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The Legendary Peloponnese

its prettiest towns and its mightiest ruins

By Where's Herr Gruber?

December 21^st, 2020

The Pelopennese

The Pelopennese is Greeces' most southern peninsula, it is rugged, mountainous, and literally made of history, myths and legends. Think Sparta, Troy and Hercules. Think mighty ruins of temples, palaces and cities and Byzantine, Ottoman and Venetian fortresses. Along that are pretty port towns, pristine azure blue waters and according to some: the best cuisine in the country. Among campervan peoples like ourselves is it quite popular due to the soft winters and the beautiful camping spots. And so it was easily decided, we were gonna spend some weeks here.

Sadly, we had to leave Violetta (the myth, the chef, the legend) behind. We passed the Canal of Corinth via a very fancy new bridge and yay we were now entering the peninsula. Next up was Nafplio. If you are keeping up with our stories, you know by now that try not to take the toll roads. These are quite expensive, but also Herr Gruber is kind of slow, so it is way nicer to take the local roads and get some sights in while doing so. Sometimes that does not turn out so great (see here), but this time it did. We drove straight through the backroads of Greeces' wine country, rolling hills with vines all around. Picture it? Well, you will have to, since sadly enough I was enjoying the view so much, that did not take my camera out at all. You know, living in the moment, mindfulness that kind of stuff...

Nafplio

After a while we swapped the wine country for the olive oil and orange country, and we found a place to camp right on top of a hill next to a white chapel. It does not get more Greek than this, does it? We had a view over Nafplio and the archeological sites surrounding it. It was a very good camping spot, see for yourself:

Nafplio, one of Greece's prettiest and most romantic towns. At least according to the Athenians who visit it in big numbers during weekends and holidays. It was very pretty indeed, with colorful flowers everywhere, Venetian houses, narrow alleys, cute cafes, a pretty port and to top it all off: a dramatic hilltop castle.

We wandered through the town, sat down at one of the pretty cafes, had a good coffee and took some shots. Camera shots, it was too early for Ouzo. We filled up our veggie stash at the market. And Simon even got a haircut!

The Legendary Peloponnese

The Legendary Peloponnese

Ancient Mycenae

That same day we decided to visit Ancient Mycenae, home of Agamemnon and at some point even the most powerful kingdom of Greece. Once upon of time it was rich in gold, unfortunately we didn't find any. But it was beautiful nonetheless. Our visit was during the end of October and it hadn't rained since August. It was very dry and the firefighters were even on stand-by at the spot. In the photos you can see the burn marks on the stones and landscape from previous fires.

The Legendary Peloponnese

The Legendary Peloponnese

The Legendary Peloponnese

The Theater of Epidavros

The next day we drove to Epidavros. The World Heritage site is famous for its amphitheater, one of the best-preserved ancient Greek structures that still exist today. It was quite an impressive site, especially from the top. The theater fits 14.000 (!) people and the acoustics were spot on. The little girl in the picture below was talking and we could hear it all the way at the top. Pretty cool for a theater 2.400 year old theater right? It is even still in use, every year during the Athens & Epidavros festival, there are performances.

The Legendary Peloponnese

The Legendary Peloponnese

In the village of Epidavros we found another cool beach side camping spot and went for dinner. Simon had gyros, I had moussakka, we shared half a liter of wine and life was good yet again… We stayed there for a couple of nights before once again tiny islands started calling us. More stories on this and the Pelopennese coming up, but probably after Christmas!

The Legendary Peloponnese

The Legendary Peloponnese

Happiest of Holidays!

Today is the 21st of December, in three days it will be Christmas. Yesterday Simon took a dive in the ocean… apart from the Christmas we spend together in New Zealand, after we just met, this is probably the warmest ever since… We are still on the farm, it is still lockdown and were are celebrating Christmas with the lovely family. One of the farm turkeys already lost his head earlier this week…

Even though we all don’t celebrate as usual this year: we wish everybody back home the happiest of holidays, a merry Christmas and a happy, good and above all, healthy New Year. May 2021 be very good to you!

Emy & Simon

© 2026 Where's Herr Gruber?

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