Thursday, June 24, 2010

Greece - Nafplio

D and I knew we had to arrange a side trip to Nafplio, which is only a couple hours outside Athens. It's an old port town, not ancient, but fabulous. Teeny little streets with beautiful balconies, some fun antique shops, and a fairly quiet port.

greece - nafplio - port
{nafplio port at sunset}

We ended up renting a car and driving. I was super nervous, because driving in Athens can be insane, so we took the metro to the airport, picked the car up there and then got right on the highway. And it was fine.

greece - driving nafplio to epidavraus
{driving, greece - not the highway}

On the smaller roads you run into some sticky passing situations. Brave drivers pass in all sorts of places that you would think impossible (i.e. blind curves, on a mountain) but we avoided this.

greece - driving nafplio to athens
{little hyundai}

Apparently, picturesque Nafplio did not get much camera time. I was too busy relaxing. D took the family out to Mycennae, which is only 30 minutes away and is a must see if you haven't been before (I have, several times). The site is ridiculously wonderful. We all went to Epidavrus, which is as stunning as I remember and they've added a cute (if overpriced) cafe.

greece - epidavraus
{theater at epidavrus}

greece - nafplio - museum at epidavraus
{museum at epidavrus}

We stayed at the Pension Andromeda, and it was a great (accidental) find. I have major issues with hotel duvet covers (I know, weird) and was so happy to walk in and find an actual blanket on our bed, in a totally modern bright orange shade.

greece - nafplio - dustin
{pension andromeda - good bedspread}

The only downside was that the little guy stepped on a sea urchin and I had no idea how to handle it (after a failed attempt at pulling the spines out with my tweezers). He was super brave, even though we ended up having to take a trip to the hospital, where we were given a prescription for antibiotics and instructed to rub warm olive oil on it. Bases covered. Was sorely tempted to take photos of us in the hospital but managed to restrain myself, out of some notion of appropriateness. The foot recovered enough for him to enjoy the old fortress the next day.

greece - nafplio - palamidi
{nafplio - palamidi}

Nafplio was a lot easier on the kid, because it's small and quiet and because it was swarming with Greek children (I'm thinking they must have been on a field trip). And it has a serious fort and some amazing gelato. Hard to beat.

16 comments:

  1. love the shots - sorry about the sea urchin though (ouch!)...

    what great memories woven into this - i love that part too

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  2. that sunset is gorgeous! and gelato... would love to have REAL gelato one day!

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  3. Thank you so much for sharing these beautiful moments with us - lovely sunset. And love how you've captured yourself through the sandals:)

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  4. i feel relaxed just looking at these pictures. so beautiful and what i would do for some greek gelato right now!

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  5. Lovely photos, lovely stories...I want to go to Greece someday :)

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  6. Rachel these are ammmmmmaaaazing!

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  7. These are giving me a bad case of wanderlust

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  8. i realize it's terribly gauche to fixate on D in these, but hey, a picture of D! [inappropriate partner-admiring comments go here] also, i'm very proud of you for driving. i drive seldom enough on home soil these days that i've taken a solemn No Driving Abroad vow. i may end up riding a burro in iceland someday because of this, but so it must be.

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  9. Nafplio is one of my favorite places in Greece... I cannot tell you how much I'm loving these Greece posts, keep them going forever!! xox

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  10. Sunset on the water is one of my most favourite things in the world. And that one is gorgeous.

    (I have to second Lauren on D in the photos; I don't think I've ever seen his whole face.)

    And how great that D's brother enjoyed part of the trip! Even though I'm sure it hurt quite a lot, being stung by a sea urchin in Greece has to make for a cool story to tell all of his friends back home. Right?

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  11. @ lauren and kristy - I debated this and totally asked permission before revealing him to the world. Especially because I tend to avoid ever putting my own face on here, so it seemed kind of unfair. But it was the only picture I had of our hotel room with the orange bedspread. I didn't ask permission for the shot of his back, but I figured that was fair game.

    Not sure why, because the blog isn't super anonymous, but it feels reeeallly strange to have photos of actual people up.

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  12. The theater looks AMAZING. Plus the hotel looks inviting. Thank you so much for sharing your trip - it makes me want to go there even more!

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  13. Lovely! I'm hoping to do some island hopping this summer and revisit Paxos and anti Paxos, just love Greece.

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  14. Beautiful Greece... I've been there once, it was magical... I'd love to go back.... Thanks for sharing!

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