Kardamyli

June 1 - Thursday, Day 6 of the Greece tour. 

We woke up to another beautiful and sunny 75 degree day.  Today we were in Kardamyli, which is on the western coast of Greece on the Mani Peninsula.  Out of the 26 people on the tour group, 14 of us took a guided 4 hour kayak tour on the Messenian Gulf.  Other than going along the shore, we went through rock formations, then paddled into a cave and the best experience of all was swimming in a cave that had a beautiful blue light coming up from below the surface.   We even stopped for a second swim and a picnic lunch on a beach on the way back.  

We finished our night with an impromptu happy hour in the hotel courtyard and then ate a light meal at a seaside restaurant with a few of our fellow travelers.  

Friday morning June 2 we got ready to depart Kardamyli, but first we visited an old stone tower home which was common in this region. The name of family was the Troupakides-Mourtzinoi, and they built the home from 1685-1715.  The last of the family were still living there in the 1960s.  In 1821 there was a revolution in Greece and this was the family that helped start the revolution.  We visited the church, home and ruins where it started.  While we were exploring, I noticed an unlocked door that was down an overgrown path and this lead to a section that wasn’t fixed up for visitors, but in the middle of one of the rooms was a chest of skulls.   It was creepy, but cool.  Our tour guide told us that normally if there were skulls kept by the family, that it was the priests.  Yuck!!!!!

We hopped on the bus after this and headed down the road to Monemvasia!  páme (let’s go)!

Mary 

Getting ready to go kayaking

This is me, Jane in the middle and Cheryl on the right excited to go kayaking!  

Christine is psyched to kayak in such an awesome spot. 

I was climbing this steps to take a picture of the kayaking group!  Christine took a great shot! 

Here we are headed out!  Look at the color of the water, it was so clear we could see to the bottom.

All the kayaks would gather together to hear different things our guide wanted to tell us.  He called this “forming a raft”.  Christine and I are in the blue one on the right. 

Cool scenery

We maneuvered under this rock face…..

Then through a group of rocks in the sea…..

Then through the opening into the cave…..

Then in this incredible cave!!!!!! We are the 3rd kayak from the right.

More cool kayak pictures.

One of the cave entrances on the rock face. 

We parked our kayaks and carefully……

……“Like a sloth” carefully made our way past some rough sharp rocks and slippery bottom.  Did I say - “like a sloth”?

Here we are climbing into the cave!

And here is our super surprise!!! A cave pool with a cool blue glow!  We all swam in it, the water was cold, but down by our feet it was warm!  Christine and I are in the back left! 

In the cave pool was truely a magical moment!

On our way back, we stopped to rest, swim and eat!

Eating!

Christine was looking for cool rocks. 

After kayaking and resting we went to dinner with our new friends.  The picture on top is the view we had from the restaurant.  The picture below is at the restaurant. 

 

This is a the way their backyards look like in Kardamyli.  They were like native plant and herb gardens.

Christine on our stroll through town 

Random homes in Kardamyli.

We thought this place looked like something from Narnia.

Our tour group wandering around Kardamyli.

This was a family church in the stone tower complex that I talked about.  It was almost like a fortress. 

Views of the stone tower home. 

Yes- totally creepy box of skulls-probably priests.

The Greek alphabet was intimidating at first, but we are enjoying learning the letters and the sounds.  This sign says Kardamyli.