Travelling within the Peloponnese Page 3 (see Greece train map)

The Alpheos OSE West Coast station is a stop along the way where passengers coming from the south can change trains for Olympia; small settlements en route to Olympia include Pelopion and Platanos (plane tree). The neoclassical Olympia station (also designed by Edward Ziller, was fairly recently restored, and is very attractive. Across the tracks is a renovated steam locomotive, the barn in which it is housed has been turned into an outdoor/indoor video café/disco bar with a good view of the beautiful station.

Olympia. Rail fans should visit the old steam locomotive shed and find the manual turntable which used to turn these old trains around. It is outside on the ground, and may be covered with weeds.

Pyrgos to Kalonero (Kyparissia) This 72km line that heads south across flat delta land is poor in archaeological sites but rich in beautiful sandy beaches, which are visible from the train throughout the journey. There are seven trains daily-one morning local (all stops); four expresses, and two IC type. Only minutes past the little Alpheos junction station the train crosses the wide river over a long, low iron bridge.

This is very rural country, with little stone stations at Epitalion and Krestena, surrounded by cultivated and irrigated field, with rugged mountains to the east (left) and the Ionian Sea to the west (right) in the distance. The train line leaves the sea only briefly here and there, and passes through stretches with pine trees and sand dunes where one might camp out, one such stop being at Kaiafa, the little station in between a small lake and the sea, with a tree-covered dune inbetween. Other beach stops include Zacharo (a few kilometers after Kaiafa) and Kakovatos, the first having more tourist amenities, and there is access to small villages from there on the local. Kalonero (which means 'good water') is the junction, at 56km from Pyrgos, for Kyparissia and Kalamata, and is only a few hundred meters from the the sea, with a small settlement around the railway buildings. Passengers headed for Kalamata can get off for a half hour while their trains go to Kyparissia and back and then continue on towards the big city.

Kyparissia has a population of around 5,500 and is a pretty places, whose name means 'cypress trees'. It is a junction for bus connections to places along the south coast. There is a good, though pricey, campground near the beach, and within easy walking distance, where sea turtles sometimes come ashore (of which one must keep a very respectful distance, so as not to endanger their survival). There are also decent lodgings in this very appealing, though little-visited town. Buses from here go to such sights as Nestor's Palace, Pylos on Navarino Bay, and the fortresses of Methoni and Koroni, and a recommended train trip is that along the Soulima Plain through the villages of Kopanakion, Dorion, and Vasiliko to the Zevgolatio junction (for Kalamata and Tripolis). Two locomotive hauled local trains negotiate this route taken by few tourists.

The Peloponnese by Train page: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9

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