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.