Greece 2018: Friday 1: Dimitsana

An account of the opn-air museum of water power in Dimitsana (apart from the tannery, which I am giving a post to itself).

INTRODUCTION

Welcome to my latest post about my holiday in Greece (12th – 19th May). We are now dealing with the Friday, the centrepiece of which was to be a visit to the Open-air Water Power Museum at Dimitsana and a meal at a restaurant that serves meat from wild animals shot by the proprietor. This post deals with the Dimitsana section of the day apart from the tannery which I shall give a post to itself.

BEST LAID PLANS OF MICE AND MEN

For Thursday night’s supper we had eaten pork chops, and my mother had failed to finish hers. This it turned out was the first warning of a stomach problem that would lead to a serious alteration of our plans for the day. Although she felt well enough to make the journey by about 10 o’clock, the restaurant meal was out of the question. 

THE JOURNEY TO DIMITSANA

The journey from Tseria to Dimitsana is somewhat over two hours in duration. It involves quite a lot of scenic stuff but also one truly abominable eyesore, modern Megalopolis (to give you an idea of the sheer visual awfulness of the place its most prominent features are a pair of giant cooling towers). Little remains of the original city – some pillars from the theatre is about all one can actually see. 

New bridgeremains of ancient Megalopolis

Monastaries overlooking the Lousios Gorge
This monastery is actually modern and Russian funded, but there are also some much older monasteries in the area.

THE OPEN AIR WATER POWER MUSEUM

Dimitsana is a mountainside town, which means that going round the open-air museum involves going downhill and then back up at the end. The water was running more vigorously than it had been on my previous visit – perhaps because it was earlier in the year.

Water power museum mapEnergy and Water PowerWater poweredinstallations in the Dimitsana areaMill wheelFulling tub info boardFulling tubConstructing and working the fulling tubFulling tub IIFood and weaving766767raging waterCosntructing the millFluting the millstonesThe Water MillToolsMill MachineryRaging water IIFireplace776videoPostal HistoryTemple and mountainsMegalopolis TheatreArcadiawhite waterMillraceRiverbridgewhite water IIWhite water IIIpeepholewater power in actionWhite water IVWhite water VRaki still info boardRaki Stillstone with holes inRaki still IIdual watercoursedual watercourse IIView from the bridgeWaterfallsMillstones

Gunpowder press
Most of the gunpowder the the Greeks used in their war of independence in the early 19th century was manufactured in Dimitsana.

Gunpowder Mill IGunpowder productionEastern medThe Siege of the AcropolisGunpowder machinegunpowderMachinery picturegunpowder sifting equipmentGunpowder mill and saltpetre info boardsMachinery pic II

The path beyond the museum
I do not know where this path ultimately leads, but there is a sign warning that you follow it at your own risk.

Looking up from the gunpowder millabove the gunpowder millchutewaterfalls IIriverWaterfalls IIIAndritsasina 1834The Alpheios near KarytainaBridge over the LousiosThe Alpheios

Mountain village
This is a classic view of a Greek mountainside village.

Piscina and iron wheelMuseum locations

This museum is well worth a visit, and we were there on Museum Day, meaning that admission was free.

Welcome to Sunday Social

I know it is now Monday morning, but please do come and join the fun at Rachel’s Sunday Social…

Rachel McKee~Illuminated Literation

Sorry for the late start today!

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Greece: Kardamili, Stoupa, Agios Nikolaos and Trachila

Continuing my account of my holiday in Greece.

INTRODUCTION

Welcome to the next post in my somewhat spread out series about my holiday in Greece. This post follows on from my post about Nestor’s Palace, in which you can find links to all my previous posts about this holiday. Unlike my previous posts in this series this one covers events from two different days, the Monday and the Thursday. 

MONDAY: KARDAMILI AND TRACHILA

There were a few things to be done in Kardamili, including finding some sandals for me, and we decided havuing finished there to make the journey to Trachila, which is at the end of one of the roads beyond the resort town of Stoupa (the other, the main road, goes up into the mountains to Areopoli and then on into the inner Mani and down to very southern tip of mainland Greece). This was a pretty journey, and Trachila itself is very pleasant. 

Map
This map is part of the decoration of the shop from which my sandals came.

Discvover the spirit of the ManiSouvenir shop displayPharmacy postercertificate at the pharmacyThe seaFish in the seaFish in the sea - close upSeaside settlement

The path to the edge of the sea
This is how I was able to get so close to the sea.

