Anne called me at 8:00 and the four of us met for breakfast in the hotel at 8:30. We headed back toward Sparta and Amyklies, arriving at the Paleopyrgi site around 10:30. The name means “old tower” but could also mean "old castle" . We sherded our way through the olive orchard and met the landowner. He spoke English and was leaving to visit his daughter in Chapel Hill , on Monday, where she is a doctor.

We reconvened on the narrow hilltop which was excavated more than 20 years ago. It has a magnificent 360° view around the graben and the Eurotas River Valley . The hill is both naturally and artificially terraced thanks to meter-thick limestone conglomerate beds interbedded with the Neogene marls. We snooped around the slopes of the hill before making our way back to the car which we had left at Vafio.

We drove into Sparta and had lunch at a restaurant on the highway through town. We ate in the quiet garden. Drew was entertained by two turtles that lived in the garden area. After lunch we drove a few km southwest of the Vafio site to Kalyvia Sochas to see if we could locate the quarry from which the better limestone at the sites was quarried. It turned out to be a 2 hour hike from the parking area with a substantial climb. Since a large thunderstorm was brewing across the valley, we bagged the idea.

We drove to the Amyklion and snooped around some more. Bob sherded while Anne explained the significance of these sites to me. Bob joined us when it started raining. At my suggestion, we sherded another location between Amyklion and Vafio and found it to be littered with coarseware and broken roof tiles.

Next, we made our way down to the Eurotas River over narrow, bumpy roads. I was surprised at the high percentage of metamorphic clasts in the river bars. The river could conceivably have gold in it as Homer suggests. We made our way over back roads to the highway making a short stop at the eastern base of the Paleopyrgi/Vafio hills.

We headed south toward Githeio but took the new road to Skala as far as Stephania where we doubled back on the old road to road-cuts in a Triassic andesitic dome. A pair of domes was the source of lapis lacedaemonius which was quarried from Minoan times to the present. It is green and purple-red porphyry. Anne found a decent epidote sample which I'll take back to Brevard.

After returning to the new road, with a quick stop to steal some oranges from an orchard, we drove into Skala and then turned right on the coastal road toward Githeio. We stopped on a cliff top to photograph the wreck of a freighter, rusting on the beach. Drew was fascinated.

Back in our hotel, we discovered that we could see the wreck from our balcony. We drank wine and discussed the day's discoveries and possible implications. I bought a Greek flag and map. We ate at the Italian restaurant at the edge of the harbor. It was our last night together so we were in a festive mood. Around 11:00 we returned to the hotel. I wrote for awhile and then showered and went to bed.