June 26, 2002 - Nafplio/Epidavros

An early morning taxi ride to the Palamadi Fortress started our day.  We covered every inch of that fortress and hiked down for lunch later in the day.  We ended up having to wait around at our hotel for quite a while for our bus to pick us up but we made the most of it by getting lots of pictures of the incredible grounds of the Hotel Amalia.  Our day was finished with a stop at Epidavros to see the ancient theatre and then back to Athens.  Nina and I had one last romantic rooftop dinner before heading back to prepare to head home.

One of the huge walls of the Palamadi Fortress

Nina and I were very happy that we took a taxi to the top of this gigantic hill

Much of the fortress is still very well preserved

Many windows adorned this building within the fortress walls

A tiny room in the fortress

Stairs lead up everywhere we went

Looking down into what used to be living quarters

A small glimpse of the town of Nafplio is visible through this window

Crumbling steps leading up to more fortifications

The lower levels seemed to be worse off than the upper ones

Looking down on the town of Nafplio

More buildings within the walls

Nina found a nice rock for sitting

This alcove was completely overgrown with plants

Excellent view of the higher fortifications of the fortress

Zigzagging wall down the hillside

The Bourtzi fortress as seen from above

The entrance to a nice shady part of the fortress

A freestanding wall...who knows what it was once attached to

Some of the lower parts of the fortress

Another building within the fortress walls

An amazingly well preserved section of the fortress

Paths seem to be leading everywhere

More stairs leading up to the very top

Nina looking very cute under a bell

And Nina looking glad to be out of the sun

Looking down to the water from very near the top

The highest fortification of the fortress

A dry moat on the south side of the Palamadi Fortress

Nina heading down to the cistern

The inside of the cistern, where they used to keep the water

Nina starting out on the 999 steps down

I didn't even want to start...I could barely walk with the twelve sea urchin spines stuck in my foot still

More structures on the way down

Most of Nafplio as seen from very high above

That's a lot of steps

We stopped at the cafe at the bottom for some drinks before heading back to the hotel

Nina looking pretty amongst all the beauty of the Amalia Hotel

The central courtyard of the hotel

One wing of the hotel

Nina posing with some flowers right outside of our room

The colors of the flowers were simply amazing

A large bunch of beautiful flowers

The theatre at Epidavros

Another view of the theatre

Looking down at the theatre from the top...you could hear a coin dropped in the center from where I was standing