After leaving our hotel at 6am Greece time, we arrived home at 5am Canadian time the next day. So, that is 23 hours + 9 hour time difference = 32 hours to get home. It was smooth sailing except for our last flight getting delayed repeatedly. Fortunately for us, Ken and Sandra and family came to visit us at the airport for several hours. Unfortunately for Russell, he stayed awake late into the night to pick us up at the airport. 

And only 1315 emails in our inbox.

Yay! We have very excited children that Christmas is finally *here*.

But first… we must see more ruins! We slept in a bit, then drove to Argos, because it was supposed to be market day. We didn’t see the market, so we kept on to Mycenae.

Standing under the lion gate.

Looking out over the valley. You can see Larissa castle on the hill on the right.

The ramp

The “Mask of Agamemnon” that we saw in Athen’s (see previous blog post titled “Area 51″) was found here, though now they think it probably isn’t Agamemnon’s grave site. This grave had 32 pounds of gold in it, so that is why they originally thought it must be that king’s tomb.

A beautiful view.

Hidden in the back was a cistern that helped maintain their city, since they had a water source within their fortified city.

The beehive tombs.

This was the largest tomb and had been looted in antiquity so they think this was the actual tomb of Agamemnon. That is one slab of rock along the top of the gate, approximately 4′ thick x 15′ long! HUGE!

A view of the whole hill.

Next we drove to Epidarus on the east coast. This is famous because the stones of the theatre were never re-used for other construction projects in antiquity, as was the practice then. It is the best surviving theatre here.

Everyone taking a turn singing from the central point. We could hear them all the way up at the top! Well, not really at the top but really high. Again, we had the place to ourselves for awhile.

Then we walked around the archaeological site there. The kids started to go off and conspire secretly about what they were going to do that night on Christmas Eve, probably trying to wait up for Santa’s visit! I was very happy to hear them both say that Christmas was about giving rather than about getting.

Another stadium. One side has obviously been ‘re-assembled’ lol.

On the far right of this picture is Askeminon’s Temple. He was the god of healing. The sick would come here and hope to be granted a deep sleep, during which Askeminon would come and heal them. In the back left corner was the largest round building they have found. It was built by the same architect as the round building in Olympia. In the front of this picture they had uncovered another temple, but re-covered it with sand so that it wouldn’t get weathered before they are able to work with it.

The wind was starting to pick up again, so we decided to get back home and start the Christmas celebrations!

The sun really illuminates this island in the evening!

The kids playing a game that J made up with the chess pieces.

The spoils under the Christmas screen – presents, drinks, chocolate, oranges (we are in the middle of a citrus paradise, after all). We collected seashells on the beach the other day and made decorations for the tree out of them.

The annual making of butter noodles… Later, as he was eating them, theHammer unrolled them and “read” the Christmas story for the kids from the scrolls lol.

Freshly squeezed OJ from our juicer – we are still amazed at how well it works!

Opening some presents…
S was SO happy to get a chess game that had a real chess board! lol

J got a little birdie whistle from daddy.

And theHammer got some little glass cups that he asked me buy him for Christmas and yet he totally forgot that he asked me to buy them for him, even though we have been carting them around from Athens and they were wrapped in paper from that store lol.

I got a very cute cheese grater. I don’t have a picture of it, but it is cute enough to sit on my kitchen counter when we get home!

The kids finally fell asleep after 10, even though you could tell J was fighting it hard lol. She told me that when she woke up, she was going to come crawl in bed with mommy and daddy before Santa got there. And guess who was the first one up? Not the eldest child who is up first every day of the year… but little J! She crawled in bed with us but Santa had already come and gone lol.

Stockings!

Christmas breakfast… backlava, freshly squeezed OJ, milk with banana sip-ahh straws (a good thing Auntie Sandra introduced those to the kids… helped J to drink enough during the really hot days on this trip!), and coffee (I bought filters especially for Christmas day so we didn’t have to have camp coffee ).

