Mycenae, Greece

We said Ciao (but only temporarily) to Italy and set sail for Greece, with our first stop being Mycenae.

Mycenae, was a 2nd century BC Greek city that was said to have been founded by Perseus himself and ruled by Agamemnon. Today it is a mostly ruins set high in the hills south of Athens.

Our first stop at the site was the impressive Beehive Tomb, a cone shaped tomb inside one of the many hills surrounding the city.

There is Dad standing at the outside of the tomb. As an engineer, I think this site impressed him more than anything else we saw on our trip. Do you notice the massive stone on the top of the entrance that goes all the way inside? That is one (insert your curse word of choice here) piece of rock. One. Single. Piece. The picture really doesn't do it justice, it is MASSIVE. How people with no more than rudimentary equipment and pulleys and fulcrums got that up there is amazing.

The inside of the tomb, with that big 'ole rock.

Another engineering feat that my picture really didn't truly capture was the ceiling inside, it went up hundreds of feet in a perfect co-centric circle.

After marveling at the Greek engineering we got our walking shoes on and hiked it up to Mycenae's Acropolis.


(The fun fact I learned this day is that most Greek cities had Acropolises which literally translates to high-city. It was the temple which they would always put at the highest point to have a look-out point and so it would be easier to defend from invaders. The Acropolis in Greece, because it is still intact has sort of co-opted the name so most people think there is only one in Greece.)

Once at the top the kids pretended to be locked in a dungeon and they explored spooky passageways that I was a little nervous would end some rock collapse or snake bite.


The adults sat on rocks, enjoyed the scenery and marveled at all the history they were seeing.



The other thing I learned this day is that my children MUCH prefer ancient ruins they can climb on and run through than quiet churches and museums. Imagine that.

We then skipped forward a couple of centuries (to the 17th century to be exact) and visited the Palamidi Fortress nestled in the hills above Nafplion.


The fortress was built by the Venetians to ward off the Turks and the Ottoman Empire (our tour guide not surprisingly had little love for the Turks). With the structure much more intact than the ruins at Mycenae the kids had a lot more fun exploring and hiding in various room and tunnels throughout.
(Note the three rocks VERY precariously perched right above my children's head. I thankfully didn't notice that until after this picture was taken)

Raif (and only Raif could find it) found this tunnel in the back of the fortress and proceeded to take Greyson down this long, pitch black shaft (MUCH to my dismay). They were so far down in whatever dungeon they found that I could barely hear them talking and the only light they had was from the flash from Raif's camera. But all my worry was for naught (as it usually is) and the day ended with all fingers and toes intact and all children accounted for.

Next stop: Olympia.