Tuesday
  Starting the morning with a great view of Nafplion from the Marianna's terrace. On to Epidavros. A short drive and well worth it. Epidavros is an impressive ancient theatre, made of stone that seats up to 14,000. The acoustics are amazing, with conversations at center stage heard throughout the theatre. We have a new item for the bucket lists - see a live play (annual event) at Epidavros. Epidavros was also a Greek healing center with some old ruins focused on healing. Not enough to justify a write off of the trip for health care consulting research. All in all, Epidavros should be on the must see list.

Now for the decision. Head south to Monemvasia (Gibraltar of Greece) or head west to the mountains. The Monemvasia direction would add a lot of miles to our trip and we were already beginning to discover that most of the roads were not speedy superhighways. We headed west with an intended destination of Andritsaina, a very small mountain town situated close to the Temple of Vasses.


The drive to Andritsaina, while only a little over 70 miles was longer than expected. It was a pretty drive and got more picturesque as we got higher in the mountains near Andritsaina. The drive took us slightly south of Tripoli, through Megalopolis and then over some narrow mountain roads to Andritsaina.


We didn't realize how small or how out of the way we were getting into. Andritsaina was delightfully tiny, quaint, out of season, unique and friendly. We found a little inn in the middle of the one street town. The Epicurean Apollo Inn was owned by a couple and neither spoke very much English. With Kathy's Greek language lessons we made the transaction happen. Great views out on the little town center with a natural spring fountain flowing out of a pipe imbedded in a huge tree. The local people were friendly and very Greek authentic. Internet service was available if you stood outside on the sidewalk in front of a taverna closed for the season.


Dinner was an experience. We had dinner in a very small taverna with 2 tables inside and several outside too wet to use with the thunderstorms we were experiencing. The couple who owned the taverna asked a couple of the local people to leave so we could use the table. The daughter was the only one who could speak english and she did a great job.


The night was full of some ferocious thunderstorms and lots of water came down, which might have been a clue for what we were in for the next day.