And what good is being at the seaside on Christmas Day if you don’t go for a swim?? Yes, there were gasps and I thought a lady might jump off her balcony to stop them but the boys went swimming. It actually wasn’t that cold (I dipped my toes in) but S didn’t go in far because of the rocks and anemones.

TheHammer went snorkeling and caught a starfish!

We went back inside so the boys could shower off and warm up. S dove into the chapter book he got. TheHammer and I were both relieved, because he hasn’t really complained about not having any books to read while on this trip, but he is already almost done the book lol.

We had lunch on the balcony. It was really a beautiful sunny day! The best weather we have had all month! And yes, we had pasta and hot dogs lol. The kids loved that Christmas lunch lol.

We watched all morning and…
♫♫♫ We [only] saw one ship come sailing in, come sailing in, come sailing in. We saw one ship come sailing in, on Christmas Day in the morning. ♫♫♫

TheHammer has turned into quite the storyteller lol. The kids really love hearing stories about when daddy was a little boy.

In the afternoon we went for a walk along the shore, looking for treasures. For supper, we had… curry chicken and rice lol. A nice change for Christmas meal!

It has been a busy few days here! I’m trying to catch up on the blogging as I watch the sunrise. It is really great to have a glass door facing east over the sea!

A couple of nights ago, it really cleared up and I took a shot of the sunset. The weather was so windy and dark when we were climbing up to the castle in Nafplion, but now it is clear blue skies and a lot warmer! Just in time for our last memories of Greece, too!

This was our second day of having a car here and theHammer wanted to drive straight across the Peleponese to Olympia, the site of the ancient Olympics. It was about a 3-hour drive each way, so we got up early again and headed out.

First we drove around Tolo a bit. Originally we were supposed to stay here for all of December, but our hotel reservation had to be canceled due to some renovation issues. Here is the spot we were supposed to be staying at. It had a nice pool out front, too.

We drove through Nafplion and Argos and found the turnoff to the freeway, which was smooth sailing. When we turned off the freeway, we had beautiful (typical) windy roads through the mountains. Then we got to Lagodia, and the single-car-width road began lol. Well, really the cars are so small that they fit fine. It was just going around the corners that you had to wonder if you needed to hug the corner to avoid a collision or if you would have time to swerve.

We arrived safely! In the ancient Olympics, they had athletes come from all over the Greek world. They had made a “Sacred Truce” so that every athlete was guaranteed safe passage to the games. Well, except for females who were thrown off a cliff if they attempted to get in. They had their own games in the years that the boys weren’t competing.Oh, and there was no 2nd/3rd place awards… just FIRST. If you won, you were given a crown of olive leaves AND… your hometown had to feed you for free the rest of you life lol.

theHammer … just needs his own toga.

Some things inside the museum…

A picture just for a particular little boy who loves helmets!

These frieze carvings are supposed to be in the best condition in all of Greece.

TheHammer thinks this guy is talking on his cell phone, but actually he was the charioteer. Even worse, if he was talking on his cell while he was driving the chariot! lol

This is from a scene of a wedding where the centaurs were invited, but then they got a little rowdy with the women and had to be put in their place. Ya, I’ve always made it a policy not to invite centaurs to parties.

These are the ones hiding in the corner…

Here is a famous statue (it had its own room) of Hermes holding an infant that he had to take to the nurses to be cared for and he stopped to rest on the tree stump. Should have wrapped that toga into a sling and his arm wouldn’t have been so tired!

What does a sneeze look like?

After the museum, we walked around Ancient Olympia. It was found in the 1800s by a German guy… under 3 meters of mud!
This was the gymnasium. Usually that means school here, but this actually was what I think of a gymnasium where they practiced their sports…

wrestling….

jumping….

and boxing.

More buildings…

J in front of the Temple of Hera (one of Zeus’ wives).

And in front of that is the spot where they light the modern day Olympic torch each Olympic year. I thought it looked familiar when we walked up, but I have only seen the ceremony once on TV, I think! I will be looking for it for sure from now on. And I definitely want to go to the Olympics in Vancouver in a couple of years!

