Today, before leaving Pylos, we stopped at the New Castle of Pylos. It sits up on a hill overlooking the town and the sea. After leaving Pylos, we drove to Gialova. Our plan was to visit the Old Navarino Fortress. It is at the end of a long road where we parked. Then you have to walk about 45 minutes uphill to reach the Fortress. About halfway up, I looked up and saw how much farther we had left to walk and decided that I would not be able to make it. So we turned around and went back to the car. When we drove back to the main road, we were stopped and the police officer said that there was a bike race and we could not leave for about an hour. We turned around and found a nice shady part of the beach to sit at and wait.
Our next stop was Kyparissia Castle in Kyparissia. When we found the castle it was closed and we could not enter. We tried to leave, but when we got back to the main road, it was also closed off for the bike race. It is the International Tour of Hellas that takes place over several days. It began in Crete and ends in Olympia.. This time, we got out and waited for the racers. It was exciting when they went by, followed by all of the support vehicles. After they passed we were able to continue on our journey.
We were dirving to the Archaeological Site at Bassae of Phigaleia. We were taking the back roads, which took us through some really rough roads. At times it was just ruts and not really a road. I was beginning to think we were totally lost. The road was going up and around mountains and we did not meet a single car (probably because nobody drives on that road). There were places that I had to be careful because of the rock slides that covered the road. I was very happy when we made it back to the main road and we found what we were looking for.
Then we headed for our hotel in Olympia.We will be staying in Olympia for two nights.
