Meteora/Kastraki

Roussanou (foreground) and Agios Nikolaos (background), Meteora

Nic on Megalo Meteora with Varlaam in the distance

John on Megalo Meteora

There were once 24 monasteries on the tops of these towers of rock. The first monks were hermits who lived in the caves on the sides of the monoliths and they eventually decided it was worth setting up permanent residency. There are only 6 remaining (5 inhabited by monks and nuns – not in the same venue, of course!) and they are truly amazing engineering feats to behold. These days they have some bridges and decent stairways to ascend these towers. Once you had to climb a ladder or be winched up in a basket. No thank you! We only managed the up and down climb for 5 out of the 6 before we called it quits to have some lunch. The old knees had had enough. The favourite of the day for both of us was the small Agios Stefanos (St Stephens) which is now a convent housing some very industrious nuns who maintain pretty impressive, immaculate and beautiful gardens. There were the most impressive frescoes in the churches – new ones, or restored ones, not sure which …they were painting onto plain white walls while we were there. Such vibrant reds and golds – beautiful! Without the tourists it would be a very peaceful place, indeed (not us, all the OTHER tourists!).

Agios Stefanos, the home of the convent

12,000 litre barrel

Unknown berries, whose colours match the branches they grow on

The old winch room in Agios Triada

While on the monastery trail a couple of times we encountered a busload of gorgeous Russian tourists. They were very into taking over the photo ops as they arose (much like all tour bus inhabitants!), only they were very distinct in their aims. Each time there was a viewing point, they would clamber over the rocks and take their time with their MANY practiced poses (practiced in front of a mirror as though posing for Vogue…or maybe Hustler? No, they were clothed!) Sultry, sprawling on boulders with a pout wore a bit thin when they were hogging the space and pushing aside the mothers and their children waiting to take their holiday snaps. Without exception, each woman wore high heeled wedges or strappy sandles and matching bulging cleavage. Da, baby!

Nic on top of the world

John straddling a summit

The overcast day meant that there weren’t the perfect conditions for great photos, but John made do (as he does!). The overall experience of these monasteries and the stone giants hovering over the valleys was so overwhelming. One could never tire of this view.

Abandoned fortress remains overlooked by the hundreds of tourists every day

Love a good zoom lens!

We had a relaxed evening of blogging and working on photos (and actually watching the tele!) before a good night’s sleep in preparation for our long drive south to Piraeus. After check in we meandered to Marina Zeas (away from the ferry terminals) for a delicious waterside lunch gazing at the yachts of millionaires. Comfy room, air conditioning, satellite TV, internet, good bed and pillows, what more would we need for a good rest before our early ferry? Chocolate! So off we went in search, but found nought – all closed as it’s Sunday, and we weren’t heading back to Marina Zeas for waffles! Packet of oregano flavoured chips and a Heineken between us had to do.

Nic competing for a spot on a rock with the busload of tourists

Ah, Meteora

The view from our balcony, not bad, huh?

Delphi

Tholos at Delphi

The first interesting moment of the day was following our trusty GPS’s instructions and attempting to get onto a major road via an incomplete slip road! Confused and flabbergasted (I mean, why only HALF build an ‘on ramp’?!) we just kept heading in the general direction of Delphi (basically east) and finally found an alternate route. Stupid decision to not finish major road works!

Pushy Nic

Found Delphi and found shady spot for car – improvement in day already. Discovered that entrance to the major site at Delphi was free due to “technical problems”. Now what kind of technical problems can an ancient site have? The revolving restaurant wasn’t working? Whatever these “problems” were, we were unable to venture further than the treasuries, which meant we were able to see the wall that was the base of the Temple of Apollo, but we weren’t able to get anywhere near the temple itself, or the oracle, or the theatre, or the stadium. We did manage to see, in a separate part of the ruins, the lovely Tholos near the old Temple of Athena (very famous and oft photographed piece – round with 3 columns still standing, or rather, reinstated). Also visited the museum and saw the jewel in the crown – the life sized bronze statue of the Charioteer of Delphi (478BC). This piece is so precious because the only reason it still exists is it was buried in an earthquake and so survived the pilfering that went on for hundreds of years. It is the only thing like it of the Archaic period.

Major photo op

Close up of Charioteer of Delphi

And wideshot

Headed off late morning on our lengthy trip to Meteora. We strayed from our usual family taverna option for lunch and had to make do with a meal at a gigantic tourist service stop on the motorway. It was set in a huge car park and it was geared entirely to tour buses. There was seating for 800 people (John counted!) and loads of toilets (cleaned every half hour). But, surprisingly, they still served decent moussaka, baked eggplant and salad.

