Author: Gisela Wuerfel

Preliminary remark: Salamis! The naval battle of Salamis, an island we also passed by, is almost an anniversary to the day! It was in the last days of September 480, exactly 2500 years ago, that the Greeks (Themistocles) defeated the Persians (Xerxes). Historians say that this was the origin of an independent, western, non-orientated occidental culture, with political development, with literature, theatre, epics, "classical Greek" as we understand it today. But of course there were already advanced civilizations in this area, Mycenae, and Homer's epics date back to the eighth century. But the cultural area of that time, the Levant, probably reached as far as Syria, Mesopotamia, and Egypt in the south, so it was not as independent as it is…….
Greek country life - of course Aglaya remained in the water. But as storm was announced, we wanted to weather it as safely as possible. So Nea Epidauros, a tiny harbour, but protected on all sides - 3 km away the village (the famous theatre is only 15 km away), which is picturesquely and wildly rising up a mountain slope, surrounded by steep rugged rocks and canyons. On top, on one of the rocks, the remains of a Byzantine fortress, and a village like in a Greek picture book. Sleepy steep streets, rather corridors, tiny squares, a single pub in the village square, but: this is where Greek independence was declared, in 1822, after the Ottoman domination was overcome; a column and a museum bear witness to this. As always, we climbed up in the midday heat and were rewarded with a gigantic wide view of almost all the islands of the Saronic Gulf, suburbs of Athens so to speak. Aegina, Methana, Poros, Salamina, Agristi……..
Between port and village a plain where oranges, lemons and wine are cultivated, very idyllic everything. So we walked through these groves and, as usual for us, we got further and further into the hills. The walk ended after 10km in Palea Epidauros, i.e. in the old Epidauros, a charming bay - and on a peninsula an amphitheatre, which is only a fraction of the size of the famous theatre, but which has a completely different and wonderful charm amidst olive groves - and completely without tourists.
The taxi brought us back to our little harbour, where Aglaya was patiently waiting for us.

Aegina is a beautiful island that is almost a suburb of Athens, which makes the port extremely turbulent and hectic. Many boats from Athens make short trips here. But more about the harbour later. In Aegina, hydrofoil boats from Athens, Methana, Poros and other islands dock, as do large car ferries.

The island is hilly and overgrown with pistachio trees. In the city there are kiosks and shops everywhere, selling huge quantities of pistachios and pistachio products, from ice cream to salted, unsalted, but also unroasted pistachios or pistachios pickled in honey or covered with sugar. For dessert we once got unroasted soft pistachios, marinated in honey with ginger - a delicacy.

On a hill, about 15 km from the main town, with a wonderful view as far as Piraeus and the entire Athens coast, lies the sanctuary of Aphaia, who was worshipped here - and only here on Aegina - the temple is older than the Acropolis in Athens. Probably already in Mycenaean times a fertility goddess referring to Egyptian deities was worshipped here, a sphinx stood on a column. In Greek-Classical times it was a daughter of Zeus (once again).
A large, relatively well preserved temple, surrounded by a mighty wall, evokes associations with Agrigento or Paestum, but is not quite as complete. And the frieze, which is hardly surprising after all the history, is in the Glyptothek in Munich.
The hill is located above a small fishing and bathing resort, Agia Marina, very idyllic, but it has also suffered from the financial crisis and now the Corona crisis, some taverns and also hotels are abandoned.

After three days we left Aegina - but first with heavy obstacles: The harbour, where you lie with bow anchor and line at the stern to the pier, has a roughly semicircular ground plan. That means: All boats drop their anchor approximately in the middle. This in turn means that the anchors of the boats with their chains lie criss-cross over and under each other. And suddenly, when we were pulling up our anchor, we had a chain on it and an anchor, but it was from another chain. This caused stress, the wind pressed us against other boats, a chain blocked our propeller - a diver untangled the chains and freed our propeller. After I told him that I didn't have enough cash, he was content with 150 instead of 200 €, an expensive "fun"!

