Our re-entry to land from the sea is in Nauplion.
It is on the Argo-Saronic Gulf and we had thought at one time to sail here. Instead, Tara and I walked down to the dock to check out the sailboats mooring and the dock.
Nauplion is a wonderful town that reminds me more of Tuscany or Provence than Greece. The view is from where we eat breakfast each morning at the Marianna Pensione. The photo is at 8:30 in the evening.
Tomorrow we head for Athens.
One of the highlights of Nauplion, besides visiting relatives, was the creepy experience of walking through the decrepit Xenia hotel. If you look at old tourist photos of Nauplion (many of the tourist photos are ourdated) you might well see a midcentury modern hotel stradling the ridge between town and beach. We stayed nearby in the fine family-run Marianna Pension and parked our rental car next to the Xenia. Other than what I suppose was a warning sign (in Greek) there were no barriers to entering the place. Just walk through a lovely bunch of blooming daphne and you come to where someone had scrawled in English, in red, "Entrance to Hell." Shattered plate glass made lovely patterns where it had fallen on marble floors. Wind whistled and carried the odor of urine and dirt. The place was stripped. Watch out for pits in the floor--left for no apparent reason, except for holding various bits of metal (lampshades or ash cans?) and debris. Kira saw a hand print in blood near the stairs. TM
ReplyDelete