Milena to Athens

Friday June 19

We are all up early today as we have to be off the boat by 9 am. We eat the very last of the yogurt and crackers for breakfast with hot tea and coffee then drag all our gear off and bid Jules adieu. I load some pics while waiting on the others. Soon our rental van arrives and we say good bye to Andy, Liz and Ken and head north. We rented our van from a Dutchman who drives back to his office where we can drop him off and look at a road map. We talk a little about where we want to go and the Dutchman is very negative about our ideas. We have heard that Meteora is a little off of the track back to Athens but very beautiful. He Dutchman says it’s a 10 hour drive were we have heard it’s 2 to 3! He also says that all the hotels will be full everywhere. Sounds like crap to me.

We stop at his office and he recommends a hotel and cafe near his office. We sit down and have breakfast and decide to stay a night here in Kala Nera. We go to his office and look at maps and his is even more contrary to our ideas. It’s very frustrating and I walk out leaving my father and brother to deal with it. We met a very nice Englishman named Jim who lives here part time and helps out in the cafe. He can see we are frustrated with the dutchman and he brings us around the corner and points out his house in case we need some help. He is very nice. When I get back some sort of plan has been reached and everyone is headed for the hotel. The plan to spend 3 nights in this town doesn’t sound ideal but we are all tired and want to rest.

My father and I go for a walk and the others sleep. We find an ice cream shop and then return to the hotel. It’s very inexpensive but not too nice. Smells like mothballs. Martha is not very happy with it. After we rest my brother talks to the Dutchman who wants him to pay in advance for rooms we haven’t seen. We refuse and he gets angry. So we tell him to cancel it all we will find our own.

Then he back with just a reservation and a plan for Athens and dropping off his van. That we accept. You have to realize that Greece has 11 million people but 6 millions of them live in Athens. It’s a big very crowded city. Add in the crazy drives and the motorcycles that drive everywhere and it’s a frightening prospect to try and drive into the City and find a hotel. So we agree to meet his driver (the Dutch woman who drove us to Milena) at the airport parking lot at 8 pm on Wednesday night and she will drive us to our hotel for 30 Euros. It’s a good deal as we would need 2 taxis at 35 Euros each. Taxis in Athens are limited to 4 people and we are 6. We are glad to be rid of the dutchman and go back to our hotel and get ready for dinner.

Jim has been around a few times to make sure we are okay. He recommends the same taverna and we have some great little fried fish. They are like sardines or capline in Newfoundland. You eat the whole fish bones and all. They are very tasty with half a liter of local white wine and a greek salad to share around. Jim has told us that just up the road at a campground there are local musicians that sing and play every friday night. So we decide to drive up. It’s closer the we thought, we could have walked! But the campground is very clean with a beach a hotel and taverna.

Much different from campgrounds at home. We walk on the beach and the sun is going down over donkey island in the distance and very lovely. THe ground has finally stopped moving. We all have our land legs back again. It was feeling like the land was moving under our feet from being on a boat for so long.

We have some wine and enjoy the music for a while. They are 3 older gentlemen playing guitar, mandolin ( or maybe bouziki, i can’t tell the difference) and accordion. They are singing and drinking wine and everyone is having fun. We stay for a while but the girls need to get to bed early as they have been cranky today. So we thank Jim for all of is help and drive back to town.

We find a parking space near Jim’s house and head for the hotel a shower and sleep. Tomorrow we hit the road finding places as we go despite the Dutchman's warnings! Wish us luck.