Moni is not just the abbreviation for a woman's name. Moni is also a tiny uninhabited islet just west of the island of Aigina in the Saronic Gulf. If you come - like us - from the south, it looks like a barren, grey rocky ridge whose walls drop steeply to the sea. Completely inaccessible and without any green. But: We anchored there beautifully overnight. Actually we didn't want to go there at all, but to the harbour of Perdika on the southwest side of Aigina. But it was full. So we looked for an alternative. We had just passed the narrowness between Aigina and Moni, when Moni showed her beautiful green north side. The slopes below the rocks were covered with light green pines and there was a small bay. The weather was predicted to be calm for the night, so we had found our anchorage. The last day's guests, who were bathing at the small beach, were picked up by a taxi boat one by one. Then it became quiet, only now and then a bird call. With wonderfully clear water we could see to the bottom and go swimming. And at night an impressive starry sky. When can you see the Orion directly above the mast top of your own boat?

We extended twice - so we stayed there for nearly one week. The island is located at the extreme south-eastern tip of the Peloponnese, separated from the mainland only by a 500m wide channel. One of the safest harbours in Greece, it is said - although it is not an enclosed harbour at all: You lie on a 2km long pier, opposite the mainland, but protected by it. Here we weathered the Medicane, which had raged violently on the Ionian Islands, but which arrived here "only" as strong wind and cloudburst.
In the harbour there is always a lot going on, of course, also because the fast ferry from Athens arrives here and there are many small taxi boats between the mainland and the island. Sailing boats and motor boats also anchor in the middle of the harbour.
Directly at the pier the town of Poros stretches along, one tavern at the other, inside small Lines. And the town is grandiosely built up along the slope, winding steep alleys, stairs, passages - you don't need to ban Cars here, no car can get up here anyway. At the top there is a blue and weite clocktower, from which you have a wonderful view over the city, the harbour and various bays. There are many anchor bays here, Love Bay, Russian Bay (here the Russian Tsar built a naval base, of which a ruin still stands) and many others.
In a long walk along the shore with many views of the bays and the surrounding islands you can reach the "Monastery of the life-giving spring", situated on a hill above the "Monastery Bay", with dense forest and in front of it overgrown with many olive trees towards the beach.
Halfway up between the winding alleys and corridors there are also restaurants, not only at the harbour. Here we ate something very special: snails! Much smaller than the snails we know from France, a little spicier in taste, with an incredible sauce of tomatoes, garlic, wine, juniper and cinnamon.
Sometimes we had the feeling that if we were not careful, we would not get out of here at all.

Anchoring has many advantages: You don't have to be careful not to get too close to other boats, you don't have to be careful not to touch other boats in a narrow box, exact going Backware (with a long keel!) is not necessary either. Also you don't need help from land to take the ropes…..narrow harbours, noisy towns/villages…….
When anchoring in a bay you find a nice place and then drop the anchor - no. It is not quite that simple. The weather should be as calm as possible, not too much wind, as stable as possible from one direction - but you have the least influence on that.
The place has to be chosen so that you don't get too close to other boats. You have to take into account the radius in which the boat will swing, i.e. swing back and forth at the anchor. Which of course also depends on the wind direction. Will the wind calm down at night? Or will it change direction?
The depth of the water is important for the anchor to hold well. There are different philosophies here: some say you have to chain (= let out) seven times the water depth, others say three and a half times.
In good weather you can still see five metres to the bottom without any problems. What is the anchorage ground? Sand? Silt? Grass? Stones/ Rocks? Will the anchor hold? Will it wedge between stones on the ground?
How should you bury the anchor to make it stable? How hard should you pull the anchor so that it pushes into the ground? When the anchor is down, it is said: wait and see - landmarks, houses, trees, towers……always check whether the boat is in the same proportion or whether it is shifting.
Swell can be unpleasant, especially at night when the boat rocks up and down violently and pulls on the anchor. Then you sleep badly.
We have had different experiences, it depends on the shape, size and location (open or rather closed) of the bay. Seven wind forces are easy to cope with - if the anchor holds.
In a very narrow bay, a small fishing boat with a fisherman sleeping on it bumped into our boat at two o'clock in the night - we were probably just as frightened as the fisherman who then tried to get away.
One should not sleep as soundly at anchor at night as in the harbour. In Portocheli the boat behind us had suddenly come damn close, so our anchor had slipped. And so far that a little bit of pulling in the chain would not have been enough. So we started the engine, raised the anchor and looked for a new place - at four in the night. But then the anchor was sitting and kept us well in our place for the next two days and nights in strong winds.
We always sleep (in good weather) outside in the cockpit when anchoring. And this is where one of the fascinating experiences of anchoring comes into play: no disturbing light far and wide, an unbelievable number of stars - and sometimes even shooting stars, you don't find anything like that in any harbour.