Near the seawall fragments

The sea at Stoupa
The sea at Stoupa
lights, Akrouali
On our way back we stopped at Akrouali’s in Stoupa for lunch – these lights were close to our table.

THURSDAY: STOUPA & AGIOS NIKOLAOS

On Thursday morning my mother was going to Stoupa for a “Stitch ‘n’ Bitch” session at Patriko’s, while I made use of their internet connection. Then we were going to walk along the sea-front to the village of Agios Nikolaos, have a light lunch at an establishment there that my parents knew, and then walk back to Stoupa before heading back to Tseria. This was deliberately a day on which we did not go on any major journeys as major excursions were happening on Wednesday and Friday.

sparrow, Patriko'sgrasshopper on the path to Agios NikolaosGuided walks Agios Nikolaos

Natural Window
A natural window in the rocks, between Stoupa and Agios Nikolaos
Painted stone, Greg's, Agios Nikolaos
A painted stone used as a table decoration at the place where we had lunch.

placemap, Greg'sPlacemap, Greg's II

House Martin nests, Ag Nikolaos
Two shots of house martin nests in Agios Nikolaos

House Martin nests, Ag Nikolaos II

House Martin visits the nests
A shot of a house martin visiting the nest to deliver food to chicks concealed within.
Hill with Frankish fortifications
Not much remains of the 13th century Frankish castle which stood on this flat topped hill.

Hill with Frankish fortifications II

Greece 2018: Nestor’s Palace

An account of Nestor’s palace at Pylos.

INTRODUCTION

Through a combination of work commitments and still having large numbers of photos to edit it has been a while since I posted, so just to remind people I was in Greece from May 12th to May 19th, and have so far produced five posts relating to that holiday:

  1. Aperiftif – setting the scene for subseqent posts going into more detail about the holiday and various aspects thereof.
  2. Days 1-2 – covering the start of the holiday
  3. The Journey to Methoni – covering the start of the first of the two major excursions.
  4. Methoni Castle – covering the castle other than the Bourzti of Methoni.
  5. The Bourtzi of Methoni – covering the Bourtzi.

A VERY ANCIENT SITE

Whereas nothing at Methoni is above 800 years old, and most of it is around half that age (making it a youngster in terms of Greek sites) Nestor’s Palace at Pylos (about 15 kilometres from the modern town of that name) was in its pomp 3,300 years ago or thereabouts, which means that even by Greek standards it counts as old (although Gortyn on the island of Crete is about twice as old as even this). In an effort to preserve these remains a shelter has been built around the site, and part of this structure is a raised walkway from which visitors view the site – no walking round at ground level these days.

roof and walkways

NESTOR’S PALACE IN PICTURES

It is now time for the combination of my camera and photo-editing skills to take over and give you a virtual tour of Nestor’s Palace…

Information, Nestor's Palace
There is lots of informatrion about the palace and the kingdom it was a part of.

The Kingdom of PylosThe Perfumed Oil IndustryThe White GoddessThe search for the Mycenaean KingdomThe new face of NestorThe well-built citadel of NeleusThe Palace of NestorReconstruction of Nestor's PalacePropylonLooking at Nestor's PalaceMinor roomsstonework, PylosThe Archives of the PalaceCourtColumn support bases and remains of the court wallThe MegaronNature, History, Culture in perfect harmonyside roomsThe back of Nestor's palace and beyondSouthwestern building, Palace of NeleusPantries info boardPantriesThrone room info boardThrone roomThrone pedestalThrone pedestal IIThrone pedestal IIIThrone room wallOuter limits of palaceraised walkway and frameworkThrone room IIstoneworkextremities of the palaceroof structureOlive Oil stiorage roomsOlive oil storerooms remainsstaircaseremainsNestor's bathNestor's bath and queen's throne room

detail from Nestor's bath
some detail from the inside facing of Nestor’s bath.

side of palaceNestor's bath info boardunsheltered remainsNortheastern buildingBeyond the shelterThe Queen's megaronThe queen's throne roomsmall roomLooking out of the palaceThe queen's thronewallsThe bathroombath decorationdisabled access at Nestor's palacepropylon671

Sea view from Nestor's palace IV
The first of several sea views I captured from Nestor’s palace.

SEA VIEWS FROM THE PALACE

Here are my remaining sea views from the palace itself…

sea view from Nestor's palace IISea view from Nestor's palace IIISea view from Nestor's palace