Must must see Monemvasia

I had a request from Terry McGrath to try and find a way to show the routes traveled on a map. This is a screen shot out of Navionics, an amazing IPad App with full GPS and navigation capabilities rivaling the thousands of dollars worth of navigation equipment installed on the boat. Navionics costs $79.00 a year, is a great back up system, it shows the distance of each voyage and solves the problem for Terry and anyone else interested....


So, if you come to Greece, you put Monemvasia on your itinerary. Got that!

A lesson for all Greek towns with a fort or castle....ie; most Greek towns. Repopulate the fort, rebuild what was there the way it was originally built (include mod cons) and live in it. Lots of people will come and spend lots of money and your town will flourish.

Rounding the final cape of the Peloponnese, these waters can be treacherous, but for us, they were sedate. It was a race with four other yachts and we knew that berthing was restricted at Monemvasia so I added another 500rpm and away we went.

This proved to be a good move, there was only one place to put a Catamaran and if even one of those yachts had preceded us, we'd have had to anchor and the way the winds eventuated, that would have been very uncomfortable if not untenable.

Known as the Gibraltar of the eastern Med, this is the approach to Monemvasia. The old town within the fort wall in on the 'island' on the right, the new town and the marina is on the mainland to the left.

Doing it very little justice with an IPhone, you can make out the walls containing the old town.

We managed a great spot on the wharf, water supplied if you had a very long hose. Alistair and Vivian, who turned up later and had to anchor for the first night introduced us to previously befriended Italians Piero and Ketty who had parked four boats away and closer to the tap. Once we joined up everybody's hoses, there was water available to all boats on the wharf.

Not a bad way to get to meet everybody afloat.


Piero and Ketty had two girls roughly the same age as Summer and William, so with not a word of each other's language spoken, the kids were never-the-less sorted. Piero had also caught a couple of very nice Tuna but more on that later...







Azura, in the plaster cast above had broken her arm mucking around on her bed... great way to scotch a good holiday.

No swimming in 40 degree heat, and especially when you an actually swim with the huge Loggerhead Turtles right off the boat.

This is the entrance to the walled old town.

On entering it feels as if everything is as it was.. No cars, scooter or bikes permitted. Everything is carried in on barrows. Restaurant and shop resupply, building materials, luggage, everything...

If you've ever felt that dealing with councils whilst trying to get planning permission or building approvals was a mission, spare a thought for these guys. Authenticity is imperative and permission to do anything takes time but the results are impressive at any and every angle. The camera simply cannot impart what it is to be here.

The street cobbling is artistic, authentic and tasteful. All the building materials are local and, like any old suburb, there are still many places still to be renovated or restored. The restoration of the old town apparently only started in the late 1960's

Bars, restaurants, shops, grocery stores, churches, wine bars, roof top bars and the most exquisitely quaint hotels.

Behind the old town there is a zig zag pathway which climbs the gorge to the ramparts protecting the town from the top of the ridge.

Sal and I spent the evening in the old town having been relieved of the kids by Jack and Stina. At 1:00am we decided it was all too hard to get back to the boat so we inquired at a 'reception' we found open....Everything in Greece is open at 1:00am.

Yes, they had a room with balcony and seeing it was 1:00am, we could have it for 60Euro. We accepted and were escorted some way through the labyrinth to the most beautiful hotel room we had ever seen.
This is the view from the balcony in the morning with the town square below.

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And the roof tops....

Unfortunately, this room was booked, but we so enjoyed the stay that we booked another room for a following night. It was equally quaint and well appointed and was to include the kids. By the time the evening came around, the winds had got to the point where it would have been foolish not to be with the boat. The angle it was blowing meant that if only one yacht dragged its anchor there would have been a domino effect and a chaotic night for all.

The shops. This one being a wine shop, (strangely enough) selling local wines from the Peloponnese and all manner of irresistibly packaged goodies to tempt.

Something we didn't manage to photograph due to the fading light and the size of the spectacle was the evenings entertainment in the harbour...

Once again we fluked the biggest evening on the calendar.... We got a reenactment of the navel battle that finally rid the town of the Turks after over 100 years of brutal occupation.

Monemvasia was liberated by the Greeks on July 23rd 1821. We just happened to be there on July the 23rd and we had a grand stand view from the helm of our boat of the reenactment culminating in the torching of a 'Galleon' purpose built for the occasion.


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One of Greece's most famous singers then entertained the huge crowd until 1:00am.

This is the swimming area of the old town. Easy access to the water at the far end and fresh water shower at this end. A wide variety of fish made the snorkeling more interesting than usual too.

This had been well worth the trip north before heading south for Crete So thanks to all those that encouraged us to go there, including my sister Carol-Ann. Great pick!