Monemvasia, Greece

We were not familiar with Monemvasia, which is part of mainland Greece rather than an island.

The choices of tours were limited to doing something in the town independently or going on

 a guided tour to Mystras, “the Last Byzantine Stronghold.” Our bus took us almost two hours

 north, through modern Sparta to Mystras which was the site of a walled city and strategically

 located to make it difficult to invade in the 1200s. After we reached the site, we started

the real tour on foot and it was essentially about 1 ½ hours of walking and climbing (there

 was a sign saying 2 or 3 km somewhere) and it certainly felt like it.

 Our first stop was a church which had been restored.

 We then continued on upward to the top of the trail where there is another church and an active

convent with 6 nuns who maintain the church and earn enough to live and feed all the many

cats by doing embroidery. The Mother Superior was not there when we were at the convent,

but had gone into Sparta to obtain more supplies. The sisters will not allow photos of them

 to be taken. On the way downhill, we passed the Mother Superior climbing up with bags of

threads and materials. They have a donkey, but she had gone down on foot.

After our “walk” we all headed to a large “taverna”. It was a large indoors restaurant and

catering service with a very large outside eating area shaded by jasmine covered lattice

work. Since we are not used to so much blooming vegetation at home anymore (there is not

much pollen from the palms) this day started our allergies up. We had about 3 busloads from

the ship, but they are obviously used to feeding large tourist groups. They served Greek

salad, the cucumber yoghurt dip you see on every table, then an omelet loaded with potatoes

 and vegetables, then orzo with braised beef, and then a spice cake. Our guide told us they

 cook the meat slowly in wine and sauce and for the last period of time,

add the orzo to cook in the juices as well.

Most people dozed on the return bus ride and then we all got in the tenders and headed back

 to the ship which was anchored offshore in time for a 6:00 pm sail away.

Here's how the Slide Show works:

  Click on the thumbnail pics that appear in a row above the enlarged pic (the 
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thumbnails and the enlarged version 
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  After you've looked at the 4 thumbnails, click on the right arrow 4 times, 
  bringing up 4 new thumbnails and then click on each 
of the thumbnails and the 
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enlarged version will appear below. 
  And so on.........