From Hydra to Nafplio

Wednesday March 22 was a travel day and this will be a short post.  We got up early and got some treats from the wonderful bakery in Hydra for our trip.  The bakery opens at 6:00 a.m. and is busy all morning.  We were early enough to catch the cats lined up for fish on the wharf and to see a donkey set up to move some lumber.   We checked out and had a coffee at the port, waiting for our ferry, which left just after 11:00 a.m.

Cats waiting for their fish

Donkey with a lumber haul

Two toned cat

We got on the Flying Cat 5 catamaran at 11:00 a.m. and after two stops arrived at 12:30 p.m. at Porto Heli-a port town on the Pelopponese.  Most waterfront shops had not opened for the season, so we ate our lunch which we had brought with us and then took a short 7 km taxi to Kranidi.  We had to wait until 2:45 p.m. for our bus to Nafplio, which took 1 3/4 hour.

Flying Cat 5 docked at Kranidi

We had an interesting bus ride-- heading up in altitude (my ears popped a number of time) and passing through large tracts of rural landscape with very few inhabitants.  Luckily, we sat near a young couple from Winnipeg that we had met on the ferry from Athens to Hydra, who were wearing Toronto Blue Jays caps.  We chatted and it turned out the Allan knew the woman's grandfather and that they knew many folks in common.  She had worked for a number of years in the NDP government.  Claire and Christian have spent nine months travelling in South America, Asia, New Zealand and Australia, and were now about five weeks from heading home.

View from the bus

Lots of green

One of the few houses we saw en route

The countryside

Very green

We arrived at the port of Nafplio at around 4:30.  We had a bit of trouble finding our apartment (we are doing Air BnB), but after a few calls to our host, got there.  We are staying in an old fisherman's house that dates back to around 1900.  It is small but two stories (the bedroom is on the main floor and the dining room on the second floor).  Our host is very nice and we got oriented to the town.  We were just heading out to get some groceries, when we got an email from the Winnipeg couple asking us to join them for dinner.  They had a recommendation of a local place from the pension they are staying at.

Alain in front of our place 

Gorgeous walk along the waterfront

Boardwalk

We walked along the water to the grocery store, got some provisions and quickly headed back to the apartment.  We then went downtown again to meet Christian and Claire for dinner.   Again we got a bit lost (there doesn't seem to be a good map of Nafplio) but eventually found the restaurant, called Aeolus.

View of Island Fortress of Bourtzi (1473)

Palamidi Fortress- built between 1711-1714

Claire and Christian from Winnipeg

Our 1/2 portion delicious salad

Fresh artichokes

Enjoying our dinner

 Dessert of cake and fruit and a small bottle of the Greek equivalent to grappa were on the house.

Dessert

We had a great evening after a long travel day.  We are in Nafplio until Saturday, so lots of time for more adventures in this city, which had been the first capital of Greece from 1823-1834 and had been a major port since the Bronze Age.   A very different feel from both Athens and Hydra.  More tomorrow.