Then we walked down to the stadium, named after the ‘race’ aka the ’stade’. There are a series of pillars along the walkway leading to the stadium… not for the winners, but for all the cheaters! If you were caught cheating, you were fined and the money was spent to build a statue of Zeus and put up there along with a written description of your name and how you cheated, serving as a warning to others.

And of course, we had to race the 100m dash! On your mark, get set…

GO!

And back again… this time daddy had to run backwards! (Are racers allowed to hold hands while racing? )

J was crowned the winner (cause she was the only who brought a leaf!).

I found it interesting that a lot of the stones in that area had sea shells in the mix.

This is the place where Nero would stay when coming to the Olympic games. I found it interesting that the word for water in Greek is pronounced ‘nero’.

One of the many places where “OLYMPIA” was carved into the stones.

The steps up to the Temple of Zeus. The statue of Zeus that used to be in this temple was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, but being made of ivory and gold, it didn’t last without being looted.

Those are b-i-g!

Running around Olympia. I have to say that coming to these famous sites in the off-season is awesome for our kids’ sake, and ours, too, actually. No rushing, no shoving, easy to take pictures!

The kids love to read the signs.

Sitting in the doorway of the old artisan’s house which was later converted to a church.

In the other gymnasium where they practiced running and javelin, S is taking our picture again. He just keeps clicking until we wrestle the camera away from him!

J trying to put a flower ‘back’ with all the other flowers.

Downtown modern Olympia. Very small but looks quite new…. I’m guessing about 4 years old lol.

The drive back to Tolo.

This corner had TWO big round mirrors to help you see what was coming from the other way!

We thought this little path saved us from having to pass any big buses along this road!

TheHammer loves the units for their street signs here.

A very cute mountain town called Lagodia that we were going to stop in for coffee, except the kids were asleep and we weren’t waking them! Instead, theHammer bought a clay bowl full of baklava for our Christmas morning breakfast… yum!

Back in Nafplion, we went out for supper in a cute little taverna and did some night time shopping. It was one of the few times that both kids had naps and could go out late at night in our whole trip! A view of Palamidthi castle.

And the lit up palm trees!

[by theCraftster]

I had a few more pics that I really liked from Nafplion, so I’m adding an extra entry for it.

The peninsula.

How many churches can you find in this one area?

Up on Palamidthi Castle… you can easily see which part the Turks added on.

Looking over the edge that the turrets were on… We tried to walk down there, but we almost got blown away so I determined it wasn’t worth it!

The castle in the middle of the sea.

And this is one other shot from Tyrins. I don’t know what it was for, but it was a very cool hallway they had built.

This one picture shows most of the highlights of our day. In the background is the Palamidthi Fortress above Nafplion increasingly built up by every residing government in the last 2000 years (Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Venetians, Franks & Turks – according to our guidebook). In the foreground is the ruins of the ancient citadel of Tyrins built during the reign of the Mycenaen culture in the 15th century BC. Though he may not have been specifically talking about Palamidthi as we know it today, Homer mentioned (in the Iliad and the Odyssey) the Tyrins citadel and several mountain-top castles in this valley.

We rented a car and drove to Nafplion. After eating lunch at Goody’s (the Greek equivalent of Wendy’s in Canada), we decided to conquer the fortress. We found that it was surprisingly not that difficult to take over! The walls near the Venetian gate (dated MDCLXXXVII) were already smashed down.

In addition, there was a road built up toward the AcroNafplion. This made the approach much more friendly than anticipated.

From below, the Palamidthi Fortress looked quite imposing. Though, with enough time and endurance, and considering someone had conveniently build steps all the way to the top, we were well on our way to conquering the fortress.

The view kept getting better and better. Here is the small Bourtzi castle that appears to float in the harbour of Nafplion.

Our only enemy was the wind. We were constantly pushed from side to side until we got inside the fortress and then it was a little better.

Inside the Palamidthi fortress at the main square:

There was a prison where the political prisoner Kolokotrones (from the mid 1800’s) was kept for 20 months. It resembled the prison in the Count of Montecristo movie, though the floor was entirely uneven, and the door was far smaller. B refused to go in, though the kids liked it in there with me.

