This time I want to share with you the odd co existence of nature's beauty with the ugliness of war relics. The following content is a several days result of driving and hiking around the South East end of Attiki region. All pictures and videos are fresh though few of those places were initially explored by me years ago (and revisited now). At this point I want to give credits to http://fortifications.gr/ as a source for some important military details. Without it I would never know what kind of equipment was used in those places.
Ready? Let's go.
This part of the region, surrounded by sea was a very strategic area from the ancient years as it gives you the chance to observe and control marine traffic of a huge area from one single point (like for example Sounio where ancient Greeks used to have a fortress). As I walk towards my first target I have the sea on my left hand offering a unique show under the (rare for early June) cloudy sky:
Great company for those cute thyme bushes:
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Climbing up the hill the view doesn't get any worse. Or maybe it's even better?
A bit of a struggle to climb up to the top with all those loose stones but worth the effort:
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Spoiler: The above watchtower shot from 3 different angles is among the smallest ones I'll post, if not the sole smallest one. It is lucky to survive as it was about to be demolished in favour of a house that would be built in its place. Due to lack of money and/or legal issues the house wasn't built and today one can only see the attempt for its foundation a few steps away:
Curious about the view of this house or (even more intriguing) what those (Italian or German) soldiers were enjoying at times they were not busy killing or trying not to be killed?
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Not bad eh? The following view is not bad either as I walk down the hill to my next target but look
how talented are humans in spoiling heaven with concrete POS:
Minutes later right by the sea is where a medium sized pillbox patiently waits:
You can see how the difference of its purpose (opposed to the previous watchtower) is reflected in its smaller windows:
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Here's an attempt to show you its (not precisely accessible) inside:
With all those cracks it has it's a great object for observation by Technical University students:
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For non engineers here's how this happen: Concrete has great resistance to "pushing" forces but breaks easily to "pulling" ones. That's why us humans put rods of iron in it. Iron gets oxidised (especially in extra corrosive environments like this one by the sea) and then expands applying forces to the concrete that the latter cannot handle. Have a look how the corrosive air from the sea (and the sea itself) turn iron to practically (and sometimes literally) dust:
They say "rust never sleeps" for a reason...
Not sure are not bored by this technical parenthesis so I'll bribe you with some flowers I find on my way, well taken care by humans:
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Another day exploring leftovers of WWII, my car takes me as close as possible to my next target and I continue hiking:
Halfway to the top I find signs of a more contemporary war, this one against birds:
You see the area is famous for its Quails and Partridges and some of them end up at a hunter's dish.
On the top of the hill I find one of my richest findings: The ruins of a whole complex that used to belong to a WWII Italian artillery. Up there Italians used to have 4 cannons - each circular base of them you that you see below has a diameter of 8 meters:
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Once a pillbox (of the 3 back in the day), now just a pile of stones:
No surprise they had lots of trenches up there as well:
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Once again, I turn my back to the sad stories and enjoy the view for a moment:
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As I start leaving these Italian ruins behind me I think how funny it is that today I might have more friends in Italy than in Greece. Actually, now that I think more about it the same might apply for Germany too. Times are changing aren't they?.
I head for the beach of Legrena, not far from that hill, where more WWII stuff is waiting. It's a marvellous beach and a place that attracts a lot of birds hence the signs informing visitors about the rich fauna for the area:
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I'll place this image below and let you imagine the reason for me "WTF" face of me as I look at this property:
Not obvious? Let me zoom in:
Yep, the guy either built around the WWII pillbox or kept the cannon on his rooftop. Here's one more:
I picture the lovely beach (an early bird like me caught it empty) before I collect more WWII stuff:
The guy with the property you saw before has actually made use of all the WWII stuff he found around including this bunker:
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However, the cannon you saw on his roof is not the only one - look at this:
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Weird AF. Not the view though:
At the spot I find this construction made from cement and stone that some say it used to act as a dock for hydroplanes back in the 30s:
On my way back I find the only accessible gun standing alone and rotten over the bunker you saw before:
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Don't laugh at its conditions, it's actually a small miracle it has a minimum of integrity exposed in extreme corrosive conditions for more than 7 centuries. Below is the entrance of the bunker that this gun used to protect:
I leave the place behind and drive up to Sounio as there's more to see. I park the car and start hiking the hill which right before the top offers me the following view:
The top of the hill offers me less scenic ruins of WWII but important nevertheless. This spot used to host a German artillery hence the stone constructions you see below:
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The artillery used to have a Wurzburg Riese radar up there, today we can only see it's concrete case:
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I assume this used to host a cannon willing to shut down enemy planes:
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Fortunately it didn't shut down the Temple of Poseidon at Sounio though it had effortless view to it:
At this point it's a good chance to remember an Ancient Greek saying meaning more or less "nothing bad happens without a benefit". In this case, Hitler being an ancient Greek heritage adorer he left our antiquities unharmed while he showed less mercy for other places like for example Athens's port (Piraias) which he bombed (and since there's antiquities almost everywhere around there I can't promise we didn't lose any during those operations).
I leave that hill behind and drive the car close to another one for further exploration. As I walk up I regret not parking my car closer under the shade of those lovely pine trees:
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First world problems...
On top of the hill I find a circular stone construction of 12 meters diameter, supposed to host a Freya German radar. It's in bad shape today:
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The following used to be a watchtower/pillbox:
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Which in the absence of danger is a fantastic viewpoint:
Hellas is in no scarcity of ruins with a view:
Time to hike one more hill:
It's right next to the previous one. The ruins I find on its top look like a German bunker to me but it's quite destroyed (bombed back in the day?) and I can't tell much more about it:
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Here's a clip I shot in this one, sorry if you see my fingers in front of the camera in the middle of the clip but I was trying to get rid off a spider while trying to keep a steady hand and remain silent 😄:
Are you still with me? Hope so cause now I take you to a lovely little bay for the next one.
Isn't this sweet?
At this small fishermen's nest is where my last finding is, struggling to survive the elements of the sea:
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This one is an Italian pillbox, today used as storage room from the local fishermen who also paint it from time to time. Maybe I shouldn't have mentioned the obvious. I mean...who would be paint a pillbox white?
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The next hilarious panoramic is only here to give you an idea about the view - not to win a photo contest (trust me it's mainly the stitching software to blame, I've taken much better ones with much less care than I showed on this one):
I hope you enjoyed those contradictory images,