Ah Nafplio.....what can I say........I love the place. I actually have been there before, many years ago, but I had no hesitation in agreeing to add it to an itinerary again. Other than Nafplio (and Athens of course) the only other place on this trip I've been to previously will be Kastraki. As that is where the magical monasteries of Meteora are you can understand I am actually counting the days down to getting there again as it is such a special and wonderful place, so yes no complaints from me about return visits and I think Nafplio was the perfect place for the start of our Greek sojourn. We retired to our rooms to rest and refresh for a few hours, after our 23 hours on the road from leaving our Broadway home to arriving in our Nafplio one, and then met up to stroll the streets. I found it just as beautiful as 11 years ago, still the bougainvillea creeping over the awnings and all the chairs and tables outside the tavernas with their exclusively male waiters, both old and young, touting for business as you walk past. There is also the hundreds of street cats (perhaps in the thousands now?!) and also lots of street dogs, much to the delight of my dog crazy companions who are missing their respective pooches almost as much as their partners I think! The one great change, or at least something I don't remember at all from last time, was the beggars......mainly children, though there were also some men on crutches, and the ones that upset us the most - mothers with babies/young toddlers in tow. It's was especially difficult to handle when a mother led a toddler to the table and on our refusal turned and left after saying something to this extremely young girl to make her stay with us and beg rather pathetically, whilst the mother disappeared around a corner.......it was an awful situation that made us feel very uncomfortable. I'm still unsure as to whether it was right to continually refuse these beggars, it definitely goes completely against
the grain to turn your back on someone in distress and yet I also felt manipulated and had visions, if we did succumb, to being tagged as an "easy mark" for the rest of our stay there.....certainly a dilemma.......

On a happier note, other than a ridiculous amount of eating, (we are yet to have a meal in Greece that doesn't include Greek Salad and Tzatziki just as the basic starters so our orders are kind of huge once you add other choices) we mainly walked a LOT in Nafplio......which is kind of good now I think of it given the size of our meals as I just mentioned! We did the gorgeous walk around the waterfront and of course the obligatory "1000 steps" up to Palamidi Castle for the stunning vistas from the top which are worth it but boy who needs stair master type exercise programs! I mentioned to the girls that last time I did that trek Rob and I had been lucky enough to snag a taxi at the top entrance that had just dropped someone off to get a lift back into town so as they liked that idea we actually asked a guy at the top gate after we
were done and he rang a taxi so we didn't have to do the return walk which was nice. We had a "refresh/downtime" break to our rooms and then met up again for a bit of a shopping excursion.....won't say much about that other than to say that since arriving in Greece we have all bought ourselves a special present; it's kind of funny as they are all completely different things but each one kind of represents us in a way I think......obviously I can't divulge another woman's shopping indulgences but I will admit to my own.....I spent rather a lot of money on some GORGEOUS Baltic amber komboloi or worry beads. Last time I was here, in the same place actually, the Komboloi Museum shop, I bought some nice dark ones made from resin. They were relatively cheap but lovely (as opposed to the really cheap but in my eyes not so lovely, ones sold in every postcard/souvenir shop) and I have loved them since but now it was time to treat myself with something truly beautiful..... I have always adored amber but as I don't wear jewellery I have looked at amber many times but been unable to envisage something made from amber that I really wanted.....when I spotted these I was just totally hooked. They are slightly more delicate than I would prefer but amber is sold on weight so it was a case of the heaviest I could possibly afford! What with shopping, eating and walking our two nights in Nafplio went oh so fast and we really enjoyed but but it was time to hit the road again......

(L) Once again Deb has rather eloquently told our days adventures so I'll just add a few details.Deb and I were awake long before GJ so went for a morning tea/coffee, being only our first full day in Greece we still aren't used to the way things are done, when you enter a cafe/taverna you are supposed to just take a seat, they come ( in Greek time ) to take your order, after the meal you need to ask for the bill which also takes time to arrive and you just leave the money on the table... I guess it works for them but with all the beggars around we were worried the money would disappear and we'd be chased down for not paying! We had organised the night before that we'd meet for breakfast ( included in the tarriff) in the hotel then headed out for a walk about town and around the waterfront. This walk took us forever as once again we had to stop every couple of steps for "the most beautiful view yet". I guess normally if you kept up a good pace it would take maybe half an hour at most but we took at least an hour after which we needed a bit of a rest stop and time to recharge the camera batteries back at the hotel. We had lunch at a gorgeous little cafe whose name escapes me and as usual we ordered way too much but it was all divine. Our entertainment at lunch was a large group of Americans (sorry to all my American friends), much to our amazement with all the delicious Greek cuisine on offer they ordered a large plate of french fries and huge plates of battered fried foods... to be fair we thought perhaps they had been eating lots of greek foods and this may have just been an aberration. During the course of this meal we were approached 5 times by beggar children and women.. really took the shine off what was otherwise fantastic meal. Then came the most strenuous part of the day, the climb to the top of Palamidi Fortress. This time all the photo taking became a bit of an excuse for a rest... I don't know how many stairs there are but OMG it must be at least 1000... 5 mins in and I was breathing heavily and my heart was pounding through my body but breathing deeply and a quick stop we powered on.... for about an hour, maybe not quite that long but it seemed to take forever. Mind you it was worth every step cos the view from the top was absolutely magnificent... just look at the photos and you'll see that words can't really describe it. Copied from Wikipedia....
Palamidi (Greek: Παλαμήδι) is a fortress to the east of the Acronauplia in the town of Nafplio in the Peloponnese region of southern Greece. Nestled on the crest of a 216-metre high hill, the fortress was built by the Venetians during their second occupation of the area (1686–1715).
The fortress was a very large and ambitious project, but was finished
within a relatively short period from 1711 until 1714. It is a typical
baroque fortress based on the plans of the engineers Giaxich and
Lasalle. In 1715 it was captured by the Turks and remained under their
control until 1822, when it was captured by the Greeks.
The bastions of the fortress were originally named after the Venetian provveditori. However, when it fell to the Ottoman Empire, the bastions were given Turkish names. Lastly, when the Greeks
overthrew the Turks the bastions were renamed after Greek saints. One
of the bastions, called the "Miltiades," was used as the prison cell of Theodoros Kolokotronis, a hero of the Greek Revolution.
The fortress commands an impressive view over the Argolic Gulf, the
city of Náfplio and the surrounding country. There are 857 steps in the
winding stair from the town to the fortress. However, to reach the top
of the fortress there are over one thousand. Locals in the town of
Nafplion will say there are 999 steps to the top of the castle, and
specials can be found on menus that incorporate this number to catch a
tourist's eye.To finish off the day we did a bit of shopping as the shops are all open until 9 or 10pm, I rather extravagantly bought myself the most gorgeous silver and mother of pearl bracelet, yes it was way too expensive but I'm glad I bought it anyway, I'd hate to get home and forever regret leaving it behind in Nafplio... I think we were meant to be together!! Then I just couldn't go past a beautiful shop with handmade leather sandals, I ended up buying 2 pairs cos what's a girl to do when she can't decide which colour she likes best and her sister is encouraging her to buy both??!! The lady in the shop turned to Deb and told her what a good sister she is!! But really 2 pairs for EU40 was a bargain!! This was followed by another divine meal which once again cost us EU35, a stroll around town stopping for Gelato which was only EU 1.50 per serve and the others tell me the same amount at home would be twice and much and Ouzo... tomorrow it's on to Monemvasia.