Middle-aged flash packers

I don’t know what it is about Greek food but it’s having a slightly alarming effect on us both. To say we are a little windy is an understatement. I think I could power a small car. Still, not too many people about and hardly anyone walking so blushes spared. Certainly not going to worry about S, got to be some benefits of being married 35+ years.

Beautiful walk today around the Kardamyli area.

The Mani is famous for being the home of the Maniots, descendants of the Spartans. The Maniots have been a feisty lot, fiercely independent and also fond of a feud or two. They had a bit of a thing for towers. As is the way with the male species, the bigger the tower, the more powerful the clan. They were quite regularly on the attack, so some built tower houses where the clan could live while “trouble” was going on.

Many of the towers and old towns are being restored, like the one we can see from our balcony, and are now tourist attractions. Other ones have just been part of the village and pretty much ignored by the older generations.

This is what we found in Prastio. The church has been restored and some buildings are being worked on, but the inhabitants (who look almost as ancient as the houses) carry on their daily life in this old village, taking it all for granted. The people we saw were seriously old and it’s hard not to feel melancholy about the lives they have lived. World War Two plus Greek civil wars and unrest, a harsh environment with hot summers and cold winters, a struggling economy. But they are made of tough stuff and seem happy. It’s a life that the younger generation are not going to carry on though. We’ve all gone soft. And many of us seem discontented even though we have so much more than they ever had. Spoilt, that’s what we are.

Our walk eventually took us to the coast and past Paddy Leigh Fermor’s house. I’m guessing not many of you have heard of him, I certainly hadn’t. But what a man! Traveller, adventurer, war hero, he did it all. He was most well known as one of the first travel writers. He loved Greece. Specifically Kardamyli where he built a beautiful home overlooking the sea. Reputedly he smoked between 80-100 cigarettes a day. He died aged 96 – obviously the constitution of an ox.

I got very excited because it appears his home is now a museum but sadly a press conference was being held and we couldn’t go in.

Hot and sweaty by the time we got back, we changed into our swimbies and headed for the beach. The sea was extremely rough so a swim wasn’t on the cards but I had a little snooze while Steve drank a beer, lying on a bed chair provided to us for nothing by the local taverna owner – he didn’t even expect us to buy a drink.

Rather like the Maniots