Sounio, Attica, Greece Wednesday, October 29, 2008
We reached Camping Ramnous on Marathon beach late afternoon to a rather cool reception. The pitch was small, the facilities below par, hot water available only between 6pm and 9am, no lights in the washing up/laundry area, etc, etc. It was on a nice beach though! Next morning we decided to scout the three Athens sites to see if there was anything better. With Helen coming to stay next week we wanted somewhere nice. We had thought of the site at Sounion, but memories of the journey from Athens to Sounion many years ago had put us off. But there is now a new road, a continuation of the new airport motorway, which cuts the journey time dramatically. So we visited camping Bacchus, owned by a charming Albanian called Dionysus, and found a friendly atmosphere, good facilities and a short walk to a lovely beach. That would do us. We went straight back to Marathon, packed up and left. The site manager did not even ask us why, when we had booked in for two weeks, we wanted to leave next day. That just about summed it up. Dionysus tells of many guests he has who have come from Marathon, some even willing to give up large deposits. It cost us just 20 euros to escape.
Bacchus is a tiny site, approached by a narrow unmade up road, with tight level pitches in a sloping pine forest. It took us, with the help of Dionysus and his team, about half an hour to manoeuvre the caravan into place (which involved the demolition of a small wall!) then a couple of ouzos to recover, but now we are here it is worth it. There's a nice atmosphere, very relaxed, and once more we have lots of feline friends to keep us company, not to mention Lucy,the campsite dog with the deformed jaw, and the occasional tortoise.
We stayed at Camping Bacchus near Sounio for three weeks, relaxing, swimming, and just enjoying doing nothing much.For one of those weeks our daughter Helen flew out to join us, so we did a touch of sightseeing too.
The nearby town of Lavrio was the centre of ancient Greek silver and zinc mining, and still bears the scars as well as the ruins. In spite of that it is a very pleasant little port, with a couple of good supermarkets and an internet cafe where, for the price of a cup of coffee, we can spend an hour or two updating the blog and catching up with emails.
Quite close to the campsite is the temple of Poseidon at Sounio, a romantic ruin on a cape overlooking the Aegean and many of the Saronic Islands. Here Byron (allegedly) carved his name on one of the pillars, joining the ranks of 19th Century graffiti artists.
The trip from Bacchus to Athens sums up Greek transport policy. A 25-minute drive takes us to the metro which runs from Athens to Athens airport, where, at the stop before the airport, there is a park and ride. Using the term loosely of course, as there is no car park. For half a mile in every direction the roads, verges, farm tracks and central reservations are clogged with parked cars. But the fare to Athens is only €0.80. That is 64p for a 30 minute run to the centre of Athens and a further hour of travel within Athens (bus, trolleybus or metro). Excellent value!
There is not much that has not been written about Athens. The splendour of the Acropolis and the city around its slopes matched by the crowds, noise and traffic pollution. In the run up to the Olympic Games (2004) the city pedestrianised many of its streets, and that has improved pollution greatly since last we were here, but there is still a long way to go. However we spent two very enjoyable days in perfect weather for sightseeing - warm and sunny but with a pleasant breeze.
Our first day ended on a slightly hysterical note when we watched the changing of the guard outside the Ministry of Silly Walks, sorry, the Greek Parliament. Soldiers in short skirts, white tights and hob-nailed clogs with pompoms on the toes perform a slow-motion ballet that must surely have been where John Cleese got his inspiration. We had to control our hysterics in case we were shot for treason (they were all carrying rifles which looked a lot more serious than their costumes.)
On our second day we went to the National Archaeological Museum and then climbed Filopappos Hill for a splendid view of the sunset over the Acropolis, followed by an excellent meal at a taverna in Plaka.
Helen flew back to what sounds like a very chilly England ( it s still in the 20s here, ha ha) on the 26th October and we continued to enjoy the sun and sights. There are a number of ruins not far from the campsite, nowhere near as impressive as Athens but still interesting.
The temple of Artemis at Vravrona is where Iphigenia (she of Greek tragedy fame, daughter of Agamemnon) was buried. She founded the temple to appease the gods she had offended by killing a bear. She populated the temple with little girl priestesses, called "bears". Quite how the Gods would be appeased by that who knows, but the site was very peaceful, so presumably it worked.
Also nearby were the ruined theatre at Laurio and the tholos at Thoriko
We spent a lot of our time here on the beaches of Bacchus Camping and Sounio.
We are now planning to abandon the caravan for a few days to drive up to Meteora, where there are a number of old monasteries perched on the top of rocky pillars. After that we will think about where to move on to next.