Greece Trip Report Day 7: Mystras

DAY 7, Nov 15, 2018, Thursday:

We walked to our car at the port and drove on toward Mystras... starting off by 7.30 am, a little later than we had planned. We were driving on the direct route thru Tripoli... 2 hours.

Weather looked overcast in Nafplio with prediction of rain but Mystras was bright and clear!

Scenic ride... needless to say!! Morning sun peeping on the horizon

MYSTRAS:

Reached the village of Mystras. Lovely square

This is the statue of Constantinos Paleologos, the last Byzantine emperor, who died in 1453 defending Constantinople from the Turks. 

We drove up and parked at the main entrance. Had some food 

and then drove on up the hill to the entrance for the fort. Strategy is to walk from the top to those portions of the ruins. then get back to the car, drive down to the main entrance, and walk up to the ruins there.

Worked great.

When we bought the tickets, I asked the counter lady about the strategy of covering the upper city from the top and where precisely it ends. She gave me a map (key is in Greek). It was pretty useful...

ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITE OF MYSTRAS:

Situated on Mt. Taygetos, near ancient Sparta, Mystras served as the capital of the Byzantine Despot in the 14th and 15th centuries. From 1348 until its surrender to the Ottoman Turks on 31 May 1460, was the city's golden age. The ruins, including the fortress, palace, churches, and monasteries, are a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

It's a marathon climb up and down the ruins but well worth it 

Peribleptos Monastery Church

The frescos in the Peribleptos Monastery Church, dating between 1348 and 1380, are very rare surviving late Byzantine cycle

The nuns here were very sweet ... hardly saw them sitting in the dark, has a start when we saw them while exiting. They gave us a huge smile!

After a rigorous hike among the ruins in the upper city for nearly 4 hours, we trudged back to the car park and drove down to the main entrance. Here there was much less to see

It was past 4 pm and we had to leave the site as we had a long drive back... 2 hours plus and did not fancy driving in the dark.

We would have loved to take the longer coastal route back... but could not.

So drove back via Tripoli again.

VIDEO LINK:

Our video of Mystras is here:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/RrtXz5odyFGzLRLo9

Report of our next day with visit to the lovely Palamidi and a goof up at Epidavros is here:
https://adventuretrav.blogspot.com/2018/12/greece-trip-report-day-8epidavros.html