Category: Greece

Cycle ride to Porto Koufo

One day we had cycled from the campsite to Kalamitsi and although it was very up and down found it quite manageable. So then another day we decided to cycle to Porto Koufo on the other side of the ‘finger’, said to be the most beautiful cove on Sithonia. After passing Kalamitsi it wasn’t so much up and down as up up up! After 4 miles of continual ascent to about 900ft we came to a taverna and stopped for refreshments. I concluded that my leg power wasn’t enough to get up the hill coming back and decided to stay at the taverna with a beautiful view and have some lunch.

Valerie, being more intrepid and with stronger legs, continued. It took her 10 minutes to get down the hill and 1 hr to get back up. But Porto Koufo looked beautiful.

beehives
goats on the road
Porto Koufo
Porto Koufo
Porto Koufo
view from the restaurant
fantastic views

Arrived in Greece

When we arrived in Greece we first called in at Zampetas a motorhome service agency south of Thessaloniki, to get a little piece of work done on the van (they are also a MH stop – N40°30’9″ E22°58’14”) – very helpful guys, then found somewhere to buy a Greek SIM card for our wifi, and then made our way to Sithonía, the middle finger to the east of Thessaloniki. We’re staying for a while at Camping Melissi (which takes ACSI) where we have a view of Mount Athos on the third finger.

A lovely place to wander, cycle, hang out …

restaurant by the sea
apperitif
Georgia
bougainvillea in Sykiá
sun bathers!

Perama Cave

The Perama cave is 2 km from Ioannina and if you are in the area it is well worth a visit. The cave was discovered in 1940 when the villagers were taking shelter from the bombing during WWII. After the war it was properly explored by Ioannis and Anna Petrochilou (cave experts) and found to extend for 5km.

It is stunning!

We were glad that we’d taken long sleeve shirts with us as it was 34C outside but only 18C inside – a temperature which remains constant throughout the year.

Ioannina bougátsa

Ioannina is the home of bougátsa and it’s absolutely delicious!! There is a little cafe called ‘Select’ whose decor hasn’t changed since the 70s. It only sells bougátsa which are made in the kitchen at the back of the shop by the owner whose picture is below. It’s served warm straight from the oven. There are two types savoury and sweet – no prizes for guessing which one we had.

The guide book calls it a kind of custard tart but this nowhere near describes it!

Jewish Community of Ioannina

Ioannina’s Jewish community numbers just some 50 people today, but was once the centre of the unique 2,300 year-old Romaniote Jewish tradition.

The Romaniote Jews, neither Ashkenazi nor Sephardic, emerged from the first Jewish communities of Europe. Records indicate the first Jewish presence in Greece dating back to 300 BCE.

These Jews became known as the Romaniotes, speaking their own language, Yevanic, or Judeo-Greek, a version of Greek infused with Hebrew and written with the Hebrew script.

By the start of the 20th century, some 4,000 Romaniote Jews lived in Ioannina. But amid the economic hardship and the turmoil that accompanied the breakup of the Ottoman Empire, many joined their Greek compatriots and emigrated.

Most went to the United States and Palestine, setting up Romaniote synagogues in New York City and Jerusalem. Later, a third was established in Tel Aviv. At the start of World War II, about 2,000 Jews remained in Ioannina.

On March 25, 1944, the German Nazi occupiers rounded up the Jews of Ioannina and sent them to Auschwitz.

Only 112 Ioannina Jews survived the death camps. Another 69 escaped the roundup, hiding with Christian families or fleeing into the mountains, where some fought with the Greek resistance.

The old Jewish area below the citadel is a warren of narrow lanes and alleys, arcades (called stoas) in Anexartisias Street, many now turned into buzzy restaurants and bars.

Metsovo

Metsovo

Metsovo FolkLore Museum

We arrived in Metsovo just as the rain started to fall so we repaired to a nearby restaurant for a delicious bean soup. Unfortunately by the time we finished our meal the heavens had opened completely. Undaunted, we continued uphill and found this wonderful museum. It was definitely worth getting wet for.

Metsovo is a beautiful town in the Pindos mountains and is often called ‘The Jewel of Epirus’. It is a Vlach town, a people who are historically nomadic shepherds who’ve lived in the region for generations and whose origins are from neighbouring Balkan countries.

With a population of shepherds it is only natural that Metsovo would have a culture of weaving. The textiles are utilitarian and are used as household furnishings, blankets, carpets, cushions, all heavily decorated in colorful designs that have spiritual and cultural significance. Other products of the village include the colorful embroidered traditional costumes, including the flokata, a black sleeveless coat or vest with a red band that identified the people from Metsovo during the Ottoman period.

We had our own individual tour round the old house in which the museum is situated. It was owned by a Swiss banker Tositsa who’s family came from the town. The guide told us that the winters were so harsh that the family had to spend seven months of the year inside the house and so had to store enough food to last them throughout the winter.

Here is a link to the Folklore Museum where you can see photographs www.metsovomuseum.gr

Meteora

The monasteries of Meteora are an amazing sight. There are now six monasteries which are still inhabited. We visited two, the Great Meteora built in 1382 and the Varlaam built in 1517. We set off early in the morning and walked there up a stone path accompanied by a local dog who decided to act as our guide. Once the monastery opened at 9am we then had to ascend a further 300 steps to the main door. Until the road was built the monks reached the monastery by clambering into a net attached to a pulley and were winched up. This was powered by other monks manually turning the wheel (see pictures below).

The churches inside the monasteries were extremely beautiful, the walls and ceilings being completely covered in frescos.

Some of the rooms that could be visited included the old cellars and kitchens.

The monasteries had little museums and these photos come from them. The last is a poster from WWII when the Greeks were fighting off the Italian invasion.

The monasteries are a major tourist attraction and throughout the day coaches arrive with day trippers from all over the world.

Jews in Thessaloniki

In memory of the Jewish Greeks of Thessaloniki

There has been a Jewish community in Thessaloniki for over 2,000 years. But after the Jews were expelled from Spain in 1492 by Ferdinand and Isabella many more Sephardic Jews settled in Thessaloniki (Salonica) significantly increasing the Jewish population. Other Jews emigrated from elsewhere in southern Europe and by the 16 century over 50% of the city’s population were Jewish. 

At the beginning of WWII the Jewish population of the city numbered 50,000 (just over one fifth of the population). In 1942 the Nazis destroyed the Jewish cemetery with more than 500,000 tombs. In the spring of 1943 the Jewish population were rounded up and on March 15th the first convoy of Jewish Greeks left Thessaloniki bound for Poland. In 1945 only 1,950 retuned. 96% were murdered in the concentration camps. 

The plaque on the powerful statue reads:

“Dedicated by the Greek people to the memory of the 50,000 Jewish Greeks of Thessaloniki, deported from their mother city by the Nazi occupation forces in the spring of 1943 and exterminated in the gas chambers of the Auschwitz/ Birkenau death camps”

Jewish Museum

The Jewish Museum of Thessaloniki was founded to honour the rich and creative Sephardic heritage as it evolved in the city after the 15th century. It is housed in one of the rare Jewish buildings that survived the fire of 1917. It is great that the city has this museum and the exhibitions provide detail of the Sephardic way of life which existed.