Epidauros & Olympia

Epidauros

Our first trip with the rental car was only about 50 km to the east, on the other side of the first "finger" of the Peloponnese - more precisely into the city Epidauros. Dort gibt es sowohl einige antike Sehenswürdigkeiten, als auch diese (und tatsächlich wirklich günstige) Unterkunft (Werbung):

Of course we both had to jump into the pool immediately and enjoy the wide view of the sea. Just amazing! The way to the accommodation was, however, already spectacular and went up very steeply. On our first night we wanted to have dinner in a tavern and walked all the way down. The tavern was very cute, there were a lot of cats and a great dog who wanted (and gave) a lot of love and the food was really delicious! The way back to the accommodation was then a little workout for our legs, but with that we could train off the delicious food again.

But we also wanted to see a bit more of the area and so on the second day we made our way to the old theater of Epidaurus, which is considered the “most perfect of the ancient Greek theaters”, but especially in terms of the great acoustics. Concerts and events are still held in this theater today and up to 13,000 spectators can take part. Well, during our visit it looked like this:

Directly next to the theater is the ancient Asklepieion with the remains of former patient dormitories and old temples for Asklepios and Aphrodite.

We spent the rest of the day by the pool and relaxed in the sun.

The ancient Olympia

We continued with the rental car across the Peloponnese to the west to Olympia. The distance is only about 200 km, but it was a very winding path through the mountains, so we got to Olympia after about four hours. In the village around the ancient site there are a few accommodations and souvenir shops, restaurants and cafes - but it is generally a rather small and quiet village. The rest of the day after our arrival was also very relaxed for us.

The next morning we went to the ancient site and we got a combination ticket for the excavation site and for the two museums - the ancient Olympia and the history of the Olympic Games.