This morning the girls knew that beach was in the schedule. Since all our plans had been made sight unseen, we asked whether the beaches here or nearer to Athens were better. A nearby beach was recommended.
Previously, we had discussed the asklepion of Epidavros, known for its amphitheater. Our hotel proprietor urged us to go, but Yoyi and Rosi had beach on the mind. It is only about 30 km to Epidavros from Nafplio, so we decided that I would drop them off at the local beach if we found it to be nice, and I would explore on my own.
We drove out in the direction of the beach, continually climbing. We thought it strange that the beach might be higher than the town, but we soon found that the beach lay on the other side of the mountain. As we crested the hill, the cove and the beach came into view and we gasped at its beauty. I left them scurrying to the umbrellas by the beach.
I drove off towards Epidavros. As I neared the area, there was a sign towards Paleo Epidavros one direction and the Theater of Epidavros in the other. I figured I should see both. I found the small amphitheater in the old city (now a beach town, but then a port), where several teams of government anthropologists were working, brooms, toothbrushes, and teaspoons in hand, as well as picks, scoops and shovels. One of the team spoke perfect English. I asked him about that, and he said that he watched a lot of TV as a kid; one of the few benefits, he said, of the TV.
I didn't understand, at first, why the famous large amphitheater of Epidavros was situated 12 km from the old town. It turns out that the site was an Asklepion (see the June 9) – a hospital or maybe more like a sanitorium or spa. In any case, remarkably, tens of thousands of people were available to attend theater performances in this amphitheater, several hours horse ride (or more importantly, a day's walk) distant from the town. The place was crawling with archaeologists, and many scaffolds were erected. They would fashion little huts out of large flat pieces of styrofoam, glued together, and they would move them around to shade themselves from the blistering sun.
The theater is used to this day for performances. Many people, including me, had climbed to the top of the theater, and someone would stand in the stage area (proscenium) and recite something in a normal voice. It was clearly audible at the top row. I can't say what it would be like if the audience were coughing or talking or otherwise misbehaving.
When I arrived at about 10:00 there were already tour buses, but by the time I left at about 11:00 there were more buses than I could count.
On the way to Epidavros, there were numerous sites marked, including a Mycenian tholos burial site, and several Mycenian bridges, still standing and some in use.
I met Rosi and Yoyi back at the beach, where they were enjoying themselves in the warm clear water. They forced me to change and to try the water. It was, indeed, nice. We stayed there until it got quite late, considering that we had to make it all the way to the other side of Athens today. Leaving the beach, Rosi spotted a crate of apricots and asked how much they cost. The fellow at the cafe said to take as many as we want for nothing. He then started to fill a shopping bag. We had to shout at him to stop, which he finally did after scooping up about 2 kilos.
I had figured that it would be convenient to stay south of Athens, closer to the airport. Since the airport hotels were 300 euros and more, that was out of the question. I found a hotel in the beach town of Voula, where I had originally assumed we would spend the afternoon at the water. (I think we did better near Nafplio.) It took us some time to find the hotel, as usual.
The hotel had no internet service, so we decided to go out and check email and eat dinner. We went to the center of the next small town, 2 km away. This upscale town hosts a huge number of tourist, and the main street had all the stores, and all manner of restaurants, including every American brand you can imagine. We couldn't find free service, so we went to the internet cafe and checked up on the home folks, before returning to the hotel.
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