Saturday June 20
My father and I are up early and have some melon and yogurt we bought yesterday for breakfast. I take a walk to see if I can find an open internet signal but no luck. I see about 3 in the whole town and they are password protected. It’s very pretty and peaceful this early. No taverna blasting American and Greek music. There are a few people sleeping on the beach near the no camping on the beach sign. They are starting to get up. The sky is clear and the air is cool. Our hotel room was over the street and a little noisy last night. I

walk back and we load up the car and drive to Ano Lahonia where there is a narrow gauge train that goes 16 km up the mountain to Milies. We think it leaves at 9 am which seems a bit early for a tourist train. Sure enough the signs says 11 am departure. Thanks Dutchman! So we wander off and find a cafe and have coffee and tea. We walk up to a little park and eat some salami and cheese sandwiches and melon. Thegirls play on the swings and a whirly gig. I used to love these as a kid. You don’t see them in the US anymore. They are a pplatform with handrails and kids push it and it spons around and then you jump on and ride around. In africa there are people who a building wells that use whirly gigs to pump water. What a great idea. My brother and I even rode it just for old times sake. This uses up all the food that would spoil otherwise. At 10:15 we walk back down and the station is full and we are unable to get a ticket. Too bad. We decide to drive up the mountain to Anos Georgios.

It looks nice and has a museum and some old churches and is near enough that we can try the plane again tomorrow. Winfree is being difficult today. Nothing seems to make her happy and she is yelling and fighting. making the rest of us pretty miserable. She has been having some moments along the way but today is bad. I keep reminding myself that she is only seven and to be patient. We drive up the mountain around very steep hairpin turns on very narrow roads. Always keeping an eye out for the crazy greeks coming the other way down the middle!

We get to town and go looking for a hotel we see a picture of in our brochure. We find it and walk down to it. ut it’s not open for business anymore. too bad as it’s a beautiful building. So we drive on up the hill and out of the town and around looking for another hotel. No luck so we stop at a taverna under an immense plane tree. The air is cool and there are cats for Winfree to talk to. Greece is full of stray cats and a few dogs. Every taverna has a few cats hanging around waiting for bits of bread. We all calm down and Randy has walked down the hill and found a resort that has rooms. It is much fancier than any place we have stayed but should make Martha happy. After lunch we walk back to the van and drive down there. It is really nice. They took 5 old villas and cottages and combined them into one big compound. It’s full of fruit trees and flowers and each room seems to have it’s own little sitting area.

We get two triple rooms. It seems strange that there are no family rooms in Greece. We wonder what other families of four do? My father and I and Winfree have a room with a big shower that is beautifully decorated. We have a little terrace under a blooming wisteria arbor. There is a small stream running past and all you can hear is the wind in the apple trees and the stream burbling. It’s wonderful! My father and I get our books and sit out there and read. I send Winfree of to the stream to cook for frogs the bugs and finally to count butterflies. We all have a happy hour our so to relax and then we talk a walk up the road to see the church and the museum.

The church is perched right on the side of the hill and has an open terrace on one side. You can see all the way back down to the sea from here. We watch a storm building out of the sea where we were just sailing. It’s a fairly modern church but very pretty. We walk around the other side and there is a little grassy play area. The girls play on the swing and whirly gig for a while. Winfree has another temper fit about something. Finally we get past that and walk on up the hill. We come to the Museum of the Sculptor Nickolas. There is another terrace with a sculpture of Nickolas himself.

The Museum is open so we go on in and it’s full of his work and books as it also serves as the towns library. His work is good. We enjoy looking at all the pieces and the drawings and photos. There is a woman working who tells us that Nickolas was born here but not in this house. That the greek president decided to make a museum here. And they moved the pieces from his studio in Athens after he died.

Then we walk pond to what we think is a Museum of the Olive. But it turns out to be an on the wall of a house. The Museum is in a different town and opens when the train comes by. The same train we didn’t get tickets for earlier, so maybe tomorrow we can catch it and see the museum.

We find a sign for a hiking trail and head down that road past some goats in a yard a nd a very loud dog. One of only a few barking dogs i have encountered in Greece. The road intersects another and there is another trail sign on a post on the other side but it goes down a very steep hill full of thorny thistle plants. We are in shorts and decide not to go any further. We can see the storm is building and might just make it up the mountain to where we are. If so it will be the first rain of the trip.

