So you are planning a visit to Greece. have fleshed out the Athens portion of the trip. Have decided the island resorts are out of your price range. What to do with the remaining few days? Stretch the stay in Athens to the breaking point? Shorten the entire trip? How about visiting the rest of the country? Here are a few ideas for filling a few extra days in the land of Olives.

Explore the rest of Greece:

• Scenic roads and the natural beauty of the region
• Beautiful towns
• Historic locations
• Culture, lots and lots of culture

Go for a Drive

Rent a car and drive from Athens to Peloponnesus, or really anywhere. The drives, although not completely picturesque, will have a fair bit of beauty. Mountains constantly looming on the horizon, slowly growing as the car leaves Athens and the coast behind or the grandeur of the Aegean sea, there is always something to look at. Once the highway is left behind the landscape becomes much more beautiful. Narrow roads climbing and falling as they trace the thin shelf of land carved out of seaside cliffs. The steep dropoffs to the sea on one side and towering red cliffs directly to the other will certainly put the drivers ability with a manual transmission to the test. Even driving inland the terrain does not become any less interesting. If heading inland the abandoned sea views are replaced by either spectacular views from roads laboriously curving back and forth up and down imposing mountain ranges. Or of olive groves stretching along valley floors occasionally punctuated by a farmhouse or two.

Explore the towns

The towns are a refreshing change from the concrete jungle of Athens. The grey boxy apartment blocks with splashes of color on balconies are replaced with red roofed white houses punctuated with green by the occasional vine trellised terraces. Each town has at least one central square typically filled with tables and chairs and flanked by small cafes and restaurants, or the occasional farmer peddling jars of olives or jugs of olive oil. Be wary driving in these towns as the roads are still designed to handle traffic from a different era. Steep hills, tight turns, tighter alleys, and one way streets a pleanty are guaranteed to keep the driver focused on the task at hand.

Leonidio

Leonidio is one such town. A picturesque village of a few thousand people nestled between sheer red cliffs. The white houses with red roofs radiating out from the restaurant flanked village square. The town is known, or would be known if it were infact known by anyone, for speaking the near dead language Tsakonian, a particular variety of eggplant by the same name as the language, and as a climbing destination due to the surrounding cliffs. The locals are friendly, the lodgings are cozy, the food is delicious, and it can be an outstanding location to use as a base of operations if a bit of driving is not a problem.

Leonidio

Must see historic locations

There are a number of day trips which can be taken from Athens or even better from a small town used as a base of operations. The important history and beautifully preserved and curated ruins of Athens are just the beginning of what Greece has to offer. Two other locations of significance can be visited with day trips from Athens and one makes a beautiful day trip from the Peloponesian town of Leonidio. The Hot Gates or the battle of Thermopylae, the ruins of the ancient city of Sparta, and the city of Delphi.

Thermopylae

The battle field at Thermopylae was made famous to people outside of Greece by the movie “300”. It is the battlefield where the Spartans and a handfull of other Greeks made a stand against a massive Persian invasion force. They were quite successfull untill the Persians were able to outflank them. Once defeat seemed inevitable Leonidias the Spartan King commanded the other Greeks to retreat and proceeded to fight to the death atop a small hill. The hill can still be visited, atop it is a memorial with the final words of Leonidias inscribed on it:
“Go tell the Spartans, Passerby: That here by Spartan Law we lie”
This is the tombstone of the fallen Spartans marking the mass grave in which they were buried. This is not a legend. Archaeologists have excavated portions of the hill and have confirmed that it is infact a mass grave. If visiting the Hot Gates ignore the Statue of Leonidias, cross the the road, climb the nearest hill, and visit this powerful monument.

The Battlefield of Thermopylae

Thermopylae Memorial

Sparta

The ruins of ancient Sparta can be found just on the outskirts of the modern city of Sparta. Tucked behind a stadium, down a pothole filled road, and through a gate in a rickety fence, the remains of Sparta are not much to look at, luckly they are free to access. No pomp accompanies the ruins of the warrior state which most people have at least heard the name of. Situated in a mature olive grove in piles of varying states of dishevelment; a theater, wall, temple, and round building of unknown use can be viewed from a shaded cobblestone path. The ruined state somehow adds to the grandeur of ancient Sparta. It seems appropriate that more of the ruins were not excavated and reassembled, the minimalistic, or dare I say Spartan approach to the state of the ruins seems an appropriate testament to the people who once dwelt on the location.

Path to Ancient Sparta

Delphi

Delphi was a very important city in ancient Greece. The home of one of the Oracles whose words guided some of the most powerful Greek powers of the time. The ancient city must have been incredible. Today the ruins of the city of Delphi are still incredible. This may be due to the sheer amount of what has survived. when walking through the city one can almost get the feeling of what it may have been like in its prime. This is why there is a €12 entrance fee. From the treasury building, Apollos Temple, Theatre, a the Agora at the base of the hill up to the stadium at the top the entire thing is remarkable.

Athenian Treasury Building

Temple to Apollo

Stadium at Delphi

Theatre at Delphi

These are just a few of the possibilities avalible in Greece. The country is covered in impressive ruins like Delphi. Cultural curiosities such as Tsakonian eggplants, and awe-inspiring nature like Mount Olympus. The only barrier to entrty is renting a car and having an intrepid spirit of adventure!