You can tell from the number of days covered in this post that the last few days of our road trip were quieter. That was by design. We wanted to relax a bit at the end before heading back to our daily routine.

Days 14 and 15

Off to the West

We got up early and packed up camp. It took us just under an hour, without rushing. A quick check-out and we were already on the mountain road to the Mani coast, which we followed all the way to Kalamata. It’s a rather beautiful coastal landscape, though very rocky. No sandy beaches in sight. Instead, there were charming villages and a very unique style of architecture, vaguely reminiscent of small castles.

We hadn’t planned a stop in Kalamata, and the chaos on the city’s streets alone reinforced that decision. We did, however, head to a supermarket, since there was a large one available. Big, with ample parking. That seems to be reserved for the cities. With provisions and breakfast bought, we continued on toward Messene.

Strengthened by breakfast, we arrived in Messene, a rather extensive excavation site in the mountains north of Kalamata. An effort was made to reconstruct the buildings, which made the scale of the complex and its structures apparent. Additionally, there were informational plaques with explanations and a sketch of what the ruin you were standing in front of might have originally looked like. Messene was definitely one of my highlights of the trip, and it gets a clear recommendation from me.

The same can’t be said for the road from Messene to the west. I have rarely seen grass growing on an official road. We eventually arrived at Camping Tholo. A simple site with the most necessary amenities and plenty of shade from trees. But it had a wide, sandy beach within walking distance and the constant, relaxing sound of the sea.

The following day was also purely for relaxation. We enjoyed the sun and the wild sea on the free sunbeds at the taverna on the right side of the beach. The evening was also all about relaxing, which is why our dinner, while not a simple bread-and-cold-cuts meal, was still straightforward.

Days 16 and 17

Everyone Flocks to Olympia

The sea was still wild this morning, and cloudy weather was in the forecast. We still had Olympia on our list and used the weather to do some sightseeing. Via winding roads, we arrived in Olympia and were greeted by a surprising number of cars, campers, and tour buses. Olympia definitely seems to be one of the biggest tourist magnets in the Peloponnese.

We were surprised by the large number of Americans who had arrived in groups on tour buses. But since Olympia is also very spacious, the groups spread out for the most part. Similar to Messene, an attempt was made in Olympia to at least partially rebuild the ruins to show the original dimensions of the site. The Temple of Zeus must have been impressive; the stones of the columns alone are huge. The sports stadium, on the other hand, was very plain, just a sandy field with grass stands around it. But Olympia offers not only signs but also the option to rent VR goggles. We skipped that; instead, I tried out the AR app on the iPhone 15 Pro Max. With it, you can virtually place the buildings and then walk through them. I found the placement too fiddly, though, especially since there was no assistance for proper alignment. It would make more sense here, as is apparently done with the VR goggles, to handle the placement automatically based on GPS and viewing direction.

The museum in Olympia is one of the better ones in the Peloponnese and particularly impressed us with its statues. It’s not a huge museum, but it’s included in the price and definitely worth a visit.

With that, our cultural quota for the vacation was met. We drove back and spent the afternoon and the following day at the beach. The sea became calmer, and we were able to swim in it and soak up the sun.

Days 18 to 20

An Impromptu Departure, an Exhausting Journey

We hadn’t decided on our return journey yet, but we definitely wanted to spend the 18th day relaxing on the beach one last time. However, we woke up to a very dark, overcast sky, and the weather forecast predicted a thunderstorm in the morning and a high chance of rain in the afternoon. Definitely not a beach day. The weather for the following days was also hard to predict, but it looked rather unsettled.

A spur-of-the-moment decision: We’re packing up, driving to Patras, and booking the next ferry to Italy. We had barely started packing when the thunderstorm hit, with rain and lightning. We set a new record: in just over 20 minutes, our site was packed up and everything was somehow stowed in the car. We, however, were soaking wet. So we quickly changed clothes and then paid. Just then, the rain stopped and the sky turned blue on the horizon. Wrong decision? We don’t know; we didn’t check the weather again later.

In Patras, there was only one ferry to Italy. Not to Ancona, but to Bari. The crossing is faster and only half as expensive, but Bari is much further south. We booked the ferry anyway, though we inexplicably had to pay extra for the roof box. We still had two hours until boarding, so we bought provisions and went to the sea one last time. We wanted to dip our feet in the water one final time. On the ferry, we planned to sleep on a sofa in the lobby. No air-seats this time. The idea only half worked out, as the ferry made two intermediate stops. We weren’t allowed to lie on the sofas until we departed from Corfu at 2 a.m. After that, we could, so we got at least some sleep from then on. We arrived in Bari at 10:30 a.m., an hour behind schedule. Just before the port, our ferry throttled down its engines, and we waited an hour to enter. Unfortunately, we weren’t told why. Unloading also took a while, so it was after 11 a.m. by the time we were off the ferry.

The port is right on the edge of the old town, so we decided to pay it a visit. Ten years have passed since our last visit to Bari, and a lot has changed in that time. The city has become much more touristy, but it’s still beautiful. To cap off our vacation, we treated ourselves to lunch. Italian cuisine suits us more than the somewhat monotonous food from Greece.

Now, onto the highway to drive, drive, drive. For as long as we could, until fatigue won and we had to take a three-hour nap near Parma. Then we continued on, through northern Italy and Switzerland, back to Germany. We arrived yesterday at our parents’ place in southern Germany, somewhat exhausted. The vacation is over, unfortunately.

There will be a conclusion, but in a separate post. This one is long enough, especially since the impressions first need to sink in. We hope you enjoyed the travelogue, though!