We start back up the road but Winfree is having a sit down strike and refuses to go further. We start walking on and somehow her mother convinces her to join us. We wander back down the road and stop at the same taverna under the plane tree. Everyone else has ice cream or beer but i am not hungry and we are going to have dinner soon. We have the taverna all to ourselves. It’s very peaceful here. The taverna owner doesn’t really speak any English so we can’t question hi m about the town. We seem to be in the old town square. There is always a fountain and there are shops with beautiful old wooden doors. It’s siesta time so everything is closed.

There is a pottery shop around the corner with some interesting vessels. There is also one of the old donkey oaths going up the hill. I walk up there and I see plaque for a small hotel association. mygreece.com. see have seen to beautiful villas with these plaques but nobody around. Either they are closed until July and August, the busy season or they are feeling the pinch of the bad economy. Everyone has finished their snack when I return and we decide to walk back on the the goat path. it’s hits the road again just around the corner from our hotel and as we come around the corner I spot a big old bottle with a cork in it lying in the bushes. I pick it up and it’s pretty great. it’s about 18 inches tall and 8 inches in diameter of clear glass. It was machine made not hand blown as i can see the seams. Bit is still fairly old and I really like it. It’s big though.

So i put it back where I found it and head back to the hotel. I jump in the shower for a quick cold water blast and this mountain water is really icy! it feels great! We dress for dinner and sit on the terrace and read while wait for the others. The storm is really getting close and we think about Captain Andy and his crew they just started a new flotilla with 8 boats and are trying to get them all docked for the first time in this storm! The rain starts as we walk to the hotel restaurant. They are hosting some kind of conference, and we have seen some of the people wandering around on their break in front of the conference room. In the restaurant most of the tables have been pushed together into one long one.

Must be for the conferences. They are a little surprised to see us. We apologize for not giving them earning that we were coming. We just didn’t think about it. They say that normally people sit outside on the terraces but because of the rain they are packing us inside. They make up a place for us and we sit down to a great salad with lots of different greens and olives and some thin slices of cheese like a greek parmesan with a balsamic vinaigrette dressing. My brother has the local specialty of sausages with peppers and onions, my father and i a pork steak the girls chicken and Martha a cheese pie with an ouzo sauce and most of the salad. it’s all very tasty and we really enjoy it while watching the rain out the door. They have some fancy desserts so we order a chocolate mousse pie and a lemon pie. They are huge slices but we manage to eat them all.

The chocolate is very tasty but the lemon is a little strange. Ask the owner and he explains that it’s not made with lemons but that fancy lemon liqueur. That explains it. Then back to our rooms. My father and i go for a walk up the hill on a small path until it runs into the yard of an occupied house so we go back down. I walk by myself around the side by the stream and there is another donkey path that leads up to a villa that is being renovated. An there is another one that is fallen in and covered with vines past that anther that is abandoned but very beautiful. It has carved wooden doors and shutters and the trees and bushes have grown up around it and there is donkey poo on the trail.

So they are probably using donkeys to bring the supplies up for the villa that is being renovated. it’s the only way to get up the hill where there is no road. Up above that is a beautiful little cottage that also looks abandoned. I can see how they made our hotel from a few of these old homes. It would be neat to live in this little cottage but i bet it would be very expensive to bring it up to code. I am sure it has no sewage system just for starters. It’s getting dark so I head back down to the hotel. Here I take a very hot shower and have a good scrub then I finish up The Kitchen God’s Wife before bed. Then off to sleep. I love this mountain town.

Sunday June 21

We get everyone up early and the hotel for breakfast at 8 am. Breakfast is included here and it is a fabulous spread. Eggs and ham, the usual cereals, corn flakes, muesli, and cocoa krispies. A fresh baked apricot tart, the usual yogurt, honey jam , bread, canned peaches. There is also pound cake and little spinach feta cheese pies. Wow! We tuck and eat quickly. We saw a bus stop out front and ask if we can catch a bus to Milies this morning. If so we can eat a long leisurely breakfast. she call but the bus doesn’t run on Sunday. Too bad. We had made arrangements with the owner for her to arrive at 9:15 (early) to check us out.

