Monemvasia Day 3

Sunday was our third day in Monemvasia. We started our day out with another fabulous breakfast, then we started exploring on our own again. We truly enjoyed our hikes around Monemvasia, never knowing where the path would lead or what interesting things we would see on the way. We had a reprieve from the wind in the morning. We joined our group for what was supposed to be a tour of the lower city (remember yesterday I said the upper city was closed). Our tour guide was an archaeologist who is working on the excavation of the upper city. Once we started our tour we ran into another group who happened to be from the Embassy but not with our group. Their guide was planning to take them into the upper city. One thing lead to another and we ended up touring the upper city too :) We were very excited about that. Our one hour tour ended up being over two hours long, through our lunch hour. Again, the kids were real troopers, never complaining, listening to our tour guide (they stayed close and Elijah asked her multiple questions, he loves History!).

Sunrise over the sea, our view from our room.

 The kids with Ms. Carol, one of our friends, and Joseph, a new friend they made on our tour.

 The Church cave again.

 Church of Christ Elkomenos, built by the Byzantine Emporer Andronicus II Comnenus in 1293, this is the largest medieval church in southern Greece.

The road leading into the Castle City:

Our tour guide leader, the lady in the hat. Unfortunately none of us remember her name, but she was very informative.

 The Upper City:

 The Upper city is considered to be dangerous in that they are working on it, which is why it is closed.

The road that our guide works on excavating each day.

 While we were standing near this building she showed the kids some pottery that used to be dishes that they had found while excavating.

The Ayia Sofia, a 13th century church, founded as a monastery by Andronikos II.

Ms. Carol photo bombing the picture.

 Looking from the very top of the Upper City onto the lower city:

Some remnants of cannon balls (below)

After the tour we walked to the city of Monemvasia, across the causeway to find a local taverna for lunch. We were wanting gyros and a cheaper meal than what we could find in the castle walls.

The Castle Monemvasia view from the city.

Elijah found one of the swimming areas, since he couldn't swim the decided to throw rocks into the water.

Hanging outside the door to our room, waiting on me and Matt to catch up to them.