Ahhh....Meteora

Found our lovely Hotel Adrachti, without too much mishap, in the lovely village of Kastraki (just a little further on from Kalambaka or Kalapaka – which was on a different sign right next to the first one!). The only breath-holding moment was negotiating the driveway! The hotel is nestled right up against the magnificent rocks of Meteora. In fact, sitting on our balcony having an afternoon drink looking at the looming walls of stone, they are really just in our backyard.

Hotel Adrachti in Kastraki

Ancient Olympia/Nafpaktos

Man and donkey off to work

Once we had experienced the Temple of Epicurean Apollo we set off for Ancient Olympia. Found it with no dramas. It’s difficult to know what to say about another ancient site. No, we are not over them, and they ARE all different, but ‘wonderous’ and ‘beautiful’ and ‘amazing’ and ‘can’t believe they are still here’ get repetitive. It was interesting to once again see the mark of Herodes Atticus (our rich patron friend from ancient Athens) who donated a gigantic fountain to help supply the city with water. Very impressive piece that was once decorated with many statues of the famous and powerful – with statues of him and his wife next to the one of Zeus!

Ancient Olympian bathing pool (fancy shaped one put in by the Romans)

 

Nic at Ancient Olympia

Bridge at Rion (€11.50 in toll to cross!)

Before setting off again, we had lunch in the village outside of the ruins at a tourist friendly place that served good food and wine and sated us. We then skipped the scenic route up the coast and just headed straight to Patra and from there to Nafpaktos (which was over the Rion and out of the Peloponnese). We found a room at the Akti Hotel, which was all pastel brightness and fun after its 2005 make over (and had a huge comfortable king sized bed). And it had internet – so we caught up on blogging. Went for a walk along the stone beach, chatted to a pair of white swans and some ducks, and Nic found a shop that sold lollies, and bought some Turkish delight. Over indulged at dinner with some stuffed cabbage leaves, salad, sausage and baked eggplant. All very scrummy. Went to bed with too much food in the tummy and had odd dreams as a consequence…both of us!

View from the promenade at Nafpaktos

Nafkaptos at twilight

It doesn't get much better than this!

The Search for the Temple of Epicurean Apollo

Gythio at sunrise

We began the day with a visit to the Dirou Caves near Aeropoli (only about 45 min from Gythio). For this excursion, we got in these little boats in the Glifada Cave and explored both arms of the underground river (about 2km) with our trusty guide steering the way while his translator pointed out highlights and regularly told us to ‘mind our heads’. Once we were finished we docked and walked about another 300m back to the daylight and our car. Such a magical, fairytale place.

 

Inside the Dirou Caves

The rest of the day was interesting, to say the least. We left the caves at about 10am and arrived at our hotel for the night at a little after 7pm…and what happened in between was a lovely mixture of excitement, frustration and even a little fear (with a fabulous lunch thrown in the middle). We set out on our quest to find the Temple of Epicurean Apollo – a wonderful temple highly recommended by our friend, Costa, who told us that we simply HAD to see it. We were feeling fairly confident in our GPS and the research we had done the night before (with the aid of an old Michelin guide found in our Athenian hotel!!). We programmed the name of a recommended village to stay at near the temple into the navigating machine and set off. What we hadn’t factored in was that there are MANY different spellings of EVERYTHING in Greece. So our GPS took us to a little hamlet version of this village (like it’s little cousin) but not the actual village. We drove around for a bit and then stopped to ask a man who didn’t speak English if he knew where our village was. He gestured down the road further and we set off. We found the recommended hotel from the Michelin guide – which is when we discovered how old the book is! The hotel looked like a ghost town. It wasn’t that old and was only abandoned in the last year or so, but it was very creepy. Ditched whole village and pressed on.

View from one of the many roads travelled this day

At about 2pm (perfect Greek lunch time) we arrived at Dimitsana, which was very charming and had another superb lunch at a tiny taverna filled with locals and great traditional homecooked food – even got a chance to compliment mama who popped out of the kitchen in her apron for a chat with her daughter who was waiting on us. She giggled sweetly at our praise.

Taverna in Dimitsana

We pressed on, armed with directions from our hosts and reference to a google map we had downloaded earlier, to find our Epicurean Temple. So we drove and drove and drove and ended up on a very dodgy, narrow loose rock ‘road’ heading up a hill. We were right on course for our temple (according to our googlemap) when things ground to a halt. We were stopped by a herd of goats, a battered old car and the owner of both – an old farmer. We got out of our car for a…? What do you call a ‘chat’ when it’s actually done in mime? He gestured that we were, in fact, nowhere near the Temple of Epicurean Apollo and indicated which road we had to take to get there. By this time it was about 5pm and we were very eager to find the thing.

