March 22

Allie and I got Caroline all packed and out of the room this morning before breakfast and then loaded her onto the bus at 8:30. She is going to be out of commission for the next two weeks, unfortunately, so she and the bus are going to be seeing a lot of each other.
The best part about today was definitely Mystras. This morning was overcast, but the landscape was still beautiful. This Byzantine town is on the acropolis of the Mt. Taygetos and Spiros drove us up as far as the road would go. We still had to climb up a little ways to make it to the castle, but it was worth the early morning effort. The castle is in ruins (as is the rest of the town lower down the mountain), but it looks just like the setting for the duel between Inigo Montoya and Wesley in Princess Bride. I even looked over the edge of one of the fortification walls and shouted “As you wish!” Looking over the other side of the walls you could see the rest of the town. The churches have maintained their condition fairly well, I’m sure there has been more effort out into their upkeep, but the palace and the houses are in pretty bad shape. It is a little eerie there. This was the home to the Spartans until the early 19th century, when they moved to the modern day location after the war for Greek independence. Given the time frame that I have been operating under, that really isn’t that long ago. But there were wildflowers everywhere and the whole place is lush and green.
We started at the castle at the top of the mountain and made our way down through the city to meet Spiros at the exit to the city. We were supposed to have 2 hours to check out the place, but the rain really started to pour after an hour and a half, so we cut the trip short. The road through the mountains, which was the shortest way to the next site, was closed, so we took the longer road around the mountain. I am glad we took this road and not the one through the mountain because this one was bad enough, I don’t even want to think about how the one through the mountains would have been. We stopped for lunch on the way, and Mary and I kept Caroline company as we ate our lunch on the bus. I would have preferred to eat outside in the covered areas, but it is difficult for Caroline to get around, at least for now, so we thought it would be easier to just stay on the bus.
After that, today was a pretty boring day. The weather is just really bad all over Greece. Because of the blocked off route through the mountain, we didn’t make it to Messene to see the ancient site. We spent about 15 mins at the fortification walls. These ones were particularly good for climbing on and getting a sense for how they were built, but of course, it started to rain and we all ran back to the bus. After the failed trip to Messene, it was another 2 hours to Pylos, where we are staying for the next three nights.
I got settled in the room and tried to go out to the supermarket with Mary, but the rain started to pour really hard and we actually ran into Wheat, who informed us that nothing was open. We weren’t that surprised – little is ever open on Sundays in Greece. I did some work in the room and then went to dinner with Sarabeth and Emily. The meal wasn’t very good. They both got grilled chicken that was weirdly soft and mushy, but not undercooked, and my salad was pretty blah.
Tomorrow is a free day, so I really hope the weather gets better and I can check out Pylos. It looks like a cute town. We are right on the water and you could tell it is gorgeous here when the sun is shining.