The breath of history
37° 35′ 53.3070” N 23° 4′ 29.717” E
15th october 2020
The city of Epidaurus on the Peloponnese is steeped in history. Since 400 years before the birth of Christ, people have made the pilgrimage to experience music and drama in the famous amphitheater and to be healed in the temple of Askeplio, which was the ancient version of a a health clinic. It’s a huge experience to see it. Both the amphitheater and the archeological excavations of temples and health hotels.
The amphitheater is remarkably well preserved, but also the small museum with the best of the excavated busts, tools and pillars is worth a visit. We are lucky it’s corona time. The world thinks that Greece too has been put down by the corona, so we have most of it to ourselves, and you can without hesitation stand up on the stage of the amphitheater and sing a song for your family, who is sitting on the 55th row and clapping gratefully, because the sound conditions are absolutely unique. While the song may not be spectacular itself, when song by yourself, it is at least remarkably loud, as if you are singing through a megaphone. The ancient Greeks really knew something about architecture and engineering
The port we are in is called Palaia Epidhaurus. Here Greeks sit from morning to evening on the pier and fish for squid, small fishing dinghies sail out early in the morning, and only a few yachtsmen find their way into the harbor.
It is strange to look at restaurants that have been built to accommodate maybe 100 guests at a time and now there are just four guests sitting. The season is coming to an end, and on top of this, the corona has knocked down the number of visitors to a quarter of normal. Only six out of ten hotels in Greece have reopened after the first wave of the corona, and these hotels have an average occupancy rate of just 30 percent.
Happiness is to moor in the middle of nowhere
37° 19′ 39.1500” N 23° 9′ 5.4480” E
5th october
Can you get tired of going to a restaurant? Yes, indeed. Some of our best meals are those that we get mooring in the middle of nature, close to scenic banks, far from the city lights and the traditional but also in the long run trivial Greek cuisine.
Right now we are mooring in a small bay off Porto Kheli. Our closest neighbors are two or three herons that have annexed a small island south of our anchorage. Otherwise there is no life as far as the eye can see. Only nature. Secret beaches and wooded hills. We swim out and see if our anchor has stuck properly. We enjoy the sunset and prepare a simple but tasty meal.
We had actually turned our bow to Porto Kheli, which is also part of the marketing package “The Greek Riviera”. But here they are even further from living up to that status. It is a Riviera under construction. A large marina has been built, but a guard sends us away. “This is private property”. Back is a city quay. It’s not inviting.
So back to nature, the swims and the simple meals. We chose one place. But there are plenty of opportunities in the area.
We would like to moor this way a lot more, but when we have been hoding back a bit, it is because we still do not have full confidence in Ronja’s energy supply after the 14 months of shutdown alone on land. The fridge puts out occasionally. The battery level drops, we feel insecure, whether the anchor winch and starter motor will obey. We must have seen it all through when Ronja is going ashore for the winter in Almira Shipyard, a little north of Corinth.
Nafplio wins by closer acquaintance
37° 34′ 5.448” N 22° 48′ 31.1796” E
3th october
Seen from the sea, the old castle town of Nafplio does not look special at all. The three Venetian fortifications do make their marks on the city, but otherwise what we see is just huge parking lots around a harbor surrounded by wire fences and a harbor that is completely without amenities like electricity and water. A totally boring port.
However, when you move into the streets of the city, you are overwhelmed by the liveliness and the beautiful buildings – Venetian, Turkish, Greek – all built charmingly together with the Venetian fortifications. You sense the greatness of the past and you do understand that here is the leading city of the area, with a past as the capital of Greece for a few years in19th century.
But the port itself is probably the most boring and inhospitable port in all of The Saronic Sea, and after two nights we sail south again. The most exciting thing about the harbor is, that we – as apparently the only boat – are subjected to a thorough police inspection, where the officers are particularly interested, whether we have paid our sailing tax.
We have. And thus we have saved a fine of 500 Euro.
Among the jet set on the Greek Riviera
37° 16′ 6.9600” N 23° 9′ 15.2640” E
1th october 2020
By pure chance, we find a berth in Spetzai’s old, plug-stopped but intensely charming harbor, where the inner harbor is occupied by several layers of local small boats, especially wooden dinghies, a couple of large motorboats and a lot of water taxis that have gone into hibernation during the corona descent and low season.
The outer harbor is occupied by a cargo ship, anchoring for better times, and some huge luxury yachts mooring, while highlighting themselves with floodlights on the mast, hull and the water around, so that all the rest of us can understand that some very special people are living on this ship.
We find a humble place at the northern end of the inner harbor where small primitive shipyards preserve the ancient craftsmanship of boatbuilding. They build the most beautiful boats.
Spetzai (the Greeks call the island Spetses) is part of what is being marketed as the Greek Riviera. They have a long way to go yet, but Spetzai IS beautiful, characterized by rich buildings from a time when Spetzai was strong in the area’s commercial life. The island is officially car-free, but is in turn filled with noisy and stinking motorcycles as well as – considering the island’s car-free status – quite a few cars.
It is a wildly beautiful island. It is lower than the average greek island and massively grown with pine trees. We rent two electric bikes and tramples round all the island’s 26 kilometers of asphalt, we pass beautiful beaches, ex-King Constantine and Anne Marie’s big summer residence and we enjoy the magnificent nature. Fantastic experience.