Just photos from our visit to Porto Rafti which is a seaside resort situated on the east coast of the Attica peninsula, along the Rafti Bay of the Aegean Sea. We stopped off there on the way back to Athens and it was a suggestion of Richard and a very good one. Tourism is the major income generator in the area, but there’s also a wine-making industry here.
As it was likely much would be closed in Athens given the commemoration of the second anniversary of the Tempi train disaster, we headed down the coast to Lavrion.
There was a protest going on there, but it was all amicable and friendly with families taking part.
I think this is talking about putting profit over people. Incidentally, I hope that isn’t a baby snake at the base of the photo.
As an aside, there was a lot of littering of these leaflets.
It meant that everything was closed for three hours in the town. A helpful local stopped their car to check if we needed any help given that everything was closed. It did mean that the restaurants, shops and the like were all closed, so we watched some of the protests and then walked down to the marina. It was impressive how well attended the protests were and how nothing remained open during this time.
57 people died on 28 February 2023 when two trains crashed into each other head-on, with another 81 heavily injured and 99 lightly injured. The infra-structure of the rail network is highly problematic in Greece and it’s argued by many that little is being done to improve it. That was the base for the protests and demonstrations.
Back in Athens later on, we saw this graffiti written on the National University.
It was repainted within hours and I was quite impressed with their efficiency. It’s visible through the first coat of paint, but I’m sure that the second coat went down so after and all remnants of the graffiti are gone.
The damage from firebombs thrown towards the Parliament building was being cleared up. There’s more coverage of the rioting at the Guardian web-site.
There were numerous burnt out bins near the Parliament building.
But they were swiftly removed within a few hours and I’m sure the new replacements are already in situ.
There’s more about the rail accident at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tempi_train_crash, the more I read about it the more horrendous the situation evidently is, so the reason for the demonstrations has become ever clearer to me.
I found driving in Athens quite cathartic, but I was a passenger and I suppose that this does impact matters somewhat.
Richard might have found it less relaxing and peaceful.
The first train in Lavrion, in southern Greece, which is dated on the image as 1880. The main line to Lavrion officially opened on June 20, 1885, although the Keratea–Lavrion section had already been in limited use before that date. It was one of the earlier lines to open in the country and was constructed primarily to link the mines in the area with the port of Lavrion, with the line being constructed by the French company Compagnie Française des Mines du Laurium.
An old rail carriage in near pristine condition…. I like that this carriage is here, but it feels like it’s an sub-optimal condition with that graffiti on it.
Evidence of the old track, although not much is left. The line was damaged during the Second World War and it took them until 1952 to get it fully re-opened.
The line finally closed to passengers in 1957, apparently with the bus lobby being important in that, although it’s a shame that the line has been lost as it would have perhaps offered quite an economic boost for Lavrion. Some of the section nearer to Athens was turned into Athens Metro Line 1, but most of the route has been entirely lost and it’s quite hard to even track it on the map.
The route of the former line and I like rail heritage, so this was all quite intriguing. On the bright side, it looks like work is underway with an expected end date of 2033, to rebuild the line and reconnect Lavrion to the rail network. This would be a connection to the country’s main airport and would be enormously useful for the town’s cruise port. There’s details of that expansion in this pdf file.
[I originally posted this in May 2018, but have reposted it to fix the broken image links]
It’s evident just from the exterior what a grand cathedral this is and there has been a religious site here since the fifth century. Work on the current building began in 1220 and was completed in 1520, before finally being consecrated in 1552. Sounds like a normal public sector project.
That is one high nave. Indeed, it’s one of the highest in the world, over 41 metres tall.
The stained glass is beautiful, and there’s a lot of it.
For reasons unknown, there’s an area at the back of the choir which is vandalised with pen and scratches into the stonework. It’s relatively recent and not very dignified.
Wall painting on the pillar by the nave.
The decoration at the main entrance.
That height, those windows, just beautiful!
The apse, I think.
A rather nice triptych, I don’t often see these in cathedrals and churches, they seem to all have been collected up and placed in museums.
And my now usual apology that the photos are from the dying days of my last phone, sorry for the low quality of them. I have to confess that I didn’t know that there was a third Coach and Horses pub in Norwich, the other two get more attention and we will visit them in due course on our travels. Julian, who has spent time in every pub in the city, was of course aware of the existence of this venue although it was my first time there. This one, located on Union Street where it meets Coach and Horses Street, although the number of pubs with this name makes it harder to discover more about its history. Slightly surprisingly, there have only been four pubs with this name in the history of the city (according to the excellent https://www.norfolkpubs.co.uk/) and three of them are still open. The venue became a pub in the 1830s and it has been operated by John Hardy, Lacons, Whitbread and is now owned by Admiral Taverns. George Plunkett has a rather lovely photo of it from its time as a Lacons pub when a lovely new shiny housing estate was built around it. The Norfolk Pubs web-site mentions that it was a French restaurant for a period, but I can’t find out anything about that, but will add it to this page if anyone lets me know. Actually, I should add, if anyone has anything interesting to tell me about any pub which we visit, then do let me know.
