Galaxidi and Nafpatkos

If you’ve never heard of them, don’t worry, neither had we. I always try to have an extra day at each of our stops, so since we had been to the monastery and to Delphi, we had a day to find something to do. The woman at the desk sent us to Galaxidi, about 40 minutes away on the Aegean. It’s a very cute little town with harbor, church on top of the hill, and a nice walk through pine forest out along the coast.

As we were sitting there soaking it in, Joe looked at the guide book and said, hey, we are about an hour away from the site of the battle of Lepanto! So off we went along the coast to Nafpatkos, where the Spaniards with some help defeated the Turks in the late 1500s. Miguel Cervantes lost his arm in the great naval battle, and there is a statue of him in the harbor.

What a great decision it was, it’s another very pretty little port town, this one crowned with a 17th century Venetian castle at the top of the hill. We had lunch in the harbor, walked along the beach, explored the castle area, and finished off the day with a coffee at a café looking down over the harbor, one of the prettiest café views anywhere. We didn’t get back to the hotel till almost 8, so since Joe is going to skip his nap, I will be a good sport and skip my exercise.

Tomorrow we head north for a few hundred kms, to our last stop before Athens. Time is flying!Read more