Nafplion – Mycenae – Nemea
After sailing for a number of days around the Cycladic Islands we made our way towards the Peloponese. We woke up this morning to the picturesque town of Nafplion. The first capital of Greece, which maintains a very strong Venetian influence easily detected in many of its buildings. But our time to enjoy Nafplion had to wait. Our buses were waiting at the pier to take us to the center of a great prehistoric civilization: Mycenae and the palace of King Agamemnon who led the Greeks against Troy. We visited the impressive protective walls – the Cyclopean walls – the famous Lion Gate, the ruins of the palace (unfortunately not much is preserved), the underground cisterns, the storage area and of course the unique beehive tomb of the Father of Agamemnon – Atreus. All these ruins date back to the Bronze Age at around 1500-1200 BC! It was incredible!
After completing our visit in Mycenae we continued on our way to Nemea, the place where Hercules did his first labor: killed the Lion of Nemea! We didn’t see any lions around, but we saw the vineyards that give us the wonderful red wine known as “the blood of Hercules”.
In Nemea there is a sanctuary dedicated to Zeus. The stadium of the site is one of the best preserved in Greece. It was a great opportunity for the children to have the experience of running a race in an ancient stadium! The races were organized and everyone was a winner. Participation was what counted. Everyone got a wreath of an olive branch.
We soon made our way back to Nafplion where we had the opportunity to visit the Venetian castle at the top of the hill. Some of our guests came down by walking the 999 steps! A great ice cream rewarded the effort.