On that Nick Stone (https://www.invisibleworks.co.uk/) helpfully adds:
“What’s interesting about it from a urban geography perspective is it doesn’t actually align with Walpole Street which is the corner it sits on, that’s at an entirely different angle to the building so the eastern face of the building actually lines up with Coach and Horses Street which ran at right angles to Union Street but no longer exists. Bear in mind this whole area was extensively damaged several times from 1941 to 1943, especially on the Vauxhall Street, Essex Street and Rupert Street side of the area which was possibly blast from an aerial mine, the redevelopment was inevitable post-war as so little was left of what now forms the park and Suffolk Square. It’s quite rare that it still retains it’s form when so much was knocked down. The Vauxhall Tavern which used to be on the corner of Walpole and Vauxhall was interesting, a proper post-war kinda-prefab estate-pub job from what I can remember of it, think it was demolished in the late nineties or early noughties. That had replaced the original building which was destroyed by the raid on 18th Feb 1941, killing the landlord Fred Murrell and his family. Shame it’s gone really.”
Here it is in the 1880s and it feels a slight shame that its address is usually given as Union Street, rather than the Coach and Horses Street which is named after it. I’m sure that there’s a story behind Jeremiah Scales, the landlord between 1879 and 1884, who put an advert in the local paper when he left saying that “I won’t be responsible for any debts contracted by my wife Harriet Scales”, it all sounds most intriguing.
There’s no real ale available and I was struggling to find anything interesting, although Guinness is available as a fall back. I’ve never had it before, but I went for the Mann’s Brown Ale which is brewed by Marston’s. I’ll likely never have it again, it was OK in so much as there was a slight taste of toffee but I’d say that there was more taste of cupboard than anything else. The Quavers were delicious though. Julian liked it more, but I think he likes beers that taste of cupboard. I more look for some sour which tastes of decadent tart fruit or an imperial stout laden with cherries and coconut.
The photo quality doesn’t make this evident, but the Guinness pump has chargers coming out of it, which seems a marvellous idea to me.
The bar arrangement and the staff member was merrily taking photos of their collection of board games. There is a community feel to this pub and there are events such as karaoke that take place here. During our visit, there was a customer who was quite vibrant and excitable in his demeanour, but that’s not a criticism of the pub as the staff dealt with him perfectly well and it felt like a pub that the local community are happy with. We were made welcome and I felt comfortable during the visit and it’s important to support venues like this as it’s easy to overlook them given how close they are to the huge number of options in Norwich city centre. It’s an interesting venue and although it was relatively quiet when we visited, it has been seemingly doing well for several years under its current ownership which is quite marvellous.
This is what Richard identified as the Temple of Poseidon.
This is the actual one. It’s an easy mistake to make though and I didn’t say anything. The ruins are from a temple dating to around 444 to 440 BC, replacing an early temple that the Persians had constructed in 480 BC that was sort of knocked down during the Persian Wars. It was an important religious site as sailors used it to seek Poseidon’s favour for safe voyages and it was also more practically used as a visible landmark for shipping. I’m no expert in Greek architecture, nor indeed an expert in any architecture, but apparently it’s built in the Doric style which was similar to the Euston Arch before they pulled it down. They used local white marble to construct the temple, using the stone from the nearby Laureotic Mount.
There were quite a lot of people around when we arrived in the late morning, but the site itself was closed off due to the national strike. It’s located around a one hour drive from Athens although there are some coach services which operate out there.
And as it was closed, that meant this was the closest that we got to the temple. I had been hoping to see the graffiti made by Lord Byron who visited here and decided to carve his name into one of the pillars in the early nineteenth century. It is moderately odd (although entirely correct) that this is an interesting thing to look at when it’s historic graffiti, but rather less approved of when it’s modern day graffiti. In 1825, two of the columns collapsed and the bits have ended up in Venice and London. I mean, it survives for thousands of years and then some bits fall off just at that moment, but I’m not making any allegations.
Here’s the bit of the column that is in the British Museum.
This is the drawing commissioned by Lord Elgin of the site, drawn by Sebastiano Ittar in 1802.
As some things in the local area were re-opening in the afternoon, we came back later in the day to see if they had opened the site up, but unfortunately not. The views were well worth stopping for though and the cafe had opened up, to serve coffee and light snacks to the disappointed visitors who had come to experience history. It was unfortunate that we couldn’t get closer to the temple, but it was still an impressive thing to see perched on the edge of the clifftop.
Apologies again for the poor photo quality, they were taken on my old phone which has fortunately been replaced since we visited this pub in mid-February on one of our perambulations around Norwich. This was our visit to the Coachmakers Arms on St. Stephen’s Road in Norwich, a pub which dates to the seventeenth century and is a former coaching inn apparently built on the site of a former asylum. The record of it being a pub date to the mid-eighteenth century and the breweries who have owned it include the Tompson Brewery, Morgans, Steward & Patteson, Watney Mann, Norwich Brewery and Tager Inns and there’s more about the latter on the page about the Cricketers’ Rest which isn’t far away.
