27 June 2022
Firstly…farewell to Elafonisos…a good place to stop (….better for longer…but we have places to go!)
Saw turtles just before the sun set!
Up in good time to catch the first ferry at 7.30….
…and then a very pleasant ride, before fairly briefly joining up with the coast again…
…including a small section of off-road, which Nae did not enjoy! (Blame Google!)
…so given we were now heading inland…we stopped for coffee and swim en route.
Having left the coast…we had to join up with a fairly main road…up to Sparti… Not busy…but the few vehicles were travelling at pace, which is never very comfortable!
Sparti…..home of the ancient Spartans…was a bit disappointing really. One might call it a bit spartan! For apart from a few archaeological bits and pieces dotted around the place…it is largely a new city….and not very exciting at that.
But nearby…is Mystras, a fascinating late Byzantine settlement (14th century sort of era)…which put Sparta firmly back on the map again. So we made the trip out to have a look, despite thunder clouds building!
My battery gave out…but trooper Shennae carried on!! But the wee detour…and additional few hundred metres of ascent turned what felt like a comfortable day…into really quite a big one!!
So beers were very welcome at the aptly(…or oddly?) -named History cafe…..where beers were just 2.50 Euros…with the last couple on the house to boot! The owner was a bit weird…and so became good entertainment….as he did nothing but sweep water around, got grumpy with the staff…and drank too much!
And then the Olympiakos basketball team mascot arrived!
