Menelaion Hotel Sparta

... in the Alps of Normandy (excluding that one 18% grade in the Pyrenees), but I pushed today!<br><br>Rising 500m was nothing in comparison to some of these peaks (1800-2200), but that&#8217;s still ½ kilometer vertical. Some of these roads have a difficult pitch, but thankfully the roads are quieter now. It&#8217;s no wonder that these lands were traditionally traversed by foot and donkey - they are much ...

... and gave him some store t-shirts! Now there&#8217;s a souvenir that you can&#8217;t buy. <br><br>However, I don&#8217;t think Brian really knows what he&#8217;s in for now. If he did, he may reconsider. With new bike components, there&#8217;s no way that we&#8217;re stopping now. I&#8217;m going to make sure these repairs are worth the investment and we&#8217;re going to keep going. Another 5000km - at least!<br> <br>

So Im here! <br><br>I arrived in Athens after a looong trip from Scotland that lasted a few days, I boarded a typical Greek bus, hot, sweaty, no air conditioning, everyone smoking..."ahh" I thought, I'm home! The bus took me to the bus terminal to get on another bus to go to Tripoli where my Thea, Theo and cousins were anxiously awaiting.<br><br>At last! I found my aunt waiting for me! Thea Kristina looks just as I ...

... polygonal - and, at the end of a long day we decided this was good enough! A silk Monsoon skirt is not ideal for threading through undergrowth, and we were tired after all our exploits. This is a site that will need to be revisited. For the time being, we made our way back downhill - my skirt now effectively camouflaged for maquis warfare, as it was covered in tiny burrs and leaves - got the Bongo underway, and went back to our base ...

After breakfast we checked out of the hotel and drove up to Palamidi Castle up above Nafplion. You can also get to it by climbing 999 steps. This Venetian fortress is made up of several separate self contained bastions. We spent a good couple of hours here and didn't see all of it.<br><br>We then drove about 45 minutes to the archaeological site of Mycenae. We explored the site and ...

... night and burned many buildings in Limeni and Areopoli. In fact, three tourist perished in the hotel just below where we were staying because they were unable to escape the fire. The area is recovering, but it is sad to see so much damage to the natural areas.<br><br>It was too cool to swim in the sea so we spent many hours driving around and exploring the Mani peninsula. We drove all the way to the southern most point of mainland Greece. The Mani ...

... rooting through the workshop doing the stocktake so have been a bit anonymous this week, have to remember to tell the guests that I'm staff as some of them are wondering who it is who is helping them rig, launch and land.Only 8 weeks to resort close, yet again it has flown by. Lots of our staff will be leaving soon as bookings are, er, rather less once the schools go back,so that will be different again. We've already said we're up for season four..

... to after going from Olympia to Pyrgos, go to Kalamata. Kalamata is a mere hour from Sparta, but halfway through, we had to switch buses. Why? We were crossing state lines. Imagine getting a bus from NYC to Newark, crossing the Holland Tunnel, then getting off and having to wait for a new bus to go the rest of the way. The Greeks make Southeast Asia look world-class by comparison (one more sidenote -- while waiting for that final bus, I got caught in a rainstorm, my first ...

... of a mountain. We spent several hours hiking up the winding, cobbled stone paths to the castle at the top. It afforded a 360 degree view of the countryside. There is a palace under restoration (didn't get to see inside it), several old byzantine churches, ruins of houses, and a monastery that is still used, today, by a group of nuns!

... in the morning. I slept fine but I can't say the same for M-P, who spent some time listening to the girl in the bed beneath hers repel the amorous advances of one of our fellow roomies. The next morning we left for Nafplio which I think was the best town we've been in so far. It's not crowded with tourists (most of them seem to be Greek, actually), the buildings are gorgeous, it's got a wonderful beach and our 9$ per person per night hotel had a killer view over the city ...