At 8:45 Randy drives my father and i down the road to Milies which is the top of the train ride. then he goes back to the hotel to check out and drive his family to the bottom in hopes of getting tickets. We hear you can walk down a path to where the train starts. We walk into town and can here the singing from the church. We have to be careful as we are walking on the road and there are a few big trucks and tour buses and they take up the whole road! The town is really pretty and we get directions for the train station but no one knows about the walking path. I remember that one of the sailing guys said he mountain biked right down the tracks. We may end up walking the tracks down.

The police don’t know about the path and neither does the baker. We walk down to the station and it is down in a shady cool area with a taverna and a couple of villas and a really beautiful cottage with a round bread oven and a railing made out of branches and a painting by the front door. I would like there anytime! What a beautiful spot. The train men arrive on the little working engine from below and turn it around on a turntable by hand. They don’t know a trail but point to the tracks. We walk down for a look and we can see where lots of people have walked along the track. There is stream running down to a small pool and i can’t resist a quick dip. While my father keeps watch I strip down and go for a cold mountain dip. Very refreshing. I air dry and then we walk back to the taverna. The owner speaks good English and she says that people walk down the tracks.

The only trail leads straight down to the sea and we would have to walk miles along the busy main road. that doesn’t sound like fun so we buy two bottles of water to add to water I am carrying drink one. then we head off down the tracks. We pass a couple of other tourists who obviously think we are insane to walk 16 km (ABOUT 9 MILES) down the mountain. Soon we have pace and we cross a bridge over a very deep gorge. We can see all the way to the bottom. Don’t want to fall off here. We have calculated about when the train should come by so we can be on the look out for. But for now we have set a good pace and it’s still pretty cool and there are nice patches of shade from over hanging trees and rocks. This railway was built during WW2 for moving supplies. they ahd to blast through a lot of rock to do it. This is a narrow gauge railway.

Soon we encounter a family coming the other way. They have been picking wildflowers and greet us with a cheery kalimera (good morning)! Since we are only the rail we don’t worry about getting lost and enjoy the views and looking at the plants along the way. Lots of flowers and bees and birds. Every so often there will be a bridge our the tracks with cross a stream bed where we have to steep carefully across the gap. Mostly there is a path on one side of the track or the other but sometimes we are right on the track. Occasionally we are in a very narrow cut and you always wonder if the train is going to suddenly appear! Al the brides have places you can step to the side but not some of these narrow rocky places! Luckily no train.

Soon we are walking through olive groves and then we come to an abandoned station. We stop for a pee and a water break. We started seeing number signs a ways back and realize they are marking the distance. There wasn;t one at the beginning and the first we saw was 25. We know it’s not 25 km to Lahonia but figure that must be to Volos where the line started with think. Anyway we are at about marker 23. We walk on and soon we are near a village and we see a couple of people walk onto and down the tracks ahead of us. Now we are expecting the train and keep our eyes and ears open for it. They say you can here it from a ways off but we don’t want to get caught in a narrow place.

And we want one of us on either side of the track so we can see if Randy and company got tickets and are on it. Soon we hearing coming around the side of the next mountain. We walk on through a fairly narrow spot and we don't hear it yet so walk a bit further. Then we are at a good spot with room on either side and all of a sudden we hear it again and around the corner it comes with a roar. It’s moving faster than I thought it would but we are clear. As it passes I can the back of Randy’s head and I call to him but he doesn’t hear me and then the train is gone and it’s quiet again. So we figure we are almost half way. we walk on and soon we see that our couple heading back and we pass them with a yessus (hello). We walking along some house where people are using the rail line as their driveways. There are cars parked here and there along the tracks.

