Argos, Greece
Since we've had two "BIG" days of climbing up and down mountains, we decided to give our legs a break today, and wander around closer to Xiropigado, where our apartment is.
We headed north and found a small site called Lerna. This is the home of the legendary Hydra, the nine-headed serpent that Herakles (Hercules is the Roman name we are more used to) killed as one of his Labours. There was a large settlement here between the 7th and 2nd millennium BC. Those years are so far away it's hard to imagine!
Anyway, this palace is called the "House of Tiles" as it had terracotta roofing. It was a 2-storey building, with large central rooms and smaller side rooms for storage. There is evidence that the main larger rooms were the public, administrative areas for public use, as dozens of clay seals for sealing boxes have been found there. They were an advanced civilization which knew how to build watermills powered from local springs.
Puttering along, taking an off-beaten track, we found ourselves in farmers' fields, full of olives, oranges and lemons, and lots and lots of beehives.
This area is also famous for its honey, especially sweet from the orange blossoms.
The city of Argos was a tangle of one-way narrow roads. No one seems to know where anything is, and Greek road signs are atrocious. We did find and were allowed in to visit the Monastery of Panayia, half way up the mountain, and then the Larissa Castle of Argos. It's referred to as a hill rather than a mountain, but coming from PEI, it's definitely a mountain.
The Larissa Castle was a WOW castle, not as big nor high as the Acrokorinth, but impressive for its compactness and how well it's withstood the test of time. Again, there's evidence of different conquering peoples - the Mycenaean, Byzantine, Romans, Christians, Muslims. At the top, we could see all around, then enjoyed a couple of oranges for energy.
We lunched in Argos. Greeks do not know what "gluten-free" means. I have stuck to ordering Greek salad, and today I branched out to include a souvlaki. Needless to say, Tom's meal always looks, smells and probably (most definitely) tastes so much better than mine.
I am grateful, though, that I can find anything to eat as we can't read Greek ingredient lists.
We're just finding out that Greeks are serious about taking siesta from 2-5pm, and that most Greek businesses, post offices, archaeological sites etc. shut at 3pm. Most restaurants won't start serving food again until after 3pm. When does anything get done?? We were surprised to notice that kids weren't in school after noon either - though maybe today is still Easter break holiday for kids?
After a long leisurely lunch, we eventually did find the Ancient Theatre of Argos. It also was closed for the day, but we could see it from the road. It was the largest and steepest of all the Greek theatres. It was neat to imagine over 20,000 spectators sitting there, enjoying a day at the theatre. We could even see the middle aisle going up through the centre of the seats, where people would have walked 2,300 years ago. I wonder what they ate for snacks??
2025-05-22