Day 589: Sanctuary at Epidaurus

Up early and out to Athens airport where we picked up our car for the next few weeks, a little Peugeot 208. 36,000km and a few scratches, but otherwise pretty good. Headed around Athens and then south-west across the isthmus of Corinth. Quick stop for burgers near Corinth then eventually arrived at Epidaurus, our destination for the day.

This world heritage site was a sanctuary devoted to Apollo Epicureus, essentially an ancient health retreat where people would come to be healed of ailments etc. It's also considered one of the birthplaces of modern medicine, since the priests here would make rudimentary attempts at evidence-based healing, rather than faith based healing.

Most of the ruins were pretty old - several hundred years BC, but there wasn't a huge amount still standing aside from the theatre, as with many Greek sites. We did our filming (sadly Schnitzel was in the car as there's a total ban on dogs in Greek archaeological sites), wandered around for a couple of hours and then hopped back in the car.

Stayed for the night in the town of Mykinis as it wasn't too far away, but also quite close to our site for tomorrow. Had a light dinner of - what else - gyros in town before retreating home. The house reminds me a bit of grandma & grandpa's place, very full of 1950s furnishings and trimmings!Read more