Mystras

Mistras/Sparta August 14.
We got up early and caught the 8:45 bus to Sparta/Mistras. One hour to Sparta and 15 more minutes to Mistras which was our choice destination.

The journey itself was delightful. It reminded us so much of a lush Okanagan Valley, but no lake! The bus again was very comfortable. Along the way we noted cornfields, olive groves, peach and citrus trees, hay bales, palm trees, vineyards, brick yard, and olive oil production places.

Mistras was wonderful, amazing, awesome. At one time it was the spiritual center of Byzantine culture and was called “Little Constantenople”. It still has 6 well preserved Byzantine churches and some of the frescos are still there too. It must have been so beautiful when it was new.

We hiked up the hill, snapping pictures all the way. At the very top was the castle, the remains of a fortified area which would have been the last stand of protection against their enemies. The back side of the castle dropped straight down into a valley. From the front side we could see down the hillside at the houses and churches that were still evident.

Somewhat below, an area of palaces was visible. I can't imagine how hard it must have been to build so many grand buildings of rock and mortar.

The area was settled by Doric rule in the first millenium. From the 6th century BC the Spartans were adding to their estate. Wars between Athens and Sparta continued for hundreds of years.

We finally caught a returning bus at 5:15 and by the time we got to Sparta had decided we just wanted to go home. We were fortunate to have a young woman on the bus who spoke english well and after Jim asked her if the connection to Gythio would be possible to catch, she chatted with the bus driver and he called headquarters and told us where to get off and make the connection. In about 2 minutes we were on the correct bus to take us back to Gythio and our home away from home.

Sparta is a large modern city and if we had had any stamina left it would have been fun to explore. We think we saw the best historical information at Mystras so were not sorry to miss Sparta explorations.

We met several travellers and chatted with a French lady who was also waiting to return to Gythio. She struggled with English but really did well. She had been born in Africa where her father was a doctor. Her mother had been born in China where her grandparents worked with the French military making an escape route through Mongolia and on to Russia. She is a librarian and lives in Lyon. She had come to Greece partly to be at a wedding of friends who married on an island close by.

Upon arriving home I decided to wash the outside of the boat. It is amazing how dust and dirt collects even though we are on water. We were taking on fresh water at port so I also did a bit of handwash. So often this boat looks like a little chinese laundry! At least we're clean.