inside with the promise of a good view – and what a view there was from the rooftop terrace; across the rest of the town and up to the upper town.

View up to old town from lunch terrace

Lunch consisted of Greek yoghurt with honey, nuts and fruit, a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice and a glass of water. Excellent!

From there it was up the Byzantine equivalent of Walter’s Wiggles (cf Zion NP, USA) that lead to the gatehouse of the upper town.

 Up to Agia Sophia, which was locked unfortunately as there appeared to be, from what we could see peering through the gaps in the door, some stunning wall paintings. Onwards and upwards to the citadel and moew stunning views all around the island, but particularly of the coastline and the mountains. The wind turbines on the mountain ridges must generate some power.

Back down throught the ruins of the upper town to the lower town and thus back to the car. Into Gefyra (the modern settlement on the mainland) for a more detailed local map and some postcards. (We found it difficult to find detailed maps of Greece but some are available here with more appearing soon apparently). We headed back to the cottage, stopping for some fuel on the way. Our Tesco credit card was refused for the second time (the hotel machine did not want to accept it when we checked out yesterday), but luckily my Barclay’s Debit card was accepted. On to the mini mapket for food – beer, olives, bread, cheese and loo roll (which must not go down the loo but must be collected in a bin and taken out with the rest of the rubbish).

Back at cottage to write up diary. I had a shower. The “hot” water barely got to air temp, but I managed it OK. D didn’t last very long at all. Wrote a couple of postcards for parents and work before cold pizza for tea.

After tea we walked down to the beach in the moonlight – very romantic. Back at the cottage there was a beasty lurking in the undergrowth – we could both see its eyes reflecting the moonlight – but when I wandered down the bottom of the garden to try to see it there was nothing there – it must have been a piece of glass in the dirt!