Monday, January 11, 2016
Hello!
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| Our original blog map for Greece |
We have worked our way south from Veria to Meteora. And, just in case you don’t know about Meteora, I will refer you to the above
titled movie. This was a Roger Moore 007
movie that was done in the days before computer graphics. The last section of the movie takes place at
the Agia Triada Monastery, and it is
very dramatic and exciting. We would
recommend the movie (and the place) highly!
There were really people doing all those crazy stunts! Robert has always loved the movie, and when
we decided to go to Greece, Meteora was
one place that we definitely wanted to see.
So…here we are!
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| Breakfast Room |
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| Breakfast! |
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| Checking out! |
So, to start from this morning. We were up and down for breakfast about 8:30
am. And when I say down, I really mean
down! The B&B that we’re staying in
has four different levels, and the lovely breakfast room was on the bottom
level. It was beautifully decorated, and
it appears that we had the place to ourselves.
Vera, the lovely gal who was looking after us, kept bringing so much
food – there were home-grown olives, home-made jams, bread and cake, cheese and
cold meats, fresh tangerines and wonderful home-made rice pudding – that by the
time she asked us how we wanted our eggs, we had to plead with her to
stop! Everything was wonderful, and we
absolutely had no room left for eggs!
Then we were back upstairs, reassembled, and out the door a little
before 10 am.
It was an interesting morning, as the weather started out
fairly clear, but by the time we reached the city center and lower levels,
there was a fairly heavy fog all around.
Fortunately, we left it behind us as we headed to Dion, which is on the
coast. Dion is one of the cities that sits at the very bottom of Mt. Olympus,
which we also very much wanted to see.
The problem with many of the local area museums and archeological sites
is that it’s difficult to get one time or day that it is open or closed.
In the case of
Dion, there were two conflicting reports – one saying yes, the
museum is open on Monday, and the other saying, no, closed on Monday.
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| Lovely little river near B&B |
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| Mt. Olympus -- with snow! |
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| Mt. Olympus |
We decided to take a chance, and discovered
that yes, the museum is closed on Monday, but the Archeological Park is
open.
Go figure!
So, we went to the archeological park, which
is huge and really quite lovely!
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| Sacred spring at Dion |
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| Sanctuary and shrines |
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| The sacred spring has obviously overflowed! |
It started life in the 6th century BC as a
sanctuary and shrine to the Goddess Demeter,
and then branched out to honor other Greek gods and goddesses such as Zeus Olympus (named after the mountain)
as well as the Egyptian goddess, Isis.
We passed the sacred spring, which has
now rather taken over the entire area, as there was more than a little water
all around. Purportedly both Philip II and Alexander came here to make
sacrifices before going into war (which means they must have been there a lot,
as it seems to me that’s about all they did …)
From there, it became a Roman city which is still in the process of
being excavated.
It was a very nice and mild day, and we had the place (once
again!) to ourselves, so we enjoyed a good walk around. Then, back into the car and heading west to Kalampaka and Meteora.
It took us about 2½ hours to reach Kalampaka, and our hotel, Monasteri. It is really lovely! We were given the choice of two rooms, both
of which looked out on the mountains. We
took the one with the balcony…
We dropped our things into the room, and then headed out to
take a drive UP the hill and see the different monasteries and nunneries.
Geologically, the mountains are towers of
sandstone and tertiary conglomerate carved into gorges by the Pinios River and
its tributaries.
There are 60 columns of
rock up to 984 feet high.
They are
amazing.
(In a way, they remind me very
much of
Goreme in
Cappadokia in Turkey.)
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| Large bath in Roman city at Dion |
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| Mt. Olympus yet again! |
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| Monasteri, our lovely hotel! |
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| View from our balcony! |
These monasteries first started in the 14
th
Century when the Serbs invaded Thessaloniki and the religious orders were
looking for safety and refuge.
Over the
years, some of the monasteries have closed, and today there are six remaining,
two nunneries and four monasteries.
As
many of them have 50 to 150 steps or so UP, we decided that what we really
wanted to see were the views and the buildings.
The gal who runs our hotel gave us a wonderful map with lots
of personal and detailed information on the drive as well as the various things
to do in town. We took a LOT of photos,
and were SO glad it was such a sunny day!
Finally, back to the hotel and a brief rest before heading
out to find dinner tonight! I had made a
spreadsheet of possible places to eat before we left, and wrote the names and
addresses of two highly rated places.
And, as things turned out, we went looking for one, and ended up at the
other! We found a parking space in town
(which isn’t that easy, let me tell you!) and the first place that we looked at
seemed to be about right, so in we went.
(It was about 6:15 pm now, as we want to eat early and hopefully avoid
any smoking issues. And if you’re the
only people in a restaurant, that generally will do it!)
In this case, PANELLINIO Restaurant had several
other groups dining, so we actually weren’t the first. The restaurant itself was really quite
lovely, with interesting décor and a variety of icons. Robert ordered their bean soup to start, and
I got a plate of fried eggplant with a yogurt sauce. FABULOUS!
Then, R had their roast chicken with potatoes, and I had their beef
stewed in tomato sauce and served on rice.
Again, a great dinner washed down with a small carafe of red wine and a bottle
of sparkling water – and all for 32€!
Crazy!
Back to the hotel about 7:30 pm and R has made a wonderful fire in
the fireplace! This is really a lovely
place, and we recommend it highly!
More tomorrow!
m
xxx
PS - I am going to post the Meteora photos separately to keep them all together. Also, at Stew's request, I am appending our original map!
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| Lovely dinner! |
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| R's bean soup |
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| My fried eggplant |
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| My beef cooked in tomato sauce over rice |
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| R's roast chicken and potatoes |
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