Northwest Peloponnese is an area of low hill and basins and plains. It's climate and soil types can't be all that different from an average of the rest of Greece, but at this time of year it looks green, lush, and richly fertile.
We are visiting Olympia. It wasn't our first choice for this long weekend (F had wanted to return to Meteora), but it has seemed kind of appropriate.
We drove here in rain, fog (or possibly low cloud), and bits of sunshine. Our hotel has very comfortable beds and the best bathroom we've had in ages, but the room itself isn't huge and the balcony is pocket sized. I'm not allowed onto the pocket-sized balcony because from it I can explore the roof of the dining room .... and better still the bar which has a glass roof. Imagine looking up and seeing Tigger staring down at your cocktail.
I have also been discouraged from doing a hotel inspection because there is an invasion of small humans running, screaming, up and down the corridors. There is a something called a spa downstairs. There are lighted candles all the way down the stairs but I have also been discouraged from inspecting that bit too.
Like Delfi, I was not permitted to examine the old rocks so my humans made some postcards for me. After they came back we did some nature walking beside a river, and I was allowed out of my backpack. There were lots of wildflowers. One of our observations of weirdness was that there were bright red and bright purple anemones, and they seem to operate a kind of anemone apartheid. Fields of red or of purple, but no fields of mixed colours.
F tells me she did 400m in the Olympic stadium in front of seating for 45000 people. 
After all that rain I suspect no one was actually seated there, and her 400m might have been a casual saunter.
After our nature walk Mr B finally got some moussaka. It seems to have been our mission for months and he has been disappointed at place after place. Today he got his moussaka wish fulfilled - warming food on an afternoon that was warm in sunshine and chilly when the clouds scudded across. (F makes moussaka but hers doesn't count - she's not Greek.)
Hari OM
ReplyDeleteOh my, a place of atmosphere and kitty-restrictions, it seems! Very photogenic, it is, if sadly lacking for your absence in them, Tigger dear. hugs and whiskeries, YAM-aunty xxx
My humans remarked that there is a notable absence of felines all over Olympia, but I attracted the usual degree of adulation. xxx Mr T
DeleteI had to look up moussaka and I would love it and in fact did have it once years ago in a restaurant. I like the purple berry looking flowers at the bottom and how dare they anemone divide. just like humans. love all the old stone ruins. sorry about the screaming kids, i have SEVEN 3 doors down i will ship to you if you want them... why must they scream all the time? Beau doesn't care what I wear as long as it is not my GOING IN THE CAR CLOTHES. he hates when I put them on..
ReplyDeleteF calls them 'grape hyacinths'. We had paler ones growing in our garden in UK.
DeleteOh Tigger, what a fascinating place to visit, and your anemones are beautiful, whichever the colour. But I was surprised to read that you could not decide whether you were driving through low cloud or fog. In my mind that sort of debating point surely belongs to Scotland not Greece.
ReplyDeleteToodle pip!
Bertie.
Hmmmm, we do a lot of heading for the mountains. (F come from the part of NZ the Scots settled in. I think preference for mountains might be genetically programmed.) Peloponnese has mountains. xxx Mr T
DeleteWhat a beautiful place, and such gorgeous wildflowers.
ReplyDeleteI think I would have kept well away from those screaming little humans too. Mind you, if they were bite sized I would maybe have fired up the BBQ....
There was a fire going in the lounge last night but the fireplace wasn't big enough to bbq all of them.
DeleteI hope Tigger found the hotel much to his liking. In answer to your question about the mushrooms on the mountain, it's Mount Victoria in Devonport, Auckland. The mushrooms are air vents because the inside of the mountain has been dug out to be rooms and tunnels used by the defence force.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if the anemones are like hydrangeas and it is the soil that affects their colour? What an interesting place to visit (sorry you had to stay locked up Tigger, but sometimes it is for your own safety you know).
ReplyDeleteFields of anemones in any colour are a spectacular sight and make us realize that our attempts at recreating colour in our gardens are just poor imitations of what nature achieves. Greetings to Mittens. xxx Mr T
DeleteI walked around the stadium so I think I qualified as an Olympian
ReplyDeleteMoussaka is a very hearty meal and whoever makes it. Is instantly Greek
So yes it does count
Anyone qualifies as an Olympian if they adopt those ideals.
DeleteOnce you've seen the size of those collapsed colomns from the temple of Zeus you understand why Olympian can also be used to describe devotion toa huge amount of effort. How did they...?
Those beautiful wild flowers. Everything is colourful here too.
ReplyDeleteOf course F did the 3 minute mile in that syadium. You have to when you visit Olympia. Hope the sun stays up there in the sky.
Have you heard about the Games at Nemea? Anyone can run or walk. They haven't been held for a couple of years. Maybe this year. Sometime in June.
Ahhh for a good moussaka !
F had heard about the ancient games at Nemea, now she has to go and look up the modern ones. Thank you for the heads-up.
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