1 May,
Tuesday
Today is Labour Day (May Day) in Greece, and it is a national holiday.   Even many of the tourist sites are closed.  Most of the places we were to explore we could not enter.

We were able to get up a little later this morning: the bus didn’t leave until 8:30.  Marieka first had Demetrius take us up to the Castle of Palamidi overlooking Nafplia. It was an impressive view of the city.  This fortress is under restoration.  We could not enter, but we could see that repair and maintenance on the walls were done with the intent of keeping the building standing, not maintaining the integrity of its antiquity.

We then moved on to Mycenae to visit the city fortress there, but of course this site was closed as well.  We had to settle for the local gyide to explain everything from the outside.  This was of course another story of war and treachery even among families.  This myth was about Agamemnon, hero of the Iliad, the daughter he killed, and his brother Atrius   What we were looking at were the archeological digs.  Not much of material value has been found there, but the acrchelologists have located beehive graves, the palace on the top of the hill (the Actopolis), and many other houses in groups as they word thier way down the mountain.  Nothing was left in the graves to identify the person buried there.  The date from the 1th century BC before these people had developed a script.

We then moved on to the Agora Art Gallery.    This was actually the showroom of a workshop that turns pottery, hand paints it and the bakes them in the kilns to produce original porcelain in the old styles of the ancients.  Thay also sold ceramics cast in moulds and with designs applied with decals.  We bought some souvenirs at this shop.

We went to the King Menelaos Restaurant for a late lunch, then drove on to Sparta.  Sparta does not have much saved from the past.  There is an archeological site, but notmuch is left in it.  Most of the materials had been removed for “recycling” before antiquities had become very important.




NO PICTURES TODAY FOLKS.  WE'RE BOTH REALLY TIRED.   Dick