The Land of Agamemnon: Tiryns, Argos and Mycenae

Our first full Peloponnese road trip day started early with some coffee, from a place Paul pronounced "muppleberry" because of how it was spelled in Greek. Turns out it was just "blueberry." Oops! Muppleberry became a refrain for the trip any time something was hard to read in Greek. Greece has a wide-ranging coffee culture, and Paul had no problem throughout the trip finding various types of traditional and inventive coffee drinks. One thing that Greece does better than any other European country is cold coffee. They invented the frappe, and freddo espresso and freddo cappuccino (iced versions of the drinks) are available everywhere.

After breakfast, we started the day by driving north toward Argos, but first stopped at a Mycenaean archaeological site called Tiryns, less than 15 minutes north of Nafplio. The Mycenaeans were the first major civilization on mainland Greece (1750 - 1050 BCE). They built large palaces and spread around the Peloponnese and some Greek islands. For reference, the period most people think of as "classical Greece" happened around 500, so the Myceneans predate that period substantially. 

Not much of Tiryns remains except for the walls, which were later referred to as "Cyclopean walls" because the stones were so large people thought they must have been put in place by Cyclops. We came across a couple of interesting things in Tiryns unrelated to the ruins. First were the squirting cucumbers. These are odd little plants that look like tiny fuzzy cucumbers or watermelons, and they can shoot their seeds more than 20 feet. We would see these plants throughout the peninsula. The next weird thing we saw was a huge snail mating ground. There was an area of grass with hundreds (if not thousands) of snails mating. These snails are hermaphrodites that mate with other snails in the autumn after the first rains. The snails have a courtship that can last for several hours where they circle each other, touch with their tentacles, and may engage in "love bites." Not what we were expecting to see during our morning visit to some ancient ruins! 

View from the walls of Tiryns.

We can see why classical period Greeks would assume these walls were built by Cyclops!

Squirting cucumbers.

One of the better preserved parts of Tyrins.

David in a door.

Snail thruple?

Leaving the main site, we drove to the nearby vaulted tomb of Tiryns, down a short dirt road. We had to open a gate and walk briefly through an orange grove. The tomb is about 3400 years old, and the false dome is still fully intact. The archeological site of Tiryns is worth a short stop if you're driving by, but if you have limited time you should focus on the better preserved sites. If you do stop, definitely add in the tomb, as it only adds a few minutes.

Just help yourself past the gate. Probably to keep cows and goats out.

Inside the tomb.

The tomb is in a orange grove.

Our trusty rental car on the short dirt road to the tomb.

Continuing north, we drove by the city of Argos and went straight to the Larisa castle, which is perched above the town up a winding road. The castle, like everything in this part of Greece, has a long history dating back to Mycenean times with modifications and additions by the classical Greeks, the Romans, the Byzantines, the Venetians, the Turks, etc. There was hardly anybody there, with only one other car at first. The castle ruins are nice, but the star attraction is the view, especially on a sunny day like we had. We also saw a tortoise, likely a marginated tortoise.

  

The view of Argos from the castle.

You can see the Gulf from up on the castle. Argos isn't exactly a coastal city, but in classical times the water was as much as 2km closer to the city!

David taking in the views.

A little tortoise friend!

The castle.

After visiting the castle, we drove down into town to go to a museum and grab lunch. Overall, having a rental car was great this trip! However, sometimes in towns, like Argos, it could be difficult to find parking. Greek cities tend to not be too populous, but are physically small and pretty densely populated. Even small towns tend to have multistory apartments for most of the housing. This design makes for a city planners dream of walkable "15 minute cities," but comes with a few disadvantages for tourists, with a rental car. It was surprisingly hard to find parking in Argos for the museum and lunch - there is a lot of street parking, but it was all full. We eventually found a spot about a 10 minute walk away from the museum. 

The Byzantine Museum of Argolis is small but worth a stop as it focuses on daily life and customs of the people in this region during the Byzantine period (after the fall of Rome but before the Ottoman conquest in the 1400s). There are a few old artifacts, some videos, and descriptions in Greek and English. 

After visiting the museum, we then walked to lunch at Kiprion Yefsis (Κυπρίων Γεύσεις). This small restaurant was empty, but had good reviews on google so we went in. The owner was a super nice woman that sat us and then proceeded to show us photos on her phone of all the dishes she had that day. This was super thoughtful of her (but also blindly assuming we didn't know any Greek foods). In the end we opted for stifado (a meat and onion stew normally made with beef, but this version was with rabbit) and pastitsio. When we say it was made with rabbit, we mean there was a whole rabbit heart and lungs! Overall the stifado and pastitsio were both very good. The restaurant owner even brought us a small sampler of her other food because she wanted us to try them and tell our friends (and we're holding up our end of the bargain)! She included a pork in paprika sauce, the best dolmades (stuffed grape leaves) Paul ever tried, hummus and a keftedes (Greek meatball). At the end she even brought us a small piece of chocolate cake to share. Overall a very nice experience! 