Goat man and his goats

So off we set…again. Down another dirt/rock track until we found a gigantic car park. This time, we thought we had it! But no temple could we see. Instead there was another little old man picking herbs by the side of the car park, so John approached for directions. This time it was a combo of map pointing, miming and broken German! This guy seemed to think we were about 22 km from our destination! Bugger! By this time it was 6pm so we decided to pack it in for the day and find some accommodation for the night. We put in another village, Andritsena, into our trusty GPS (which is actually really good at getting us out of places!) and set off. We found a hotel, ironically titled Epicurean Apollo Hotel (!!) and breathed a sigh of relief – 7:15pm and we had a place to rest our heads for the night. All of our confusion for the day was erased when we looked at a map on the wall of our room which showed that there WAS a temple at the top of the mountain guarded by our little goat herder, just not the one we were after! Our google map had actually thwarted us.

Andritsena and our hotel in the background, left

The temple was only 13kms away from our hotel and the next morning we set out – determined not to let the endless search defeat us. We had actually passed the turn off to the temple the evening before on our way to Andritsena, it’s just that the sign was FACING THE OTHER DIRECTION AND WE DIDN’T SEE IT!!! (Don’t get us started on the signage in Greece – it’s nearly as bad as Italy! Australia ROCKS for decent, clear, logical signage!!) Oh, and did we mention that in the country that not only likes to spell things many different ways, they also like to give things different names? So this temple was also known as Temple of Bassae and the Temple of Vassae. Confusing much?!

Andritsena street

We did find the magnificent Temple of Epicurean Apollo…and it was covered with a tent!! (All to keep it from disintegrating further – but it was still stunningly beautiful and terribly impressive).

John at the Temple of Epicurean Apollo

The temple in its tent!

Mistra/Gythio

Beautiful frescoes inside one of the many churches, Mistra

Old altar in monastery church, Mistra

Nic and friendly cat in the Mitropoli, Mistra

Mistra was a delightful surprise – so much of this Byzantine city survived and so much is also now being restored. The monasteries and churches were the first to get the ‘reno’ treatment, and now they are working on the palaces, which are closed to the public. No problem, there was still plenty to do….and many steps to climb, in our journey from the lower town, through to the upper town and further on to the ‘kastro’ at the very top. We then wended our way back down through the graceful old city where the car was parked (in the shade, so as not to melt what was left of the Lindt purchased at Sydney airport!) and headed off on our next journey.

 Moni Perivleptou, tiny monastery with singing guide

One of the most wonderful things about visiting Mistra was the sense of having it almost all to ourselves. We only really encountered the people working at the site (making sure you don’t mess with the artifacts – and one guy was even singing in one tiny church when we happened upon him. He grinned sheepishly when we complimented him!).

John near the top of Mistra

Bee and flower belonging to the nuns who still live in Mistra and do impeccable embroidery

Nic at the top of Mistra

The view from our room at Hotel Aktion, Gythio

We went straight to Gythio (less than an hour from Mistra), which is a lovely seaside town popular with Greeks looking for a nice spot for the weekend. We found the perfect hotel with the perfect location for a very reasonable price – we had a balcony overlooking the water, which was so…what’s the word? Perfect? Perfect! We made the most of this little balcony in the late afternoon and through into the evening. It was actually also right on a very busy street, which gave us all the right ‘viewing’ modes – the traffic, the people strutting the esplanade and having dinner, and the water. Even had a chance to chat to the people in the next room over the wrought iron railing.

Boat and harbour, Gythio

We explored the main drag in the afternoon. All along the vast waterfront (and it goes for quite a ways) there are oodles and oodles of cafes, bars and restaurants. You can see the bar owners on their plush stools with their cigarettes and drink starter for the evening in hand, heads down, reading the paper, waiting for things to kick start with the young, happening ‘set’….and that ain’t us!! Very flash décor decks out these bars, the shiny chrome trim and purple and grey velour stools aim for an element of class, which I suppose they give – if one is 18 and knows no better.

Used Harley

"Hey, Nic, turn around!"

We did a typical tourist thing for lunch that day – went to a cute little taverna right on the water with a pushy family of brothers who virtually dragged us to a table, but we went with it. Also had the most divine grilled whole fish and some salad and washed it all down with some great house white (those 500ml carafes go down a real treat!) Needless to say, didn’t need dinner after this, and just enjoyed some Metaxa (12 star! – didn’t even know they made 12 star – have only seen 3 star in Australia). Slept well!

Gythio at night