Ruins of Mystras

6fartsinacart
May 15, 2017
4 min read

12 May 2017, Friday: Our aim for today is to do the archaeological ruins of Mystras, one of the most dramatic historic sites the Peloponnese can offer. We leave relatively early as we have to travel inland and after a 'little' shop at Lidl, we arrive at the top car park of the site at about 12pm. We pay our entrance fee. Kids up to the age of 18 go for free (yay!). It's a glorious, airy place, hugging a very steep, 280 meter foothill of Taiyetos. Winding up the lushly vegetated hillside is a remarkably intact Byzantine town that once sheltered a population of 20,000 and through which you can now wander. Winding alleys lead through monumental gates, past medieval houses and palaces and above all into the churches, several of which yield suberb if faded frescoes. We start climbing to the top to first visit the Citadel (castle) ruins before we head down to the Palace Complex. On our way down to the Palace Complex we pass St. Sofia and St. Nikolaos. Halfway down, Dad does us a MAJOR favour and goes back to the top to take Merzy down to the car park at the bottom entrance. From there he starts heading back up and meets us at the Peribleptos (a church attached to a rock cave). The only building Dad misses out on is the Pantanassa (Monastery) which is still being used today. We continue to explore the other buildings, Saint Georgios, Metropolis (Saint Demetrios), Evangelistria, Saint Theodoroi, and Hodegetria. The whole expedition lasts approximately 3 and a half hours at which time we are hot and bothered and starving. We have a belated lunch before we depart to our stop for the night. Emile has found us a gem of a place at Plitra next to a small port with the archaeological site of Ancient Assopos nearby (which is basically a small pile of old stones). We all have a refreshing shower after a very hot and sweaty day and settle for the night. 13 May 2017, Saturday: Washing day!!! After a lot of accumulated washing and a perfect place to hang it out, Mum decides it is time to do all the dirty laundry and towels! Dad gets summoned to go in search of a bowl which Mum prayed for the previous night. He goes out and buys the only big plastic bowl in the only little store in this little village. Half the kids’ and Mum’s feet are used to tread the washing. Afterwards Emile and Dad go for a snorkel and take out a funny looking sea-creature (looking like a squid-slug) that the locals call a sea-rabbit. They eventually return it to the sea when one guy frantically tries to tell us that it isn’t good. We have a strong onshore wind blowing that enables us to leave after lunch with all our washing dry and folded. We are so thankful! Our first almost-stop for the night is on a small peninsula with a white chapel and little beach at Agios Fokas. After eating a shaky (due to a really strong wind) beef stew made by our in-house chef, we decide to move on to a more protected cove close to Monemvasia.