Meteora, Vegina and the mountain of the Gods

We departed from Nea Moudiani for Thessaloniki, and had an interesting sail in thunderstorms with occasional light rain. We've had a close miss in the past with lightning, which fried our windlass transmitter, so we kept counting the seconds twixt flash and boom, and hoping.

Dock dweller and Pavlov at Nea Moudiani.

In the end it was an uneventful sail, and we docked with some difficulty, at Aretsou marina.

Old port at Thessaloniki

Thessaloniki harbour front

Aristotelius Square, Thessaloniki

The White Tower, Thessaloniki

Closer up....

Almost Georgian quality of housing in Thessaloniki

Thessaloniki proved to be a delightful city, full of leafy thoroughfares and interesting shops. It is cultivated and sophisticated in a way that Athens is not. We found Athens to be depressing, chaotic with failing infrastructure, crumbling buildings and a pessimistic population. Thessaloniki, Greece's second largest city, seemed just the opposite. There was lots of cultural activity, art galleries, gym's, bicycle shops, parks; the city was just humming. We were even able to purchase tickets to see Bob Dylan, his first ever visit to Greece. Most people seemed to live in apartments in the city centre. There was no CBD as such, people and people places were everywhere. 

Megan at the bus stop

Civic building

Small artisan shoe shop

We'd promised ourselves some off-boat time, so we arranged to hire a car for four days, and took off on a road trip. First stop was south to Litachoro, a small town just below Mount Olympus.

View of Litochoro from the mountain

Pine forests on the way up

Mount Olympus is the highest mountain in Greece and the second highest in the Balkans, reaching 2918 meters. It is on the border between Thessaly and Macedonia. Lots of folk want to climb the mountain on foot, there are refuges and walking trails and lots of 'val-der-ree'! However, with my joints the way they are, we opted to drive to the summit.

Driving up Mt Olympus

Head in the clouds.

Mount Olympus featured in Greek mythology, as the home of the 12 Olympian Gods and its also noted for its rich biodiverse ecology, and is listed as a Worlds Biosphere Reserve.

Big rocks!

At the summit, at least as far as you can drive.

Leaving Litochoro, we checked out Platamonas as a possible anchorage for Pavlov.

View from Litochoro to Mt Olympus

Macedonian architecture

The port at Platomonas

Next stop was the small village in the shadow of Meteora. Kalambaka proved to be a wonderful stopping point. We found a small cheap guest house that was delightful. Megan has been rejoicing in square beds for a change, and this one had one incredible rock outlook.

View from Elena's guesthouse at Kalambaka

Rock formations tower over the town

A room with a view

Starting up the path to the summit

Meteora, meaning literally 'suspended in air',  is a home to several Eastern Orthodox monasteries and is second only to Mount Athos in importance for the church. The six monasteries in the area are built on natural sandstone rock pillars, which makes them an extraordinary sight. Since we'd not paid penance at Mt Olympus and had driven to the top, we thought we should walk up to the closest monastery.

Beginning our climb

Amazing rock formations tower over the town 

View near the top

Looking back to Kalambaka

Megan on the so-called 'Monk Path'

Looking to the summit

After about an hour of climbing, we reached the base of the first monastery. More climbing and stairs got us to the entrance, only to find that the monastery was closed on that day. I guess the monk's deserve a break from hot huffing and puffing tourists!

Part of the monastery protruding over the cliff

View from the stairs to the monastery

End of the path to the monastery

Door to the stairs up the rock to the monastery

View to Kalambaka from the monastery

Plant life on the rocks.

It was market day next morning in Kalambaka, so we went out to practice our favourite form of shopping.

Back to the town from the trail to the monastery

Kalambaka looking towards the cliffs.

Flower stall at the markets

Markets under a rocky sky

Fruit stalls

The next day, we drove around the ring road that circles the monasteries.

Panorama on top of the rocks

View down to Kalambaka

Monasteries on the cliff tops

View over the valley

A gondala to one of the monasteries 

Quite a defensive position

The history of the monasteries is interesting. In the 9th century CE, a group of ascetic hermits began inhabiting the caves in the rocks. By the end of the 12th century, a religious community had formed in the area, based around the still standing church of Theotokos. In 1344,  Athanasios Koinovitis from Mt Athos founded the Great Meteoron monastery, built on the summit of Broad Rock. The only means of reaching the monastery was by climbing a long ladder, which was drawn up whenever the monks felt threatened.

Rope lift hoisting building supplies to a monastery

A nice little perch

The monastery at Rousaneou

The Great Meteoron monastery

At the end of the 14th century, the old Byzantine political structure was being threatened by Turkish raiders, wanting access to the fertile plains of Thessaly. The hermetic monks found the isolated rock pillars at Meteoron an ideal refuge from the Turkish invaders. Eventually, 20 monasteries were built, six of which are still functioning today. Each monastery today has fewer than 10 inhabitants, so they serve primarily as tourist attractions. We visited the largest monastery, Greater Meteoron.

Entrance tunnel to monastery

Wine cellar for monastery

Monastery wasn't a 'dry zone', judging by the size of the wine barrel 

A few old bones, in the ossuary

Its easy to see the defensive role of the monasteries, but the interesting thing we found is that they also have a very nationalistic role. The Greater Meteoran monastery had many displays of the Balkan's crisis, the 1920's Greek civil war and the Nazi aggression in 1940. These displays were very partisan and patriotic. No turning the other cheek here!

Museum tapestries

Old Greek clothing

Picture of the monk they buried alive in the wall of a building

View of Kastraki village from the monastery

Main church of Greater Meteora

Monastery gardens

Guess the purpose of this holy instrument?

Inside the church

Outer wall of the monastery

One of Megan's oldest friends, Sophie T, was born in Macedonia, so we had to travel to see the village of her birth. We drove inland to Kastoria, where her family is from. This was a pleasant town on the shores of an inland lake. Its main function was to sell furs to the visiting Russian tourists. Every second shop sold the most elaborate furs!

The lake at Kastoria

Cafe's line the lake

We then drove to Varia, a commercial town outside Vergina, a site we wanted to visit. Varia turned out to be a great surprise. We stayed in a guesthouse in the old Jewish quarter, and it was fascinating. There was outdoor concerts, one right outside our hotel, great restaurants and an interesting historical city.

View from guesthouse in old Jewish quarter

The next day, we drove to Vergina, which was the site of Phillip II of Macedonia burial tumulus. Phillip was the father of Alexander the Great, and the architect of the Hellenic world, uniting the separate city states.

The tumulus of Phillip II burial tomb

Entrance to the tomb

Part of the underground entrance to the tomb

We then drove to Pella, to see other ruins of Macedonian might. Pella was rather unimpressive, so we were soon on the road back to Thessaloniki.

Other ruins in Pella

Old port at Thessaloniki

Photography exhibition on the old port 

More old port, site of the Bob Dylan concert

Crane on the old port

Well, it was a great time off boat. Tonight, we go to see Bob Dylan, and then a few more days of enjoying city living, before we head south to the Sporades. What a life!