Tour to the Saronic gulf 31 Dec.2007 - 7 Jan. 2008 | 
The Poros Island |
Like every year Tobias Schorr guided his special tour to the Saronic gulf. Until know he has done this tour six times since 2000 and also this year it was again a very interesting tour with very sympathic participiants from Switzerland, Great Britain, Greece and Germany. The tour started December 31 at the Athens airport. The half group left Athens / Piraeus harbour by the last ferry boat and the guide was driving along the coast of Attica to Corinth and Epidavros. It was very funny that all arrived the same time on Poros Island. After getting in our nice hotel "7Brothers" on Poros Island, we had a very nice change of the year with Greek and Egyptian specialities at the tavern "Rota". There were no fireworks, so we had a calm and relaxing night.
Tour in the homeland of the mythological hero Theseus - Trizin The first day we visited the newly discovered mycenean tombs of the mythical hero Theseus. At this place it is always possible to explain the mycenean culture and their connection to other sites in Greece. Later we drove to the ancient town of Trizin, that is called the home-town of Theseus. There the excavations of the ancient sanctuary of Aesculap / Asklepios is surely a highlight and Tobias Schorr explained the fight between the sanctuaries of Asklepios in Trizin and Epidvros. Later a walk to the gorge of Kremastos "Diavologefiron" was a ideal tour to discover fossile sea-floor (190 million years old) and metamorphic volcanic rocks (serpentine). At the Diavologefiro we found fossilized leaves and enjoyed the natural beauty of a great landscape... In the afternoon we did our first visit at Methana and had a nice lunch in the little fishing harbour of St. George.
Day 3: Tour to the historic volcano on Methana One of our highlights is surely the tour to the historic volcano dome at the tiny village Kameni Hora on the northwest part of Methana peninsula. We walked up through rocks and small forests. Even in winter, this area is giving a feeling of spring. Some cyclamen can be discovered in the shadow of the pine forest. On the top of this volcano we took many photogrpahs of the huge rocks of the former volcanic centre. After enjoying that great atmosphere, we were decending to the village and had a tasty lunch at the tavern of Theodoros. With the last sunlight we managed to visit also the ancient acropolis at Vathy and took some nice pictures.
Tour to the island of Hydra | 
A chapel on a former volcanic rock on Hydra Island |
Tour to the centre of Methanas volcanic mountains | 
Panoramic view of the Stavrolongos caldera on Methana |
One of the most beautyful tours on Methana is surely the tour from the chapel St. Panteleimonas to the highest tops of the peninsula. First we passed the small sheppard´s settlement of Matina & Vangelis and at a point of geological interest Tobias Schorr explained the ancient use of pumice. At a highplain old cisterns were visited. The path guided the group through bushes of "strawberry-trees" with their colourful red fruit. After a few small forests the group arrived at a highplain and had a breake between prehistoric walls of an not yet excavated sanctuary. Later there was a impressive view towards the northern volcanic serial of Methana with huge volcano domes like mount Prophitis Ilias. One of the highlights was a visit at the volcano caldera Stavrolongos. We were happy, that we had a recent photo of Kelud volcano dome, taken by Tom Pfeiffer in November 2007, so it was easy understandable how this volcano looked like at its activity many thousand years ago... On our way back we also meet the mountain goats and the sheppard Matina with her young son. At Theonis tavern in Vathy we enjoyed fresh fish in front the fire of a chimney.
Tour to a byzantine chapel & Methana Volcanic Spa There is always a bit freedom in doing tours that are not advertised in the program, but because the group fell in love with Methana, we decided to do a additional excursion to Methana. So we started again in the mountains and walked into a romantic valley with a ancient chapel. The byzantine Panagitsa is one of the oldest chapels on Methana with still existing wall-paintings. We discovered also some hidden ancient parts that showed us that there was even in ancient times a sanctuary. Many photos were taken... On our way back Tobias meet two girl-friends from Athens who were visiting their relatives who live in the mountains. So everybody got a very personal introduction in Tobias past and his fight for Methana and a great love... This tour wasn´t something you can plan, but it shows that the tours of VolcanoDiscovery have always also a very personal background. And what is better than a guide who really loves the area where he is guiding his guest? Late in the afternoon Tobias showed the newly renovated baths of Methana "METHANA VOLCANIC SPA" and their infrastructure.
The last day & the celebration of Theophania in Poros Every year the Greek orthodox church is celebrating the holy water and so the priest throws a cruise into the water and some brave boys dive to catch it. The boy who catches the cruise first, will get a gift and a great honour. We watched the ceremony at Poros Island until we had to say "good bye" to Christa, Terpsi and Urs who had to leave us. They had school lessons as teachers the next days, so the had to arrive at the Athens airport in time. Günter, Carmen, Robin and Tobias did a last round tour on Methana. They visited the so called baths of Pausanias, stopped at a few nice photo-points and took rare samples of hydrothermally altered volcanic rocks.
Our return to Athens and a stop at Epidavros theatre On Monday January 7th Tobias, Carmen, Guenter and Robin had to go back to Athens, because Carmen had to arrive at her flight back to Germany in time. We all were lucky that she had to arrive in the evening and so we used the time to visit also the famous ancient theatre of Epidaurus at a day of perfect weather... On our way back to Athens we had also time to have a coffee in the beautyful town of Nauplion and we arrived early in the evening at Athens airport....
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