Byzantine fresco.

Snippet of art.

David at lunch with rabbit stifado.

A solid pastitsio! If you haven't had it, it's David's favorite Greek comfort food.

The delightful sampler platter we were gifted by the restaurant owner.

After lunch we walked to the Argos archaeological site. Argos was an important city in the classical period, and was often involved in the tug of war between Athens, Corinth and Sparta. There isn't too much left at this site, but there is still a huge classical theater. Since the site was mostly empty we were able to test the acoustics by standing in the center of the theater and talking to each other in the upper stands. You didn't have to project your voice too much to be heard. While we were here we also had a fairly long conversation with 3 other Americans (from Arizona and Hawaii) about the government shutdown and the state of American affairs. Unfortunately, part of site was closed and we couldn't see it all, but the theater is the main attraction and worth a visit.

Argos street with Larisa castle above.

Theater at the site of ancient Argos.

David is always finding cats.

View towards town from the top of the theater.

David excitedly narrating the Iliad for ... no one.

After finishing up in Argos, we walked back to car to head towards the last stop of the day - Mycenae. Since nothing is that far in this part of Greece, we were at the archaeological site within about 20 minutes. Mycenae was a bit busier than Argos and Tiryns, but it was still not difficult to find some space to ourselves. Mycenae was the main palace/city of bronze age Mycenaean Greece. This city was sung about in Homer's Iliad and the king Agamemnon was from Mycenae. Unfortunately, around 3,000 years of abandonment didn't leave much of the city left. 

On the way up to the main site we stopped at the Treasury of Atreus (aka the Tomb of Agamemnon - although researchers don't know whose tomb it actually was). The Tomb of Atreus is another vaulted tomb like we saw in Tiryns - but larger. In fact, it may have been the largest dome in the world when it was built. From there, we made our way up to the main site where we started at the museum and then walked around the site itself. There was good information and signage at this site and its well worth a stop if you're a history buff or in the area. On top of it all, the site was perched high on a hill and there were great view of the surrounding countryside and mountains. We could see all the way back to Argos and the Larisa Castle.

The entry to the Treasury of Atreus.

That's a big door! Paul for scale.

David inside the tomb.

The hilltop ruins of Mycenae.

Mycenaean art from the on-site museum.

Wait, it says, what do I look like? A waiter?

Mountain cats!

David passing through the lion gate. This is one of the few original artistic pieces left in situ, and one of a few monumental art pieces from bronze age Greece dating back to around 1250 BCE. 

A circle grave at Mycenae.

Paul coming out of a cistern that was used to store rainwater.

We could see Larisa castle, where we had just visited, in the distance.

After exploring the site for a couple hours, it was getting closer to evening so we decided to head back to Nafplio, stopping at a grocery store along the way. We always love exploring grocery stores in other countries to see what's similar and what's different. We picked up some drinks and a few snacks to share over the next couple days.

After a quick break at the AirBnB we decided to try to catch another sunset at the waterfront and headed off. We were a little late to see the sun go behind the mountains but still had great views and strolled through town for a while souvenir shopping. Since it had been such a long day we grabbed some sandwiches and fries on the way home from a take away restaurant. We wrapped up the evening by doing laundry and watching some YouTube videos about the sites we visited that day. 

One more full day in the Argolis region before we pack up and continue the Peloponnesian road trip!

The Lion of Bavaria sculpture in Nafplio.

Sun dipping below the horizon.

Sunset at the Nafplio harbor.

Boo!

This building was the first parliament of the modern Greek State. It was located in a converted mosque.

Paul on top of the old Parliament building.

Evening streets in the central area of Naplio.

Gyro sandwich for dinner. We're not going to lie, we thought this would come in a pita instead of a 1/2 kg of bread.

Hello, Greece! (Γεια σας, ελλάδα!)

Leaving Istanbul, we began the main part of our trip - a 10 day road trip around the Peloponnese peninsula in Greece. As a reminder, David is half Greek. His mother's family is all Greek. His grandparents spoke Greek and his Grandmother (Theda) was actually a Greek citizen (a recent discovery). David is starting the process to gain Greek citizenship by descent. This effort was not the key motivating factor in this trip, but his tie to Greece definitely contributes to his return to Greece every few years (this is David's third trip to Greece and Paul's second). David is also in the process of learning the Greek language. While still too early in his studying to be able to hold a conversation, the exposure he received to the Greek language and culture was helpful. More to say on this in our post about Athens on the last day of our trip.

