More Nafplio Exploring in the Sun!

Friday March 24 was the warmest day of our trip so far.  Beautiful sun with a Greek blue sky and a high of 24C.  We had breakfast and left the apartment.  Just around the corner is a Greek gelato and yogurt place.  We stopped and Alain had a couple of scoops of homemade strawberry yogurt. We then decided to have a late morning coffee in the main square.

View up our street- we are in the house on the left with the red door.

Alain at Retro dairy

With his yogurt

Syntagma Square in Nafplio was very busy.   Lots of folks having coffee and there must have been a school nearby as there were many young boys and girls playing in the square.  As Saturday March 25 is a holiday- National Independence Day- there are a lot more people in Nafplio than when we arrived on Wednesday.

Syntagma Square-where we had a coffee outside

Two young boys in traditional dress in the square

Balloon lady and lots of kids on their break in the square

After our coffee, we continued to walk into the newer part of town, where an arm of the Athens National Gallery- Alexandros Soutzos Museum is found.  It is in a renovated neoclassical building.

Outside of National Gallery- Alexanders Soutzos Museum

There was no temporary exhibit, so we were just able to see the permanent exhibit which featured different takes on the 1821 Greek War of Independence and life just after the war.  There were a number of painting by Theodoros Vryzakis and Dionysios Tsokos, who are considered the most important Greek artists of the post independence war years.

Theodoros Vryzakes (1819-1878)
 The Invalid of the Greek War of Independence 1850

Vryzakes- All for One's Country

Nicolaos Xydias (1826-1909) The Artist's Son, 1870

Vryzakis- Greek Woman

Nicolas Louis Francois Gosse (1787-1878) The Battle of the Acropolis 1827

Donato Francesco De Vivo The Death of Lambros Tzarellas before 1855

Andreas Krimis (1813-1877) The Admiral Andreas Miaoulis 1842

Dionysios Tsokos (1820-1862) Portrait of a Marine Figure

Vryzakis The Reception of Lord Byron at Missolonghi 1861

The collection was small and focussed on the period around Greek Independence, which was very interesting.  We then walked around the area below the Palamidi Fortress and found an extensive farmers' market with lots of vegetables and fish.

Area below Palamidi Fortress with market

Lots of greens

We bought two artichokes that are now in season

Market scene

After the market, we went for lunch at O Noulis, a traditional family-run restaurant that does seafood and vegetarian mezedhes particularly well.  We had walked by the other day and told that the restaurant was only open for lunch during the off-season.  We ran into Christian and Clair, who had also decided to have lunch there.  We ate together outside.

View of O Noulis just as it was opening at 1:00 p.m.

Alain and I had a large plate of Greek fava beans and battered whitebait.  Christian and Clair had tzatziki and a plate of meatballs.

Greek fava beans- which are yellow split peas

Whitebait-- very tasty

We started to walk around the seawall to Arvanita beach, when we noticed a boat heading back from Bourtzi, the island with the Fortress of Bourtzi.   Christian and Clair had told us that they had looked in vain for a boat on Thursday.  We walked towards the boat and watched where it docked when it came back to the mainland.  There was a small sign where it docked indicating the boat's schedule.  It turned out that the boat was returning to the island 15 minutes later.  We waited and took the five minute ride to the island.  

The Fortress was completed by the Venetians in 1473 in the shape of the island.  It had been originally built to protect against pirates.  In 1822-1865, it was used as the residence for the executioner of the convicts housed at the Palamidi Fortress.  From 1930-1970, the Bourtzi Castle was used as a hotel.   More recently, it had been used for a summer music festival.  Unfortunately, today the Fortress looked more like a construction zone.  There are wires hanging everywhere and there is not much to see.  No one was on the island except for the five other people that came over on the boat with us.  We walked up one level where we could manoeuvre and admired the view.  We headed back to the mainland 30 minutes later.

View of Bourtzi Fortress- mountains in the distance

The boat making the crossings

Getting close to the castle

The ramparts

Cannon on Bourtzi

Looking back to the mainland and Palamidi Fortress

Part of Bourtzi Fortress

With view of mainland behind me

Boat coming to pick us up

After we got back to the mainland, we continued our seawall walk to Arvanitia Beach.  The Beach is very rocky, but there were some brave souls in the water.  I wanted to check the water out so waded in.  The water was cold, but could be swimmable as the sun was still quite strong at 4:30 p.m. when we were there.  

Walking around the seawall 

Cacti en route

The pebble beach with some swimmers

Toes in the Argolic Gulf- the water's colour is very beautiful

We headed back through the old town and stopped for a glass of wine/coke.  Then back to the apartment where Alain cooked a chicken dinner.   We have really enjoyed our stay in Nafplio- Greece's first capital, as they like to brand it.  The climb to the Palamidi Fortress was the highlight, but we liked the beautiful port setting and the old town's walkability.  We had a lot of fun with the Winnipegers who are in the final five weeks of their nine month journey.