Today the arrival in Nafplio, Greece sees me into the 6th country since departing Fort Lauderdale. It also marks the 12th country since leaving home on the 8th of March. But of course who is counting these sorts of things. At this stage from the ship, Nafplio looks like a beautiful little town.
I opted to book a tour to see Nafplio and the surrounding area today, primarily because it is a tender port. In my experience tendering can be quite a delay in getting off the ship, with priority given to those on a tour. The second reason was more to save time in doing research on the port itself. With so many ports and cities that I am visiting it can be a little easier to take tours where available.
Mycenaean Acropolis
The first stop on the tour today is visiting the location of ruins from the 16th to 12th century BC. The ruins are high up in the hills and provide a stunning view over the Argive Plain to the water. The Mycenaean Acropolis is far from complete, as you might expect from their age. But they give you a reasonably good idea of what the area might have been like many centuries ago.
The second part of the Mycenaean Acropolis we visited is a little further down the hill. It is a rather elaborate burial site named the Treasury of Atreus. The tomb is built into the side of the hill and is referred to as a Beehive Tomb.
Palamidi Castle
The final stop of the tour was Palamidi Castle, which sits on a hill high above the city of Nafplio. The location gives a rather commanding view of the city and surrounding valley and waters. It would take some time to see the whole castle, especially considering the number of other people that were here also taking a look.
I had a brief look around before making the decision to take the alternate ending to the tour. I could have waited to take the bus back to the pier, but that would have meant waiting around an hour. The other option was to take the stairs back down into the city. In all there were 857 steps, according to the guidebook anyway, I was too interested in the scenery to count them myself.
Nafplio
The steps only took about 10 minutes to get me back into the city. Once in town, I took a walk through the streets and laneways to see what was around. There are cafes everywhere and plenty of people out and about enjoying the marvellous weather today.
Even though Nafplio is not a big town, it was an excellent place to spend some time. It would be a great place just to get away and spend some time relaxing and exploring at a slow pace. On the plus side, there is plenty of cafes to keep you busy.
