{"id":2573,"date":"2015-05-24T08:37:26","date_gmt":"2015-05-24T07:37:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/merrington.net\/?p=2573"},"modified":"2015-05-24T08:37:26","modified_gmt":"2015-05-24T07:37:26","slug":"kalamata-mystra-and-the-mani","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/merrington.net\/?p=2573","title":{"rendered":"Kalamata, Mystra and the Mani"},"content":{"rendered":"

We sailed from Porto Kayio to Kalamata on Friday to Kalamata Marina, the first marina we had seen since Agio Nikolas in Crete. \u00a0It is wonderful, with a wonderful taverna and the best AB supermarket we have seen.<\/p>\n

Kalamata is in the Mani, a ‘state or province’ in the Peloponnesse. The Mani is abundantly beautiful, with Mountains creating a ridge down the spine.\u00a0Mount Taygetos is about 7800 feet, so comparable with Aspen and the drive from Kalamata to Mystra brings to my imagination what the Leadville Road\u00a0out of Aspen\u00a0circa 1950, would be like. Hairpin turns, sheer cliffs, boulders fallen onto the road the size of bowling balls.<\/p>\n

\"Road<\/a>
Road to Mystra<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

So yes, I am turning into my Mother, James’ Mother and mothers everywhere, when I tell you there was a dent in the floor where my brakes would be. Sheer fright! No photos because I was too busy holding on and there was no where to pull over.<\/p>\n

I am not familiar with this area of Greece, but I am enchanted with it. So you can learn along with me. \u00a0Visit\u00a0http:\/\/www.maniguide.info\/ \u00a0and read about this incredible hidden peninsula. Google: Mani.<\/p>\n

\"Mystra\"<\/a>
Mystra<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We drove to Mystra to visit its\u00a0Byzantine fortress and monasteries. This is the Sparta you may not have heard about. Medieval intrigue and the Crusades meant a fortress was needed but in this case, it wasn’t the Venetians but the Franks. There still seems to be some nuns here in one of the Monasteries and the buildings were beautiful.<\/p>\n

\"Mystra<\/a>
Mystra<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We left after hours of walking. Even with tour buses full of people, the site is so vast that you are virtually walking by yourself only occasionally passing another person.<\/p>\n

\"Fresco\"<\/a>
Fresco<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We decided to drive back to Kalamata by way of Gythion, a lovely harbour, where they are building a much larger breakwater and then to Diros. \u00a0This followed the same route we had sailed up so we could visit Aghia Nikolas, Stoupa and many other small villages. \u00a0The views from the escarpments were superb.<\/p>\n

\"View<\/a>
View of Mani Coastline<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We sailed from Porto Kayio to Kalamata on Friday to Kalamata Marina, the first marina we had seen since Agio Nikolas in Crete. \u00a0It is wonderful, with a wonderful taverna and the best AB supermarket we have seen. Kalamata is in the Mani, a ‘state or province’ in the Peloponnesse. The Mani is abundantly beautiful, … Continue reading Kalamata, Mystra and the Mani<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8,48,42,47,9,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2573","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adventures-2","category-antiquities","category-art-and-sculpture","category-greece","category-history","category-travel"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3VxXq-Fv","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/merrington.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2573","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/merrington.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/merrington.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/merrington.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/merrington.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2573"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/merrington.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2573\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2582,"href":"https:\/\/merrington.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2573\/revisions\/2582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/merrington.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/merrington.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/merrington.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}