The little port of Nafplio is not often visited by cruise ships. It's hidden in a large bay behind a spit of land and protected by the ruins of mideaval fortifications which grace the acropolis. Since we are coming back to this village by rental car in a couple of days, Dwight and Ron decided that they were going to spend their last day as sailors aboard the comfortable (and cool) Nautica. The nearby ruins of Mycenae were on my "must" list, and Marilyn agreed to accompany me. My original plan had been to take a taxi, but there's a taxi strike currently going on throughout Greece and the destination specialist on board suggested we rent a car, so we took the tender into port and inquired at the nearest car rental place. No cars. No cars at the only other car rental either, and so we decided to give up the idea of Mycenae and instead find the hotel we were booked into for our return and make sure our reservations were in order (hard to trust the internet). We found that everything was OK and, in addition, found from the hotel manager that the buses were still running and, indeed, one would be leaving for Mycenae in about 15 minutes. We rushed to the bus stop, found the right bus, bought tickets as we boarded and departed for an adventure.
Although the bus was a comfortable, air conditioned, tourist-style bus, it was a local. It stopped every few miles to take on or leave off passengers, and then meandered through the nearby city of Argos. After an hour, we made it to the ruins of Mycenae, a drive which should take about 30 minutes. We learned that a bus would return to Nafpoli in 2 hours, so decided to make a quick visit and return on the 1:00 p.m. bus. Then we looked upward at the ruins. I think both of us were somewhat dismayed at the steepness of the sight and the heat of the sun, but we soldiered on and made a quick tour. It's an ancient site, dating to the second millennium BCE. The city was already in ruins by the time of classical Greece, but it is the subject of the greatest of Greek legends because it is the supposed home of Agamemnon, the great Greek general of the Trojan Wars as reported by Homer in the Iliad. Agamemnon's return from the Wars was the subject of Aeschyslus' tragic trilogy, the Orestia. It was Agamemnon's brother Menelaus who lost his wife Helen to Paris of Troy, the event which precipitated the whole series of events. It was also he who sacrificed his own daughter Iphegenia so that the Greek sailors would get favorable winds to Troy. Nice guy. The classical Greeks thought the citadel of Mycenae had been built by cyclops because the stones which formed the walls were too big to be moved by humans, or so they believed. The Mycenaens were influenced by the Minoans (remember Knosos), but eventually became their rivals for trade and allies in the Eastern Mediterranean. The ruins are just that, in ruin, but it's great to see them in situ. The museum has some interesting pieces including a gold death mask that has always been associated with Agamemnon.
We caught the bus back for an uneventful return to the ship and arrived in time to take the 2:00 p.m. tender. There was plenty of time for yet another shower, a nap, packing (bags due outside the stateroom by 10:30 p.m.) and join the guys for dinner in the Toscanna restaurant, our final dinner aboard the Nautica. It's sad to think our odyssey on the Nautica is coming to an end. It's fun to be spoiled!
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