Assaulted by Kitties

This is what happens when you sit down for a few minutes to wait out the torrential rain and thunderstorms that are assaulting the Peloponnese today -- before you have time to say "*!£$%&!* off!", these probably feral kitties are clambering all over you looking for a hand-out. And I hate kitties....



Photograph taken on the terrace of the Pantanassa, a working convent in the otherwise abandoned Byzantine city of Mystras. We think it may just possibly have been an inspiration for Tolkien's Minas Tirith, but at the present moment are unable to frame the question in a way that the internet can answer. We may have to await access to the actual printed paper biography by Humphrey Carpenter on our return home.

On the First Day of Our Holiday in the Peloponnese

-- the Wugster is sitting up in bed doing the numberwangs.



Tomorrow we visit the near-vanished site of Asine and then explore the old town of Nafplio, first capital of independent Greece following its successful overthrow of the Ottoman yoke in 1833. Our tour will conclude with a climb of the 967 steps to the Palamidi Fortress overlooking the town, the views from which are apparently excellent....