On the flight to Athens from Istanbul, we had some great views of various Aegean islands from above. After we landed, we picked up our rental car at the Athens airport. On the way out of the city we stopped at the Holy Monastery of Daphne, a Byzantine monastery that is a UNESCO world heritage site with impressive 11th century mosaics and remnants of an ancient Sanctuary of Apollo. It's a seldom visited site since it's on the outskirts of the city and not easily reachable by public transit, so we had it mostly to ourselves except for two other people and some cats. That would generally be a theme of this trip - tourist sites in the Peloponnese during the shoulder season were not very crowded. We also had nice sunny (but not too hot) weather for most of the road trip. Go to Greece in the fall, people!

Our road trip route.

Island views from the plane.

Monastery of Daphni.

Frescoes with 6-winged angels (same as Hagia Sophia).

Some are worse for wear.

A remarkably well preserved Byzantine mosaic.

Next we drove to ancient Corinth, our first large archaeological site of the trip. The road from Athens is a modern, high speed toll road. It crosses over the Corinth Canal, which essentially makes the Peloponnesian peninsula an island. It was not too busy, with just one tour bus and a handful of cars. There are the remains of a temple, various ruins of Roman baths and buildings, and a small museum. Corinth was a large and important city by around 400BC, vying with nearby Athens and Sparta for dominance in the region. It received renewed attention under Roman rule. Corinth is also known for being the site where Paul the apostle wrote his letters. 

Many Greek archaeological sites have adjacent museums to host items found nearby (we think this is a nice touch), and Corinth is no exception. After touring the ruins we spent some time in the four-hall museum showcasing items from Corinth and nearby. An interesting fact about this museum is that in 1990 the Karhalios gang (a man, his father, brother and a friend) broke into the museum, assaulted a guard, and stole 270 artifacts. This event is very uncommon and also very dumb. All the items are well catalogued and purchasing them would clearly indicate their origin as stolen. Most of the items were recovered in a raid in Miami (Florida man strikes again) in 1999, and some others were found on auction at Christie's in New York. It's a pretty wild story if you want to read about it!

The site is pretty dramatic with a mountain behind and the sea below in the distance.

We all love a good plan that lets you visualize the site 2,400 years ago!

Paul chilling on the ancient Corinthian streets.

If you squint and use your imagination, you can feel what it must have been like to be here during it's heyday.

The Temple of Apollo.

The museum.

Twin Kouros Statues - returned in 2010 after they were smuggled!

A medusa mosaic.

David walking in Corinth.

Leaving Corinth we drove to our first lodging of the Greek road trip, in the city of Nafplio (sometimes also referred to as Nafplion, an older name). It was a very pleasant 50 minute drive through little towns and countryside. Our AirBnB in Nafplio was a modern condo about a 20 minute walk from the old town, with balcony views of the Bavarian Lion and the nearby hills.

Nafplio changed hands numerous times since its foundation, from various Greek city states to Roman, Byzantine, Frankish, Venetian, and Ottoman control. Nafplio was also, briefly, the first capital of the unified Greece when it gained independence from the Ottoman Empire. The city served as the capitol from 1829 to 1834 when it was moved to Athens by the King of Greece. You can still see the old parliament building - converted from the Ottoman Agha Pasha Mosque - in the city center.

After settling in to the AirBnB, we made dinner reservations, then walked around for about an hour, enjoying nice sunset vibes on the waterfront. Nafplio is pretty laid back (at least in the shoulder season), but there was still a nice energy and plenty of people out and about. The waterfront is lined with restaurants, full of fancy yachts, and of course there are plenty of cats. It's a very pretty city, with a fortress towering above and the Argolic Gulf stretching out to the horizon ringed with mountains. 

That evening we had dinner at Wild Duck restaurant. It was nice, and our favorite dish was a phyllo dough wrapped fried house-made feta cheese with tomato compote and honey. We sat outside and had some good cocktails, and enjoyed some house-made limoncello at the end. On way back to our AirBnB we stopped at a little convenience kiosk and got water, wine, sprite, and ouzo for €5.40. Can't beat those Greek prices!

Our AirBnB.

Nice view from the balcony.

The charming streets of Nafplio.

Waterfront of Naplio.

Big ol' yacht.

Cats, sunset, mountains, and water.

Not to be outdone by cats, Paul enters the ring!

Bourtzi Castle, a 15th century Venetian fortification on a nearby island in the Gulf.

The fortress looming above town.

Phyllo-wrapped fried feta. Yum!

David's salmon with potatoes and veggies.

Paul got the restaurant's namesake duck!

This dessert was like a phyllo mille-feuille with cream and honey. 

In total, we spent 3 nights in Nafplio, which served as a great base to explore the Argolis region of the Peloponnese and it's numerous sites like: Argos, Epidaurus, and Mycenae. More Nafplio and surroundings coming up in the next post!