Diros Cave

We left Mystras heading south today. We first stopped in Diros where we explored an underground cave via a 9 person row boat, then we headed as south as we could get and ended up at the entrance to Hades as well as a lighthouse that was at the southern most tip of mainland Europe. For our final stop before heading all the way back up to Mystras, we went to Vatheia; here there are abandoned houses, towers, and chapels.

We took an approximately 20 minute tour through the cave of Diros. There were six people and a guide on my row boat and two other boats. No verbal descriptions or information was given, but we were allowed to take pictures. I though it was a neat experience. Sometimes the stalactites were so low you had to really move to get out of the way. One guy on our boat hit the wall, and our guide just laughed at him. I am posting 28 photos of this... I'm not sorry.

another boat in front of ours

you can see the tip of our boat

we had to go through many tight spaces

We fed a cat today.

Mystras Castle

In 1249 a strong fortress was built atop the naturally-fortified hill of Myzithra in Laconia. The hill was filled with houses, mansions, palaces, churches, and monasteries. Many of the structures are still standing, and we were able to walk around for a few hours. A monastery is still in use here. A nun pulled Bob and me into a room there and gave us Turkish delite. We did emerge back in the world and not Narnia. The views from this place were incredible. I believe (since I read it on a sign) that we were elevated about 700 meters.

view of the Palace

Palace

inside a church

I apologize for the mass amount of pictures of this place, but I loved it. Climbing around a castle with beautiful landscape views is a great way to spend a Tuesday. Today we went to a castle once again, this time in Monemvasia, which was also fun to climb around, and had nice views, but nothing as gorgeous as yesterday. Prior to the castle, we stopped at a prehistoric excavation site, but there wasn't anything to see because there were tarps over the excavations and fences up.

Mystras

We have been staying in Mystras for the last two nights and will be here for the next three. Today we started out at the Mystras Castle where we spent about three hours as it was a large place; the views here were spectacular, and maybe I'll post those tomorrow. Then we ventured back into modern Sparta to see the Sparta Archeological Museum. After eating some lunch, we did three shorter stops at ancient sites: the Sanctuary of Psychico, the Tholos Tomb of Vaphio, and the Amyklaion.
I said yesterday I'd post the pictures of the town of Mystras. We are staying at Hotel Byzantion.

The outside of the hotel

two beds

view from the balcony

from the balcony

view from the balcony; the castle we visited is on the top of that hill, you can barely make it out

 When we got here the first night, it was already dark thus many of our pictures are too dark to really see what's going on.

a little bridge

the town all lit up

a tree fountain

I remembered to take pictures of some of the food we've been eating here. I forgot to get the stuffed peppers and tomatoes though which have been our favorite. There are only three restaurants in this town, so we've been trying out a new one each night.

horiatiki salad/village salad/Greek salad

roasted chicken

saganaki (fried cheese) and pork souvlaki

Oh my! How'd that get in here? Yes, and frozen yogurt... in a box.

Ted, I think this is the house you wanted. We were told that Andrew isn't here right now and is in the states.

Finally, a sneak peek of the castle view because I loved it so much.