Classical 4-day Tour

The beginning of the 4 day Classical Tour with Key Tours.

Lots to learn and regurgitate! Get ready to have a lot of history thrown in between adventures.

→ Sparta was Athen's #1 rival. They fought for independence and when Rome conquered Greece via Corinth canal, Rome gave Sparta autonomy.

Sparta did not fight w/ Alexander against the Persians. And they fell to Alaris who also ended Rome and finally found his demise is Italy.

→ Plato taught Aristotle. Aristotle left Athens to teach Alexander. Alexander died and the Hellenistic era began where the Greek culture was emerging though the conquests.

→ There are about 6000 Greek Islands- Greece shares the Aegean sea with Turkey.

→ Corinth was the wealthiest city-state before Athens

→ Greek GDP= 30% tourism

Exports: figs, olives, pottery

→ Apollo is god of music, archery and is the son of Zeus. He is present in both Rome and Greek religions.

→ Asclepius is the son of Apollo and god of medicine symbolized w/ the caduceus

→ Dionysus is the god of theater, wine, fertility and madness

Corinth Canal- spent about 15 mins here and that is just not enough!

Epidaurus (city) - we spent about 20 mins of free time here, enjoyable but nothing to shop

The most intact and still currently used amphitheater is located in these towns.

Kalamata olives come for the Peloponnese area

Nafplio

Wonderful city. Vibrant. Great restaurants, seaport and boutiques. Amazing alleyways. No TNR (trap-neuter-release) seen but heavy abundance of kittens and people picking them up (don't do that!).

A train goes through the city for tourists.

This is certainly a place to stay for a couple of days.

There is a fortress on top of hill which is about 1000 steps.

There is an Ottoman castle on a tiny island off the coast and available to take a ferry over to it

Kalimera: breakfast 12€

"Turkish" breakfast had over easy eggs (aka fried), bread+ jam, 0J w/ pulp, coffee, orange cake, ham sandwich in a Baklava type pastry, small version of charcuterie. 5/5

We only had an hour to spend here and that's too bad. Definitely on my return list with Piraeus.

Mykines/Mycenae

• These are the earliest era ruins to see in this country, it's a good uphill walking experience but bring a hat!

• Enjoyable little town here although not sure why someone would choose to stay here unless en route.

• The treasury is more of an ancient archeological construction marvel but it's nothing more than a building and suggestions.

• If you can grab a book that reconstructs all the ruins around Greece, that would be an excellent resource. No text needed.

• Finally saw stray dogs but scary enough, no puppies. When you have males and females, you need puppies. So are they giving them away or killing? Is the female spayed but males aren't? Animal people want to know!

Now for the 2.5 hours to Modern Day Olympia.

HOTEL NEDA

So the 1st group got dropped off to the nice mountaintop resort and the rest of us ended up in some shady local hotel.

But I will say: I'm thankful for it! Very local and I walked 1 block to the lovely vibrant street of stores and restaurants. Since our package comes with dinner at the hotel already, I broke my wallet and bought some leather belts and cosmetics- donkey milk lotion, night jasmine perfume (which I cannot wear here thanks to mosquitos) and argan oil moisturizer.

Since olives and oil are super cheap here, I try to buy everything I can!

Ate dinner with the woman and her son Jack (married to a formula 1 engineer) and then the odd guy from Rome sat down. You can tell he is a super reclusive person-the woman had started a convo with him and promptly found her exit. Now I'm sitting there bored for another 30 mins of him talking. When I finally got to leave, he damn near tried to follow! Went back out shopping for a minute until bed.

Room is a 3/5, as they call it 'tourist' appeal. Why do I have 3 twin beds in my room though?? Dinner was a 4/5.

SO--- Just remembering this is Greece- so if you ask for a Greek salad, you gone get a GREEK salad - the freshest and best made version! I don't even like salads but I can't bypass it with the presentation they give.

Final word: I've been to over 30 countries and.....

GREECE IS STILL THE MOST BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY in my opinion◦