Patra Fortress

Like so many things in Greece our scholarship money is now 6 weeks late and we are totally broke. However this has not stopped us from taking advantage of the abundance of free time that the less than rigorous Greek class schedule affords us. We heard from the girls that we should go to the fortress and take in the best views in Patra. Since we can really only go as far as the local bus will take us, last weekend Enrique and I decided to take their advice and went into Patra to take in some of the local sights.

After riding the bus downtown we scaled the 14 flights of steps up to the fortress and were praying that the site would be worth the effort. Walking through the ancient gates we knew that it was. Like the site at Olympia you could walk all around the grounds and climb up on to the walls of the fortress. The interior was much larger than I had expected and basically just a field surrounded by walls. The grounds were very nice with the main fortress towering over the citrus and olive groves. The fortress had high walls and was protected by a deep moat. We went into the fortress and climbed all the way to the top. From there we could see all of Patra sprawled out beneath us and the large ships resting in the blue water of the port.









Leaving the fortress we went to the Roman Odeon just a few blocks away. The theater is not just a historic site as the city has restored it and still uses it today. The theater is open air and all the seats are made of marble. It is pretty small in scale but impressive none the less.