The Argolid

After a few years of fun and frolics in Spetses, a couple of holidays in Kos, a disastrous break in Santorini and a very average ten days in Zante; a last minute package holiday to the Peloponnese resort of Tolon (Agolid region) set us on a new course. My partner and I travelled through the night by coach from the airport in Kalamata and nearing the end of the long transfer, we encountered an amazing vision that was the Palamidi castle illuminated, hovering in the dark sky above Nafplion like a spaceship. Tolon itself was nothing special but we soon realised that the somewhat charmless resort served as a great base from which to explore the surrounding region. Most evenings were spent trying different restaurants and bars in the chic port town of Nafplion, once the capital of Greece. Often we would drive our clapped out moped to Drepano or beyond to the tiny village of Vivari to eat fresh fish on the waters edge. By day we would potter off down the eastern coast of the Peloponnese mainland on a clapped out moped to a secluded 'secret' beach we discovered just beyond the village of Kiveri. A couple of times we drove to Paralia Astros and Leonidio. We visited the fantastic ancient site of Epidavros several times; one magical evening watching a Peter Hall production of Lysistrata, sitting high up on the steps of the ampitheatre with a bottle of red beneath a perfect night sky thick with layer upon layer of stars.

The dream of buying a house in Greece had never faded and now, some years later, my search focused around Nafplion, only an hour's drive from Athens. Business was better and the dream felt a little more achievable by the early noughties.
During our fifth visit to Tolon/Nafplion, now with three kids in tow, we decided to drive down to the Mani region for a day's exploration. The drive was stomach churning - with me shouting 'get away from the edge' constantly as we wound up and down extremely high and narrow mountain roads.
Much as I loved the Argolid region that was the last holiday we spent there... summer 2003. The next year we changed location... the Messinian Mani region of the Peloponnese, near the southernmost tip of mainland Europe.

The Palamidi Fortress, Nafplion Photo by JJ.Bach

Paralia Astros