We are about marker 20 when we see a hiking trail sign and next to it a sign that says OASIS 100 meters. This sounds good and around the next bend is another station with a taverna. Oh good! We walk in and there is the Olive Museum we saw the signs for yesterday. we try the gates but they are locked. We can see a man in the garden and we call out him but he motions 5 and walks away. I guess he will open at 5 when the train comes back through. We walk to the Oasis and an older man greets us and he has ice cream, beer, water and soda. We decide on orange soda he sits us at a table and is impressed that my 75 year old father is walking this distance. he himself is 70. He looks in good health. when he learns we are Americans he joins us for a chat.

He used to be a Merchant Marine and has sailed into New York, new Orleans and and maybe Tampa while he was working. he is retired now. His name translates as Silver. he is very friendly and points to a table with a big family eating and drinking happily. They are his friends from near Prague who have come to visit. They wave hello and soon Silver asks if we would like a bit of food. We say yes and they worry his going to bring us a big meal and we say just a little. He gets two plates and goes over to the family table and spoons some food out of a big pot and brings it over with a piece of bread each. he says that it’s the local favorite of sausage with peppers and onions. It is really good! We eat the food and sop up the juice with the bread. it’s just the right amount of food to get us down the mountain. While we are eating the trains guys on the working engine pass us going back down. We compliment him on his cooking.

He tells us he started to cook with his mother when he was 6. He is an excellent cook. He points out that his friends are cooking a big pot of Hungarian Goulash in a big pot over a fire beside the tracks. They have the pot on a chain so they can raise and lower it to control the temperature. he says they cook this way often. we thank him again and wish him good health and head off down the tracks. We are getting closer to the sea as we round every outside corner and the kilometers roll on by. We are at about Marker 17 when we hear sheep and sure enough there sheep on the tracks.

They see us and all of a sudden we have a herd of about 30 sheep walking ahead of us on the tracks. We laugh and follow them and expect them to head of into another field but they don’t. They keep running ahead. Finally we get a place where it looks like the lead sheep is headed off to the side. We stop and wait and soon most of them are off the tracks we walk on by and they run off into the field. Luckily it’s partly cloudy and there is a little breeze other wise it would be very hot. We are at about marker 13 and the trail gone and there is fresh rock on the track so we are having to walk in the tracks.

We go on like this for a while. Then the path comes back and we are almost at sea level now. We are feeling tired and ready for the end. We see marker 11 and cross a bridge and begin to see houses and streets and finally we are back at the lower station. We walk to the taverna next door and order and greek salad and an eggplant baked with cheese appetizer a pitcher of water and a cold beer. We have a couple of hours before the train so we relax in the shade and eat our lunch then read for a while. As we are looking for the check the waitress brings more water and a plate of cold watermelon. it is juicy and cold and still has the seeds like when I was a kid. American watermelons have almost no seeds now. We enjoy that pay our check and then walk a little ways further down the tracks.

The town tried to make this into a pedestrian path but it has fallen into disrepair and is right beside the big road. So we walk about an the train rolls in about 10 minutes later. The Randy Loyds are on the train and the didn’t see us when they went by. We load up the van and head towards Volos and then up the side of the mountain towards Portaria. Luckily we are able to follow the signs and don;t get lost in Volos which is the biggest town in the region. And up the mountain we go. More steep narrow hairpins turns and my brother is doing a great job with the stick shift and avoiding the other cars and the motor bikes. The greek drivers on the same side of the road as Americans and that helps! So n we roll into Portaria and we see some hotels and a public parking lot. we pull and get almost the last space. Randy my father and i walk back down the street.

There is no sidewalk to where we saw a sign for traditional guest house. We pass a hotel entrance just before it and my father and stop there. he goes in to ask about room rates and i watch for Randy. It’s nice in the lobby and Randy arrives back in time to look at rooms. There was nobody at the guest house. We go up and out on to a roof top terrace area with lots of plants and chairs and a small pool. There are no family rooms. But two doubles next to the pool for Randy and family and in another spot a room with 2 single beds for my father and I. We will have our own room tonight. We go back to the car and get the girls and the luggage and carefully dodge the cars and into the hotel. I met the girls and fir a swim and the owner’s you ng son joins us. He is a little younger than Winfree and speak no English but we all have fun.

