Our Own Greek Oddyssey

And so began three great weeks. For the first twelve days we were on the mainland, though we moved from Akrata fairly quickly as it was pebbly, and we are spoilt rotten about beaches these days. I had been worried about the weather – it even drizzled the day before Grannie arrived – but she bought with her a heatwave of almost Biblical proportions. It was actually pretty hard going at times, in 42 degrees, but we still managed to explore the gorgeous town of Nafplio and climb its truly impressive hill fort. A thousand steps up is no joke in the heat, but we all made it in one piece and were marvelling at how the ancients managed to make something so enduring and intact. We were solemnly telling the kids how much older than Macchu Picchu it was, only to find out … it wasn’t. Its actually Venetian and only a few hundred years old! But nonetheless impressive. We did get our share of true antiquity at Mycenae, Tiryns and Epidavros, however. These truly old – like, 2000 years old – archaeological sites are no less breathtaking at 38 as at the age of 7. I know this, because we visited them all when I was Rhys’ age. It was brilliant to show the kids the same palace at Mycenae that had blown me and Bron away as kids, and to watch them singing in the centre of the ampitheatre at Epidavros with its perfect acoustics, just as we had as kids. We also chose to stay in Tolon, the same sleepy seaside town that we had had an apartment in on that last visit, 30 years ago. This time we were in Sunset Camping and it was glorious, with the whole place to ourselves as we camped under the olive trees. Alas we needed all the shade we could get, as the temperatures were creeping ever up. The ground was hard as rock and we got through an awful lot of tentpegs and expletives trying to get the two tents up. The owner of the site was lovely, bringing us oranges from his trees and treating us like family. He also helped when the air con on our car was in danger of packing in altogether. The belt was slipping, and we could stand the noise (well, most of the time) but not the risk of the whole thing coming off and wrapping itself round the engine. Driving with no air con and six people was not really an option in the intense heat and WD40 for once did NOT work (gasp! It cures everything, including gout!) But the lovely campsite owner phoned his local friendly mechanic who fixed it in approximately 2 minutes. The best 10 Euro we’ve ever spent.

We had lovely days swimming in the warm seas and lazing on the beach. Jen truly mastered swimming (she’d been tentatively doing three little kicks since Australia) and the kids were in heaven. They, like me, stuffed themselves with Stifado (fantastic beef/veal stew, slow cooked with nutmeg and whole onions) and we drank and gorged ourselves stupid. But, that aint all you go to Greece for. It was really important for the children to balance all that Chinese history with some of Europe’s own, and the Peleponnese is a pretty good place to choose. Here are Sparta, Corinth, Argos, Marathon, Megalopolis … we steeped the kids in Greek legend and tried to edit out some of Zeus’ naughtier bits. Rowan of course lapped it all up. At Mycenae Rhys worked out battle plans for how you COULD actually invade this hilltop palace complex despite the fact you could see anyone approaching for scores of miles. he ran Joe ragged with intricate tunnelling and disguising-an-army-as-trees propositions. At least he got into the spirit of the thing!

Our last day on the mainland was, naturally, in Athens itself. We drove to Piraeus and then got taxis to the Acropolis, the huge limestone outcrop that literally and figuratively dominates the low rise, dirty, polluted but somehow still charming city. Atop this sits that absolute icon of the Classical world – the Parthenon. Despite going to the islands about 5 times, Joe had never seen it, and Mum and I hadn’t in 30 years. We sat in an extortionate restaurant beneath it having our poshest meal yet, gazing up at the sheer scale of the thing. We were trying to avoid the heat of the day, but it was still in the forties when we finally climbed, mid afternoon. It was hard, hard going with white marble glaring at you and the sweat literally pouring off. It is, however, unmissable – even when large parts are covered in scaffolding in the middle of restoration. We had to be very, very careful of the heat and its affects on the kids (and us!) but we were saved, as throughout Greece, but fresh orange juices to die for. We must have drank about 5 each every day as well as litre after litre of water. Two days after our visit, the week-long heatwave caused 5 major forest fires. One of them covered the Acropolis in damaging ash, and people described the scenes as almost like the last day in Pompeii, with black skies and searing heat, ash raining down. We were lucky to avoid it – by heading on the overnight ferry from Piraeus to our much, much beloved island of Crete.