The pub has an external mural by John Moray-Smith (1889–1958) and he also created the one at Berstrete Gates.
Julian parking his bike in the courtyard and there was a major crime committed here in 1905….. The text from the local newspaper of the time reads:
“CHARGE AGAINST A SCHOOLBOY DISMISSED
Charles James Nichols, schoolboy, of Sixteen Row, Lakenham, was charged with stealing a box containing 14 lbs. of raisins, value 3s. 4d., the property of George Daniel Tann, between November 21st and 24th. Mrs. Bloom stated that last Thursday afternoon a number of boys made a cave at the bottom of her garden on Sigismund Road. She heard them talking about plums, and afterwards found a coat belonging to one of them on the ground and some raisins. A little boy, aged about ten, who said he was with the defendant all the afternoon was called as a witness; but the Clerk said it would not be fair to him to ask him to incriminate himself, and his evidence was dispensed with. The ostler at the Coachmakers’ Arms, St. Stephen’s, said that on the 21st inst. several boxes of raisins, belonging to the prosecutor, were left in the yard. George Tann, a grocer, of Forncett, said there should have been ten boxes. He did not count them, and did not miss one until the policeman made inquiries. The Clerk said it appeared difficult to connect the defendant with the case, which seemed to be one of confession. The defendant’s mother said the lad was no trouble at home. He was never out at night. The Chairman said if he was not better looked after he would bring her to sorrow. There was a difficulty about the case, and it would be dismissed.”
The lad became an “habitual criminal” (I always think of Norman Stanley Fletcher when hearing that phrase) according to police records in 1913 and he had taken to the theft of cycles, which ties in back to Julian parking his bike there quite neatly. He went on to fight in the First World War (Charles, not Julian) with, I think, some distinction and he went on to have a long life.
The courtyard area which I can imagine is busy during sporting events. The building is Grade II listed and I’ll just quote from the listed building record:
“Former use unknown, now Public House. C17 and Late C18 Rendered. Stucco quoins and window surrounds. Black pantile roof. 3 storeys, 4 bays. Off-centre door with plain surround and small decorated consoles supporting a flat hood. One sash window to each side with 3 lights per sash. Raised and moulded, eared and haunched surrounds with keystone. Sash windows to first floor with identical surrounds to ground floor windows. 2nd floor sash windows with simple raised and moulded surrounds. Projecting, moulded box- cornice. Hipped roof. C17 ceiling beams with knicked chamfer-stops. Large frieze on wall to right showing St. Stephen’s Gate by Moray-Smith, 1937.”
The beer selection, although it wasn’t entirely clear what they did have. I ordered two beers from these pump clips and was told they were unavailable so I thought it best to ask what they did actually have and I wasn’t sure that I was any the wiser, but I think they had the Silver Adder from Mauldons, the Abbot Ale from Greene King and the Old Speckled Hen from Morland (Greene King). I think, but wasn’t told, that customers should ignore the pump clips and just look at the barrels as there’s gravity dispense.
As can be seen from this advert from 1873, the serving directly from the barrel is nothing new. Victoria Station, which was located opposite, hadn’t served passengers since 1916 but it remained open for freight traffic although the buildings were damaged during the Second World War and pulled down soon after. The station site was replaced with offices occupied by Marsh, but they were taken down in late 2024 and early 2025 which must have impacted the pub’s trade a little. Not unlike other pubs, they advertised for a ‘girl’ in 1913, noting they wanted one aged around 25 and from the country. They didn’t want any city folk, whether older or younger, cluttering up their residence.
I went for the Silver Adder from Mauldons, which was crisp, hoppy and well-kept, but it’s all a bit light on flavour for me.
There is food served on weekday lunches and the pub was clean and tidy, with the interior feeling historic and interesting. The on-line reviews are positive and the service during our visit was friendly and efficient. The beer selection wasn’t really my cup of tea, or indeed jug of beer, although the Oscar Wilde would have been my choice if they did have it. The pub also sells Cruzcampo, but I make no comment as I don’t judge…. There’s quite a cosy atmosphere and there’s also an upstairs function room.
I’m not sure how healing this water is, but apparently there are minerally rich thermal springs around here and it was also a rather impressive viewpoint. We didn’t know that they were healing waters at the time, otherwise perhaps we might have had a little paddle.
NB, the use of the word minerally is apparently a modern concept, although has now reached the OED and so is acceptable. I didn’t know it wasn’t a word until spell check queried it. Here’s an Ngram graph of how the word has been used over the last 200 years and I accept that I probably should have just written mineral rich…. Anyway, I’ve digressed.
Decent views.
A hole which Richard refused to investigate. In many ways, I was quite pleased with that as I have no idea how I would have helped him back out without the support of the Greek coastguard.
I was worried that there might be snakes in there, so I didn’t rush in. This is when you need Liam as he would have jumped down there.
There’s likely a whole caving complex down there.
And Richard jogging back up to the car.
We were on the road from Athens to the Temple of Poseidon and it is a beautiful drive.
