Greece – Page 3 – Judy and Valerie On the Road

Thessaloniki

Sculptures

Every street you walk down has sculptures and in beautiful locations – by the sea, in squares etc. The first below is the memorial to the Jewish Greeks, the three following relate to Alexandra the Great, the fifth had no plaque but is very powerful and the last ‘Umbrellas’ was placed in 1997 when the city was the European Capital of Culture. I found an App called ‘Strolling around Thessaloniki’ which details many of the sculptures and other sights in the city.

Museum of Archeology

The Archeology museum had some very interesting collections. The photographs below come from ‘The Gold of Macedon’ tracing the use of gold through the ages, most of the artefacts coming from tombs.

Folk Art and Ethnological Museum

This museum is housed in a beautiful old building known as Villa Modiano built in 1906 by the architect Eli Modiano for the banker Jacob Modiano and which survived the great fire of 1917. The collections consist of woven textiles, embroidery, tools etc, plus replicas of the equipment and wooden machinery used in mills to grind flour, pound wool (fulling) and even saw planks of wood.

Street scenes

We spent several delightful hours wandering around the market and bazaar area in the city, it was a vibrant area with whole areas dedicated to particular products as in India.

Thessaloniki Camperstop

The official Camperstop in Thessaloníki proved completely unusable. It was full of trucks going in and out but also so steep the levellers kept sliding away!

But then we found this place on Park4night. Right by the sea, fantastic view, just a big space that the flats use for parking. And Valerie made friends with Makis who has his joinery workshop there plus a vegetable garden and arranged, in Greek, for us to stay here.

Kritamo – samphire

With olive oil and vinegar- delicious!!

Hike in Eastern Pelion

We started from our campsite at Papa Nero intending to follow the trail over to Damouchari and then up to Mouresi where we would have lunch. Imagine our surprise on finding that we had reached our lunch goal at 11am. Then we realised that this was only half of the walk and the second part went up to Kissos the other side of the valley and after a quick Google discovered it was the highest village in East Pelion. Never daunted we set off, now doing our ascent in the hotter part of the day … and that’s not all.

I was using a map from Avenza Maps downloaded onto my iPhone which then tracks your progress. Sounds good but the map is a simplified format and the way marked red arrows and dots on rocks and trees only seemed to appear when there were no options. The path went across a large stream, but the stepping stones were submerged. Fortunately neither of us fell in but Valerie did get rather wet feet. Then of course we lost the path. After wandering around following tracks for about an hour we came across the right path again and followed it down to the river crossing. “Oh good a proper bridge” … and then we saw it close up!

But it was a lovely walk with lush vegetation, flowers, ferns, sweet chestnut trees, lovely birdsong and beehives.

By the time we’d had something to eat it was about 4:30 so we decided to get a taxi back. My iPhone thought I’d climbed 187 flights of stairs!!

Damouchari

Beautiful picturesque village on the east coast of the Pelion where much of Mama Mia was filmed. Also, the villa used in the film is for sale so if anyone’s interested it’s only €800,000!

Makrinitsa

Makrinitsa is a village about 40 minutes further north from Anakasias. There is a folk museum there, and we were told that there is a cafe with paintings by Theofilos on the walls.

However … be advised not to go there in a camper van/ motorhome. The village is high up and located all the way up the hillside, so numerous levels. The road is narrow and very steep with continuous hairpin bends. In addition when you get there is no where to park. So unfortunately although we made it up to the village we couldn’t stop, except to do a rather anxious making 3-point turn.

Artist Theofilos

Went to a little museum in Anakasias just north of Velos in the Pelion to see the work of Theofilos. He was born in 1870 and scraped a living by painting on the walls of houses and shops. He was a ‘naive’ artist painting folk scenes combining myths with ordinary events. Many of his paintings involve the 1821 War of Independence.

The house in the village was owned by Yannis Kontos and Theofilos decorated the upper wing. The paintings are wonderful and if you’re in the Pelion definitely worth a visit. Here are some photos of the house and one of Theofilos in the tradition dress which he used to wear. It was not possible to take any photos of the paintings themselves but you can see them on Pinterest

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/jabou19/folk-painter-theofilos/

Mycenae

Revisted Mycenae after having read Pat Barker’s Silence of the Girls. Felt we now knew more about Agememnon and the site would be more meaningful. It’s an amazing place and I get a real sense of the past from being there. The beehive tombs are extraordinary pieces of architecture and it must have been so exciting to have discovered them.

Lion gate
Lion Gate Mycenae
Grave circle
Grave circle
Back gate to the citadel
Entrance to the beehive tomb of Agamemnon’s wife Clytemnestra
Ceiling of beehive tomb of Clytemnestra

The museum contains some good examples of pottery 3000 years old with descriptions of history of the period.

And lastly, we stayed overnight at a camperstop by a cafe just down the road from the site. Very friendly guy running the place. It would have been better if we’d spent less time on breakfast and got to the site earlier, but what a fabulous location

Eggs and avo on toast

Epidaurus

The amphitheatre at Epidaurus is completely stunning

Hiking the Loussios Gorge and Menalon Trail

Found an amazing gorge and hiking trail in the middle of the Peloponnese. Stayed at a camper stop at Taverna Koustenis, Dimitsana (evidently the birthplace of the Greek struggle for independence against the Ottoman Empire in 1821). Walked the first section of the Menalon Trail 9.5 miles, total ascents of 3,000 feet and visits to three monasteries ( one from 983AD built into the rock face now just ruins, and the other two still active. The monks at the Prodromou monastery provided coffee and loukoumi.