As bad luck would have it, we came across the Spartathon which is a 245 kms 36 hour marathon from Athens to Sparta, held every year at this time. Our friend Brian was feeling ill so we had to re-route our journey and stop here in the town of Sparta so he could have some rest. In spite of its reputation in ancient history, Sparta has not much to attract the visitor, so it had not been on our planned itinerary.
Unfortunately, all hotels were fully booked because of the race. Brian and Mairi managed to get the last room available in town, while Andrew and I drove a 10 kms circuit around the town to try to get accommodation - all to no avail. We returned to their hotel prepared to sleep on their sofa, which they luckily had, but at 8:00pm a room became available as not all the athletes completed this gruelling race.
Obviously, if we had not been together we could have continued on without them but as it was, we were stuck here in Sparta. But it all worked out well in the end.
The one attraction west of Sparta is the Mystras Castle, built in 1249 by a Frankish prince. It remains an important Byzantine monument in Greece. We did not climb up to the castle, only took a photo.
No comments:
Post a Comment