![\"Tonight's](\"https:\/\/ourtourmedia.s3.eu-central-003.backblazeb2.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/DSC03810.jpg\")
<\/a>Tonight’s kipping spot on the north end of town overlooking The Rock.<\/p><\/div>\n
What’s this? Ju? Awake? At 7am? Nope, I’ve no idea what forced this but I’m pretty sure some future Saint might claim it as one of their miracles. Before I knew it I was presented with my daily bowl of Lidl ‘Faux Crunchy Nut Cornflakes’ and ushered out the door. Charlie was still licking the 4% meat dog food from his lips as his paws hit the ground and off we stomped along the km road to the entrance to Monemvasia.<\/p>\n
Maybe it was the potential for the place to to fill up which had my Pretty up at dawn? A small ship had slowly cruised to a pier and white socks ‘n’ sandals were slapping off into the distance as the thick ropes were pulled into place. I’m really starting to notice just how FAST fellow tourists move, even those requiring the aid of a walking stick are doing twice our cruising speed. Or perhaps it was the weather? The forecast said rain; the sun was for once fuzzed out in the sky by high level cloud, maybe Zeus would finally get his lightning out and drench us?<\/p>\n
Whatever the reason, an early start worked a treat for us. Monemvasia’s given us four hours of sights and sounds for the total price of, zilch, and all under a cooling thin-clouded sky. Unlike Mystra, another Greek Byzantine fortress town we visited a few days back<\/strong><\/a>, they don’t choose to charge an entrance fee here. Another approach has been taken to fund the place. As we walked into the gate in the lower wall yesterday a sullen-looking chap sat next to some rough-looking metal jewellery loudly shouted at us ‘just buy this crap would you so I can go home’ in a silent sort of way. I ushered Ju past him, through the Z-shaped entrance (seemingly designed to slow us down and get us to buy the tat) and out into the still air on the other side, to be immediately assaulted by a Mont St Michel tat-gauntlet on the other side (if you’ve been, you’ll know what I mean). I near leaned backwards at the sight of a Greek medina, looking for another way around to avoid the sellers stood in doorways and sat outside empty\u00a0restaurants.<\/p>\n It wasn’t anything like as bad as that, honestly, that was my immediate reaction and it was way over the top. There are a few art shops and eateries, but they all looked pretty tasteful, the pressure to buy just wasn’t there and we were past them in a jiffy. When we returned today,\u00a0jewellery\u00a0man was absent from his guard post beneath the gate and I breathed a sign of relief as the main street was all-but empty.<\/p>\n Monemvasia’s<\/strong><\/a> a kid’s castle of dreams. It’s impregnable, only ever fully conquered by starving the hapless inhabitants into submission. The ‘moat’ is the open ocean, lapping against a rough-footed giant’s tooth of rock, crossable on foot at one point. This causeway (where a load of New Zealand troops were\u00a0evacuated\u00a0in the face of advancing Axis troops in 1941) had a wooden removable section and a wall at one end with arrow-slits for fending off opportunist invaders (not much use against Panzer tanks I imagine!). Past this, you’ve about a mile of road which runs around the south of the island. Sounds easy enough but for the fact the by-now irritated inhabitants are likely lobbing rocks and smelly things down on you from above. Next job: get into the lower town. The swines have only gone and built a wall around it. Should you be bothered\/have enough cannon fodder left to get through then congratulations, the lower town is yours. Huzzah. Only two jobs left: fight your way up zigzag steps cut into a 100m cliff face, through the gate at the top, through the upper town and tackle the hill-top citadel. You’d have to do all this on foot, maybe on horse-back if you’re crazy, as the tiny mesh of cobbled streets is too small for anything else. Nah, no-one got in by force, siege was the way in, one of which lasted a massive 3 years (by comparison, the unbreakable folks of Sarajevo<\/strong> <\/a>lasted out for almost 4 years in the 90’s).<\/p>\n