Five nights in Athens......that is the record. We haven't stayed in any one place for more than five nights in a row. Athens ties with Mikaels' dad's house in Vevey, Switzerland. I can't imagine being home and sleeping in my own bed five nights in a row.....hope I can adjust!
We bussed out of Athens to the town of Nafpoli in the area of Greece referred to as the Peloponnese. Nafpoli is one of Greece's prettiest towns with a Venetian feel and a fortress on the hill and a beautiful waterfront path on the Mediteranean. The bouganvillea drape over the small streets, combined now with Christmas decorations. The hillsides are covered in colorful stone, cactus, wild lantana and more bouganvillea. The food is better even than Athens, maybe a bit more authentic further away from the metropolitan area.
It is very quiet now and many of the pensions and hotels are closed for awhile. Restaurants are slow and shops take extra long siestas. I don't mind and actually enjoy the slower pace and few people. We walked around to find lodging and could barter with owners to pay about half of the high season rate.......nothing bad about that.......oh, forgot, we didn't have heat last night, so maybe that was no bargain.
Today I walked all along the beach trail while Molly ran. The only unfortunate part was that there is a lot of graffiti on the natural rock. I don't get how people feel they have the right to desicrate something like that. There were also a few people swimming at the one beach in town. Brrrrr. Then we climbed the stairs to the fortress overlooking the city. It was a hell of a lot of stairs. Ancient stairs. Ruins. We spent some time once at the top and then counted the stairs on the way down. 882 stairs, and that was not including all the stairs within the castle/fortress. Even Molly's legs were shaking coming down.
Also in the village bay is another fortress of sorts. Originally used to watch for invaders, it later became the executioner's home. Good idea to put an executioner out on an island. I wouldn't want him as my neighbor.
A beautiful, quant, charming little city, I would highly recommend it. A bit overly romantic maybe, so don't come by yourself.
