From Dimitsana we descended into the Lousios Gorge, where there is a Byzantine church and the remains of ancient Gortys, not be confused with Gortyn on the island of Crete.
There is not the hugest amount to see at Gortys but I did get some good pictures….
The open air museum of water power at Dimitsana is a remarkable site, worthy of several posts. This post covers the first part of the site, leading up to the tannery, and including some stuff about fulling, and some introductory stuff about water and energy.
Pictures tell this story better than words…
A final coda to my post about Olympia (https://aspiblog.wordpress.com/2014/10/14/ancient-olympia/), a lively and amusing version of the story of how the ancient Olympics got started is told by Tom Holt in the novel Olympia. Any book with his name on the cover will be a good read.
After an excellent stay at the Hotel Europa, we set off as intended just before 10 o’clock. For the next hour things did not go quite as planned…
First we could not find our way on to the road from Olympia to Tripoli as intended, and then having got on to a suitable route we picked up a hitchhiker which delayed things further.
However, we still arrived at our first stop of the day, Dimitsana, in good time to go round the open air museum of water power.
So
me pictures from this portion of the day…
Between those on display at my parents holiday home, the stuff at cape Tainaros and a good mosaic at Olympia I reckon I have enough to justify providing a collection of mosaic pictures…
I am currently in a hotel room in Olympia, having visited one of the most famous of all Greek sites and swum in the hotel pool, but this post is about yesterday (today will come later – probably after supper). Susan Shimmin, who helped my parents to arrange the purchase of their Greek house turned 70 yesterday, and I was among those invited to the party. This featured a very pretty walk between Stoupa and a place called Kalliope’s. Some of us, including me, did the walk twice, while at the other extreme were those who did not walk at all. Back at Stoupa there was a royal spread of wonderful Greek food and then the unveiling of the cake – and what a cake it was!
Even though I decamped shortly after the cake was unveiled I have some fine photos from the day…
The Inner Mani’s particular version of the very traditional Greek habits of feud and vendetta led to the building by anyone who could of fortified tower houses. They were defending themselves against each other, much like the border reavers of Northumberland with their bastles. As usual, I have plenty of pictures for you…
In ancient times this was home to a temple and death oracle of Poseidon (the ruins of which can still be seen), and was a notorious spot for ship wrecks. At least one reasonably eminent Roman had a villa here as there are some old mosaics left from his tenure. The end of the Greek mainland is signalled by lighthouse, which is moderately attractive. Being in the driest most arid part of mainland Greece, the path is as one would expect bare and rocky, but I was able to walk it in beefed up flip flops.
This region also contains my nomination for the most desperate attempt at cultivation I have yet to see evidence of – indescribable, so wait for the photo…
Having finished exploring the remains of ancient Messene we repaired to a guard post on the old walls. These walls, a circuit of nine kilometres, were built by Epaminondas of Thebes after he had liberated the Messenians from four centuries of Spartan rule as an insurance policy should the Spartans try to recapture Messenia. This did not happen, because within a generation Philip of Macedon was in charge.
Just a few photos from this location…
Finally we have reached the first major trip of the holiday, a visit to ancient Messene and then on to Methoni. Messene is such an extraordinary site that I will leave my photos to tell as much of the story as they can, save only to mention that tickets for two OAPs and an adult left us with change from 10 Euros….
No, this is not an update to the Scooby Doo DVD that features Ms Grimwood’s finishing school for ghouls! It refers to what used to be the village school at Tseria, and which now stands empty and forlorn. One can get into the grounds, and there is just to room to photograph the inside of the chapel. Enjoy these pictures…
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