Mystras is an archaeological site close to Sparta dating back to the 13th century, and towards the end of the Byzantine period it was the second most important town after Constantinople. Today it’s a huge open air museum, famous for its Byzantine churches complete with frescoes, all overlooked by a castle at the top of the … Read more
Our week here has flown by. Carol’s been to see the dentist and has another couple of appointments booked, so we’ll be staying here for another week to ten days. The way we’re going we’ll be able to write a guide to European dentists, given that I’ve also seen dentists in Spain, Portugal and Slovenia. … Read more
Before leaving Pylos this morning we drove over to the other side of the Marina, where there was an abandoned platform around two metres high with some steps, and I gave the solar panel on our van roof its first clean since the start of our trip, so it should now be working at maximum … Read more
After driving for 70-odd kilometres down the Messinia coastline yesterday, we arrived at Pylos and pulled up on the marina. There were 15 or so motorhomes already there, all of them Italian, so we parked up in one of the spaces amongst them. Two hours later the Italian vans had all disappeared, so we were … Read more
Leaving Camping Ionian Beach late yesterday morning, we said our goodbyes to Julia and Simon, and Katherine, James and Oscar. We’ve had some good fun, so with a bit of luck our paths will cross again at some point. We drove the short distance to Katakolo, only stopping at Lidl to replenish the fridge. Katakolo … Read more
After a 18 hour crossing, our ferry docked at Patras mid-afternoon on Saturday. We whiled away our time reading and playing cribbage, and we had our own cabin to sleep in. The ferry wasn’t very busy at all – mainly lorry drivers from Greece and Bulgaria. Overnight the crossing became a bit bumpy and the … Read more
Our last couple of days in Pompeii were spent just chilling out. We popped in the new town a couple of times, got some laundry done and gave the van a bit of a spring clean. Yesterday we drove across to the south eastern coast of Italy, spending our last night in Italy on a … Read more
Back in 2013 we went to see the Pompeii and Herculaneum exhibition at the British Museum. Before then I had only been aware of Pompeii, but I was amazed by the artefacts on display from both sites, and added Herculaneum to my list of places to visit. The Herculaneum site is much smaller than Pompeii, … Read more
Sorrento is at the southern end of the Circumvesuviana railway line which passes through Pompeii to Naples. First inhabited by the Greeks in 600 BC, it’s a historic city, though there isn’t much left in the way of ancient remains. It was a popular destination on the ‘Grand Tour’ circuit in the 18th and early … Read more