The beautiful town of Nafplion is the former Greek capital from independence 1829 to 1832, an originally Mycenaean settlement, later conquered by the Byzantines, the Franks, the Venetians and the Turks, the latter two alternating at short intervals.
In 1832 the Greek National Assembly elected Otto of Bavaria (!), a Wittelsbach, as king - certainly the central European powers, Germany, Russia and France, had a hand in this, supporting Greece in its fight for freedom against the Turks. Otto began his reign at the age of 17 - after all, he ruled for 30 years until he was forced to abdicate after an uprising. An important decision of his government: he introduced the German (Bavarian) purity law for brewing beer: The beers you can drink in Greece, Mythos, Alpha, Fix, Mamos, Zeos and a few more, taste excellent.
The fortress Palamidi is gigantic on a steep rock, 216 m above the sea, Venetian-Turkish style, accessible by almost 1000 steps up the rock. At the top, besides the impressive fortress, within which there is also a small Byzantine church, you have a wide view of Argolis in the north and Arcadia in the south. On the south side of the fortress is a large turquoise blue bathing bay, 10 minutes walk from the city.
The town itself is situated between the rock (on which there is also a second, smaller fortress) and the large harbour. At the edge of the harbour in the middle of the water there is another small fortress, Bourtzi, only accessible by boat.
Small alleys, paved with marble, boutiques, workshops where olive wood is worked, jewellery is made or sandals are sewn, make up the flair. As well as the countless taverns and pubs, which of course serve excellent fish dishes, but also classics like moussaka, stuffed tomatoes, lamb with lemon sauce - wonderful. The flair is urban, you notice that Nafplion was once the Greek capital.
The travel guide says: Nafplion is a dream destination. True. We were there for five days and it was wonderful.

One remembers the history lessons and the pictures in the history books: The gigantic Lion's Gate, of which we still do not know how the huge stone blocks were piled up to the wall and the gate and in general to the citadel. According to the legend it was Perseus, son of Zeus and Danae, who founded Mycenae and commissioned the Cyclops to build the wall.
We are in Argolis, no longer in Arcadia, but the landscape is similar. Between two hills overlooking the sea, Mycenae is about 20km northeast of Nafplion. The huge citadel looks from a distance as if it had grown out of the hill. You walk through the huge walls through the lion's gate to a circular burial chamber, diameter about 15 meters, 5 meters deep. Then through a quarter where the craftsmen and artists lived and worked, an area of cult practice, and up above is the citadel. Heinrich Schliemann, who you meet everywhere here, and who "excavated" Mycenae, dated Mycenae to the classical Greek period, the golden mask, also in every history book, was for him the mask of Agamemnon.
This is one of the reasons why we know Mycenae as one of the most important origins of the Greek culture and connect it with the confederations of cities, with Athens and Sparta, with Classical Greece, eighth to third century BC, also with the classical epics and tragedies.
Meanwhile it has been found that Mycenae is much older, until 2000 of the pre-Christian period, first beginnings around 3000 at the beginning of the Bronze Age. Corresponding cult objects, but also articles of daily use and weapons are exhibited in the Archaeological Museum, which is located nearby - naturally also statues and findings from the Greek period.
Thus Mycenae stands for centuries and millennia of development from the settlement, agriculture and handicraft up to the Greek/hellenic high culture and thus for the change, with which following settlers or also occupiers, who took over and integrated positive elements of the culture found for them in each case. The museum uses a very appropriate term for this: "cultural fermentation", and today we are of course also a part of it.