Patras.....

Patras: Angilcan church of Saint Andrews: founded in 1872: built with granite stones brought in from Scotland

This is the day we were supposed to go to Olympia:  unfortunately Illias was on strike and the site and museum of Olympia decided to show their support by striking also.  We decided to walk in Patras.  We went to the Information center and got a walking map.   When we first started out we saw a beautiful church with a circle under the steeple ... it was closed and had barbed wire along the top of the fence. ....   I took quite a few photographs of it....  such a shame it's boarded up....  We followed the map to the stairs.... which ran up and up and up throught the middle of the town.... an amazing number of stairs...(193..)  I could only walk 3 sets before I had to stop and get my breath.

Panto Krator Church: Patras

We spoke to a gentleman at a park..   We asked him where the castle was and he offered to walk with us ... it was really nice of him..   It was about 5 blocks.... as we walked there was an area with no sidewalk.  He said they had taken it out to put some underground things in then didn't bother putting the sidewalk back.   He said Greece has no consequences if things aren't completed or done correctly.  He loved his country but felt the large companies and cities were not accountable to do things correctly.

The moat

The castle was an amazing area....   It was reconstructed but much of the original structure was there...  I loved the crumbling walls... It was built on the ruins of the ancient acropolis in the second half of the 6th century AD.  It is listed as a Frankish-Byzantine citadel ....  it is a triangular enclosure with a moat.   We saw that there were a huge number of ping pong ball sized bumble bees on the interior of the castle courtyard.

the old wall with the view

We were directed to go to the Turkish Hummas as it's the only one working other than one in Paris.  It is over 600 years old.  When we got there we thought it was maybe a temple .

Klauus Winery ~ Patras

I took pictures of some amazing candles in a shop window.

Closeup of the fruit cluster

  They were pillors wrapped with wax stalks and wax flowers.  They were stunning.   When I took the second picture I heard the salesgirl tell the owner that I took a photograph.  I felt bad as some people really hate you to photograph their wares.. We walked in and before i could say anything the owner told me no pictures.   I told him OK and told him I took two of his window display and offered to erase them.    He said no problem.   We bought a pillor candle and talked to him for almost an hour.  He is the third generation in his family to have the shop.  A few years ago they had an earthquake that bought down the left side wall and the displays.  He replaced it with a plain wall and is trying to afford a replica of the original.  The estimate he got is $35,000.

These are candles....Rose covered logs.....

...   (the right side is still standing)  He has some of the splinted hand crafted honeybee carvings from the broken side.  He also showed us the antique telephone on the back wall.  He opened it... it has delicate silver wire springs and is in excellent shape.   It was so refreshing to speak to someone who really values the past and his family.   

We felt like the number of hours in town were way too many as we ran out of things to do.  We hired a taxi to drive to  the Clauus winery out of town but found it closed.   The driver jumped out and got permission for me to take pictures on the grounds.  He sat and chatted with David as I took a few pictures.

Patras: winged Lion fountain....

After we got to the ship we decided to walk to the famous church of St Andrews... they have his skull there....  We walked about 1 mile and were a bit lost.   We stopped and asked a man and his son directions.... They didn't understand .....  I crossed myself and both explained OH.... and pointed and mimed it was 5 more blocks....  we continued.... just as we rounded the corner of the parking lot David and I realized we were in shorts and totally inappropriate to go inside.   We were so disappointed that we were so thoughtless.  We got a few shots of the outside and walked back to the ship.    We stopped at a touristy place on the wharf for dinner.

Anglican Church of St Andrew ~ it was no longer used and had barbed wire around it....

One thing we really like about getting Coffee in Greece is they always bring you a little cookie and a glass of water with the coffee.  It's so nice to have the extra...  America doesn't do a lot of extras ... but it is always nice to pay for one cup of coffee and get free refills.