One might think that I am dedicated to WWII fortifications since I've already shared quite a few but the truth is that we have inherited a lot of them from the second world war and the fact that they're usually found at scenic locations with nice view makes them a must visit, for my taste at least.
This time I visit the bay of Porto Rafti, a coastal town East of Athens. It's such a lovely bay that I avoid in summer as it tends to attract too much humanity but this time of the year, especially during a warm winter like the one we have up to now it's such a joy to visit:
As you can see that beach is lovely and it's no surprise that it's the first thing that wins my interest:
As you can see there's no WWII bits here and I have to search in the woods to find them behind those trees:
In search of a way in I find this one to be the most convenient:
I've just climbed up and follow the first path hoping it will lead me to what I'm looking for:
Still no WWII ruins but nature's beauty makes it up for that:
It doesn't take long to find the first trench and once I do I know it will lead me to the rest of the stuff effortlessly:
Not that I would regret my visit anyway with all this tiny cuties offered generously from mama earth:
One trench leads to another:
At the end of that trench I find the first defence post made of stones and a bit of cement:
Keep in mind that the Germans back in the day not only wanted to control the incoming marine traffic for obvious reasons but also the vessels coming out since they also wanted to prevent Greek partisans from fleeing to Egypt or other locations.
Now it's all so peaceful and quiet as I spot a tag ship passing by:
The next trench is supported by stones,
and leads to the first pillbox I find in this complex:
Which as you can see has got some street art(?) recently:
Such an odd view to watch this thing contrasting the beautiful background:
Things inside are even worse:
Let's go back to the light see it from the rest angles:
I leave it behind and follow the next trench:
Which brings me to the next pillbox:
It doesn't look any better than the previous one but I step down its entrance to see what is what:
Actually it's so trashed and dark that the pictures worth only for pressing shitf+delete simultaneously so I move on following the next trench:
This leads me to this guy:
Let's go in. I'm kinda impressed that in this cramped shithole someone sometime repainted the walls white cause I can't believe they stayed like that for 80 years...or did they?
Other than that nothing that interesting to mention inside:
Funny how it looks like a mouthless face from the outside:
This is the view of its interior that you get by looking through its "eyes":
Nearby is one more, looking (even) more miserable though:
It's all covered by trees on its front side as if they try to hide the shame:
It's the most cramped of them all but I'll try to give you an insight:
As you see it's expectedly far from clean but to be honest I didn't expect to find underwear in there:
I leave the place and go to the other end of the bay on the South side as there is similar stuff there too. Besides, the view is not too bad anyway:
I get my first view of the German pillbox located here:
However, I can't resist to the sea which is a few meters from my left hand so I deviate without second thought:
Time to head to my initial target which lies behind those rocks:
It looks more spacious than the previous ones from the outside:
I must admit though that it's the only one beautified by others inside, colour wise at least:
That's enough for today I guess so time to go back to my iron horse:
Before I leave line Lucky Luke, here is a 4K video with all the above wrapped up: