“After 2 weeks of driving south, a right turn in Jacksonville, Florida on Day 14 saw us turning our back on the pioneering history of the Eastern Seaboard. From there on out the 1,575 miles of ground we covered over the course of a week in travelling first in a westerly & then northerly direction through The South was all about the slow and inexorable return back towards the cooler climes of New England, sill the depth of a rather big country away…”
“… the US probably warrants more than one epic once-in-a-lifetime road trip experience. So, and a year-plus after our 9,500+ mile US Road Trip 2016, we’re hitting the US road once again. Welcome to Epic US Road Trip part II, the 2017 edition… this one is all about history; music; (more of) the Deep South; and rural drives and leaf peeping the vibrant hues of a New England fall/autumn. And yes, it’s gonna be epic all over again.”
“In a country where antiquity is king, the fascinating tumbledown complex of churches and monasteries of the fortified UNESCO-listed mountain retreat of Mystras, last foothold anywhere for the once-mighty Byzantium Empire, feels like something of an upstart; it is only, at most, 800 years old.”
“Conscious of the past, efforts were made at the time to rebuild the town so as to reflect its ancient pre-eminence, but the town planners fell someway short. In their defence, they did not have a lot to play with; it’s obvious Ancient Sparta was more focused on building legendary armies as opposed to cities. Plus, it’s hard for a structure to outlive antiquity if it was never constructed in the first place.”
”The Greek Peloponnese Peninsula heavy-hitting history trilogy: Ancient Olympia, the once-great sanctuary to Zeus and birthplace of the Olympic Games; Sparta, the ancient city-state famous for its military prowess; and the UNESCO-listed lofty heights of Mystras, the last bastion of power for the once-mighty Byzantium Empire.”