His mother is our host and comes to talk to me and her son spits water in my face and she is very embarrassed and yells at him. I laugh it off and get out. There is a pool shower and I step under it and it is right out of the mountain. Icy! I yell and shiver and everyone laughs. Our host and her husband and i think mother tell a few places we can walk to for dinner and say that the sunset off there terrace is great. It must be as the whole mountainside, Volos and the sea is spread out below our feet.

We thank them, change for dinner and walk up to the plaza where there are tavernas under more huge plane trees and big hydrangeas blooming. We have a nice dinner of greens with egg and lamp in the oven (lamb is often listed as lamp) which is very tender and juicy. We we get ice cream and walk back to the hotel. Martha and the girls stop in a store that sells worry beads. They are the greek version of the rosary. You sometimes ee people carrying them and flipping them around over their hand in a certain pattern. It was another great day but I am weary and I fall right into bed and am soon asleep.

Monday June 22
We talked our nice hotel owner into giving us breakfast at 8 instead of 8:30 because we have long drive. I am sitting on the terrace in the early morning light when she comes back to start breakfast. Kalimera! At 8 my father and I go down and there is a nice spread of food but the coffee and tea water are luke warm. Soon our host appears and we ask for hot coffee and water, She has brought scrambled eggs and she keeps bringing more food along with hot coffee and hot water. She explains that her tradition is to drink lukewarm or iced tea and coffee in the summer and hot tea with cinnamon and cloves in the winter. Sounds good to me.

She brings a plate of hot sliced hard boiled eggs with roasted red and green peppers which is excellent. We are getting full when she comes down with another dish. This is a boiled grain (not oatmeal but similar) with spices fruit and nuts on top. We have to try and it’s really good! Wish that had come down first! We are full and have to get on the road so we gather our stuff, pay the bill , thank our host and run between the cars for the van. That was my favorite hotel yet. Very beautiful.

We are driving to Meteora today. We have heard it will be anywhere from 2 hours to 10 hours drive (the dutchman) We are predicting 3 hours if we don;t get lost. Randy is driving and I am navigating. We descend back into Volos and try to work our way west. We see a few sign pointing where we want to go then none so we follow the major traffic around and soon we pop out onto a major road with signs pointing to Portaria and the next major town on our route. Figures there was a more direct route but it wasn;t marked. Anyway we are now on to a highway and flying North and west. Then we are on an interstate and really moving. The back to a highway.

Outside of Trikala a pee break is called and we stop in a supermarket and pee and buy snacks, Then back on the road and into Klamabakka which is the town before Meteora. Our guide list a couple of hotels so we drive into the town and in the center is a sing for free parking so we drive to that lot and get out to look. We ask a local man. He doesn’t speak English so we point to the book he reads it and consults his friend then points to our car and his car and we follow him about a quarter mile and there is the hotel. The greeks have been very friendly and helpful the whole way. It’s really nice. we look the hotel and the have a room for Randy and family and room with two singles for my father and I. We unload the baggage and the back in the van and around the mountain to Meteora.

The hotel has given us a map and information on the monasteries. This is an amazing place. The mountains peaks soar up vertically and in the 4 Century BC people began building monasteries on top of the peaks! They are amazing. Any of you James Bond fans out there may have seen this area in For Your Eyes Only. We stop for a quick lunch of stuff tomatoes and peppers, chicken souvlaki and greek salad. Then we drive to the Monastery of St. Nickolas. They still have the motor and basket for bringing up supplies but have built steps for visitors. These are active monasteries and nunneries so women have to wear skirts and men long pants and no bare shoulders.

They have skirts and pants if you are dressed wrong. We prepared ahead of time and up all the stairs and into the monastery. It is literally built into a cave in the rock about 300 feet up on top of a peak. we can walk through the chapel, view the lift and up on the roof top terrace. But the rest is reserved for the monks who live there. It’s and amazing view off the roof of the surrounding peaks and another couple of monasteries in the distance. The rooms are very tiny and cramped. It’s very much like a very high stone tree house!

