7 March 2025 – Nestor’s Palace & Pylos

Miles driven today = 82

Total Miles to date = 1,747

We wriggled away from Olympia this morning and found our way through Makrisia and back onto National Route 9, which roughly follows the coastline southward through Zaharo and Kyparissia, stopping only for diesel, at a trip record low of €1.53 a litre, and of course at Lidl, where we picked up some of the surprisingly sweet early season Greek strawberries we’ve seen growing under all those polytunnels.  At Filiatra we were diverted for a road closure and Google Maps sent us off-road for a short stint making the tyres even more grubby than they already were. 

This part of the World almost feels like one continuous forest of olive groves and everybody in Greece seems to own a chainsaw and spends their days pruning the ancient trees. 

The trimmings are piled up and burnt and there is an intense pall of smoke at times which obscures the scenery and had us furiously winding the windows up so as not to allow the aroma of bonfire to permeate the van too heavily.

We took a left turn towards Chora and after a few kilometres we parked up next to one of the aforementioned olive groves for a spot of lunch before going to explore Nestor’s Palace.

The Palace excavations are protected from the elements by a metal roof which covers the entire site.

Visitors view the site from elevated walkways with information boards giving details of the uses each of the many rooms had when the Palace was occupied.

The Palace is the best preserved building of the Mycenaean era in the whole of Greece.  It’s not actually known whether it was built by “Wise King Nestor at Pylos” but it closely matches the  descriptions of his home recorded by Homer.

The complex was built in the 13^th Century BC on top of the foundations of an even older settlement which had been destroyed by fire.  The Palace itself was also largely destroyed by fire circa 1200 BC and was subsequently abandoned.

The Palace was the main administrative centre for the area.  Incredibly, some 800 clay tablets survived the fire and can still be read to this day, giving an amazing insight into the economy, religion and social fabric of the region.

This is the Throne Room where the King would receive visitors and dignatories.  The circle in the middle is a hearth and the four smaller circles around it are the bases for pillars supporting a balcony and the upper floor of the two storey building.

The Pantries were used to store pottery and tableware.  The broken remains of nearly 3,000 “kylix” drinking vessels were found here.  They are thought to have been stored on shelves which would have fallen as the Palace burnt.

These circular objects are jars which would have been used to store olive oil.  The surviving clay tablets provided lots of information about the aromatic oils and their production and usage, including funerals, religious rituals and medicinal purposes.

Believe it or not, this is the royal bathtub.  It’s the only one known to have survived in a Mycenaean Palace anywhere in Greece.  You can still clearly see the spiral decorations.

A short walk from the Palace is this “Tholos” or Beehive Tomb.  It was excavated and reconstructed in the 1950s.

The tomb predates the Palace.  It is thought to have been used for at least 13 Royal burials during the 15^th and 16^th Centuries BC.  That’s 3,500 years ago.  Unbelievable!

A short drive from the Palace is the Seaside town of Pylos.  It stands on the huge and almost entirely landlocked Navarino Bay.  We pulled over for a quick photo as we dropped down the snaking road into the town.

We parked up on the harbour opposite a Viking longboat just as the crew were climbing aboard.  We tried to get a closer look but the area was cordoned off and we later saw it rowing off across the Bay.  It was escorted by a small flotilla of RIBs so we suspected there might have been some sort of filming going on.

Pylos really is an absolutely charming place.

Certainly a lot better maintained than a lot of Greek resorts.  It felt positively upmarket.

These steps lead up to the “New” Castle of Pylos which is mainly obscured by pine trees.  We drove right past it on the way out of town and still couldn’t see much although we did spot an aqueduct which presumably used to supply it with water.

The town square is dominated by this fabulous old Plane tree.  It was planted by the commander of the local garrison in 1880 although to my mind it actually looks to be much older.

It was glorious in the sunshine and the thermometer nudged 22 degrees this afternoon so we sat in the square and enjoyed a coffee before heading back to the van and making our way out of town.

We didn’t have much further to drive as we approached the tip of the first downwards pointing finger of the Peloponnese.  We are at Camping Methoni which is just a 15 minutes walk along the beach from the town of the same name.  We’ll go and explore tomorrow and hopefully find a nice fish restaurant for a leisurely Saturday lunch.

8 March 2025 - Methoni