Amazing. They say that the first monks climbed up the cracks in the rock by driving wooden pegs into the cracks! Early rock climbing! Then the lowered ropes to bring up supplies to build platforms, then hoists and finally monasteries! What an amazing place. We go on to the Great Meteron Monastery. There are a lot of people at this one. it’s much larger. We have to walk down a lot of stairs and then through a small iron door through a rock tunnel about 12 feet and then up many staircases to get to the buildings. There is a large chapel and a museum and 3000 year old books and manuscripts on display.

There is a section on the history of the area and another on the greek military and religious uniforms and clothing. There is also a large terrace and a garden. This is an amazing place. We spend a lot of time here. You can see the old kitchens and dining hall with one table that's 700 years old. Very worn down! Then we climb back down and drive back to the hotel for a rest. The girls really want pizza. I finally have an internet signal so I am loading pics and text and I do a search for pizza in Klambakka but no luck. The desk knows of one though done by the central square. The gather and walk down there but it’s closed! So walk a bit further and are able to find another. Very lucky.

We order some pizzas and beer and a greek salad. The pizza is a little different but tasty. I think they are using a local version of mozzarella. Instead of loaf bread they bring rolls which which are like sturdier hamburger rolls what they would call a bap in Britain. They are good. We take the left over baps and pizza with us for lunches and walk back to the hotel. My father is hungry for.... ice cream so we stop at a shop in the main square. We each get one but they are very small and expensive so we walk out of the touristy area and order another which is a much bigger serving and less expensive.

We both order frozen yogurt with walnuts and honey with chocolate syrup. I decide the syrup is too much so I eat it and then the rest of the ice cream. I can taste it better now. It’s very good. One of my favorites of the trip. Satisfied we walk back to the hotel and the sun is setting and as the glow fades off the mountains which rise right up out of the town huge lights turn on and light up the peaks. It’s pretty cool to see these huge peaks towering over the town! We have had another long day. I hit the showers for a good scrub and write in my log before bed. Meteora is an amazing place. A must see for a trip to Greece! ‘night!

My father and I have breakfast at 7:30 and it’s another good spread. Then we walk up to another monastery that’s not open to the public. It’s tucked in a valley by itself and has two different sections in different cliffs. There is also the remains of platforms that hermits build in caves up the cliff face. You can see some of the wooden rope ladders they used to get up and down the cliff face. They would be really scary to climb in a breeze. But they are cool because they could pull them up to keep invaders out! It’s really peaceful back in this canyon. Just my father and I and the birds. Nothing is stirring in the buildings.

We walk back and the rest of the crew is about ready so we check load the van and drive back to Meteora where we visit and a nunnery and another monastery. They are both smaller than the Meteron but wonderful in their own way. Then we head south for Delphi. We drive around and between some steep high mountains. And through the central valley which is all farms. Greece is very mountainous. We atop for a break at a super market and buy some bread and cheese and black cherry soda. Also Greeks sell sesame breadsticks which are fab! We make sandwiches as we drive and finally we arrive in Delphina which is the new Delphi. We find one of the hotels in our book.

The rooms are plain but clean and there is parking right out front. Usually we have to register with a passport but they wave it off here. So we rest for a bit and then go for a walk and find a taverna that is on a steep cliff looking at the far mountainside and a little bit of the Korinthian Gulf. My father and I tried to order the local specialty even though the waitress couldn’t tell us what it was but they were out of it. So we order gyros and greek salad and smoothies for the girls. The are served flat on fried pita and it’s pork rather than a mixture of lamb and beef but they are tasty. We find ice cream for dessert except me I am very full as dinner was big. Then back to the hotel to read before bed.

Breakfast at 7:30 this morning. Slim compared to our last few. A hard boiled egg some bread, pound cake, juice and coffee or tea. We eat and then go back to the room and wake the others. We read while they eat and then try to check out. THey only take cash. THis is certainly an under the able operation! We drive a couple of miles over to old Delphi which opens at 9. There is little Disney style train that runs from town but it doesn’t start until 10 and we are ready. We get our tickets and walk onto the site. There are lots of foundations, bits and pieces and columns everywhere. This was the site of the ancient oracle of Delphi.

The Delphi Women and ancient people came from all over to consult with the Oracle. Different groups built treasure houses and there was a theater and a stadium way up high. It’s a pretty good hike all the way to the top. But great views of the site coming back down. Lots of tourists. Then we snack on an apple and tour the museum. It’s is full of statues and carvings from the site. It really brings it all to life and helps you visualize what it looked like during it’s heyday. Nice museum. It also had some old photos taken during digs on the site where you can see some of the statues and carvings in place.

Then we drive a bit down the road to the site of the Temple of Athena. We sit on a road side park and make sandwiches with the remains of the bread cheese and canned tuna and spiced peas we have been hauling around. They taste better than you think! Then we tour the Temple of Athena. On the way down my father and I find a mulberry tree that is bursting with huge mulberries. We spend a while picking and eating them until our hands are stained purple from the juice. And lots of purple dots on my t-shirt. I think I have created another paint shirt!


We walk down to the temple and I try and convince the girls that we were involved in a murder but they don’t believe us. This is the most photographer temple ruin in Greece because it’s free. Lots of people and another tour bus worth coming down the hill so we take a quick look around and a few pics and are off. We drive on towards Athens and our 8 pm rendezvous at the airport with the van driver. Randy is driving and I am navigating. I know I doze off for a while but we are still headed for Athens when i awake. We stop for a break and are way ahead of schedule.

We decide to drive closer and stop near the airport for dinner. We get on the interstate and are flying in towards Athens. THe airport is south and east of Athens near Markopoulis but you have to drive through part of Athens to get there. I have a plan but the exits aren’t marked the same as my map so I miss the first exit I want. We catch my second choice and head towards the sea. But we were in slow traffic on the interstate and don’t have a lot of time. We get on a divided road and are looking for food but not seeing anything on this side and not many places to cross the road to go back to the airport. Finally we come to an intersection and drive off and a side road and are in the country.

We see a sign for a snack bar and turn in. It’s a beautiful grassy area with a few tables and a bar. The three women are sitting there. We ask if they have food and they say they can make club sandwiches and toast. My brother isn’t happy with that so we drive on. Too bad, as it was a very peaceful place. We pull into a gas station to fill the tank. They don;t speak English and won;t let us use the WC (bathroom) for some reason. THis is about our only negative encounter in Greece. Poor Winfree doesn't;t want to pee in the bushes so we load up and drive back the way we came.

Finally we spot a taverna and pull off. we order some pork and chicken and a greek salad thinking of platters but end up with really tasty gyros. It’s quick and tasty and we get directions to the airport and roll in right on time and there is the dutch woman who drove us out to Milena with er young son. We are happy to see her and her to see us. She was worried about finding us. She drives us back into Athens to our hotel and finds her way by talking to taxi drivers when we stop for lights. It’s very chaotic but finally we find Hotel Caroline on a very narrow one way street. It’s very close to our other hotel. We unload give her a nice tip and check in. Then we go for ice cream and end up back in the Plaka at the same palce my father and I and breakfast.


Winfree has a melt down so we eat quickly and I find our way back to the hotel where we put the girls to bed. Randy, Martha and I decide to go have a beer ina cool looking bar two doors from the hotel. We get beers and sit down at the 30 foot long table with chess boards built into it. Then a group of college age people flood in. I soon realize that most of the people in the bar are Americans. They are playing American music too.

I talk to some Greeks who are there and they say this place caters to Americans. We enjoy some Lou Reed, Beach Boys and other American music and our beer and then head back. I have a shower and a bit of Metaxa and write my log. My father and Winfree are fast asleep so I have to be quiet. Soon I am nodding, So good night!