The kids seemed to like all of the small arches and doorways that were their size.

It was cold and threatening to rain, so we started the walk back. We thought for a minute about walking to the other entrance and catching a cab, but weren’t sure if there would be one for us to catch, so we walked down the same way we came up.

There was a flower growing from the side of a guard house.

S and Mommy counted all of the steps between the ticket booth at the top and the trailhead at the bottom. There were 908 of them, but that didn’t count all of the steps inside the castle or those below the trailhead. The total would have been easily over 1000 steps. S walked them all. J was carried down because the wind was so strong. It even knocked S down once, but he was holding Mommy’s hand so no worries.

The kids were tired, so they sat down on cannon balls at the trailhead to rest for a while (and to pose for a “tired picture”).

We saw this while walking around town: Several cats huddled on a card table in a courtyard. If you look closely, they are all wearing visors, smoking cigars and playing poker!

There are a lot of these Santas around town. If you clap or bump into them, they sing Christmas songs and dance. In the background is the Greek equivalent of a 7-11. They are on many corners in even the smallest towns, selling candy, cigarettes, magazines and newspapers.

I think we found where the Little Prince lives now.

We stopped for ice cream and coffee in the old Syntagma (Constitution) Square. The building in the back was where the first government of Greece met before the capital was moved to Athens. That’s why the square has the same name as the main square in Athens.

This boat was docked right beside where our car was parked.

Ironically, the clouds opened and shed some light on a lighthouse!

The kids liked having more freedom to run around at the ancient Tyrins citadel. They like to hide and then jump out and “BOO” you (and vice versa, as in the picture).

This entire area is surrounded with orange groves. I have never seen so many citrus trees. On the way home, we bought 4 kilos of oranges. We plan to have fresh orange juice for Christmas day!

The stones are so big that ancient myths identify the Tyrins citadel as being built by either giants or cyclopses (super-strong, one-eyed guys).

The kids and I standing “tall and still”, like pillars, while standing on a pillar base.

The huge stones and thick walls with trenches reminded me of a scene in the Chronicles of Narnia book The Silver Chair where the main characters are looking for a particular word (a clue given by the lion Aslan). They end up approaching a giant castle and have to scale large walls, steps and trenches to get to the castle. Later, from the castle viewpoint, they realize that the walls and trenches spelled the word they were looking for. I think C.S. Lewis must have been to Tyrins.

Both S and J approached this cliff edge with appropriate caution so that neither of us parents were scared for their lives. This made me quite proud to know that they at least learned this on our trip!

Merry Christmas everybody!

Yesterday was a long day of travel. We got up early to catch a 6:33 a.m. train. We ended up making it just in time. I’m not sure how I missed this on the way up to Kalambaka, but there is a lot of beautiful countryside along this train route.

A train station along the way.

One of the many, many bridges being built now that we passed. This picture turned out kind of interesting just because of the way the light reflected off the train window.

We arrived in good time in Athens and got train tickets to continue on to Corinth from the same train station within half an hour. We got a bite to eat while we waited. The train ride was quick and we got to Corinth at about 1:30. We were told to take a taxi to the Isthmus to catch a bus to Nafplio, which was great! We didn’t think we could get right to Nafplio. However, we couldn’t get a taxi to actually stop and pick us up. I’m not sure why, but we had about 4 of them ignore us at the train station when we tried to wave them down. (We assume it is because of our big backpacks, since that is what we have read happens.) We found someone who gave us directions to the bus station that went to the _other_ bus station so we hiked for awhile until we finally found the right spot. From there, it was fairly smooth sailing. We got in to Nafplio around 4:30 in the afternoon and the hotel owner with whom we had originally booked for the month of December picked us up and brought us to Tolo. We got settled in to the new hotel and found a beautiful view outside our window.

This morning we woke up to a beautiful sunrise.

We don’t have a Christmas tree, but we decorated our ‘Christmas screen’.

We went for a walk along the beach this morning. We were surprised by how rocky and dirty the beach was, but found out later that it was because they had a huge storm here last week which washed up lots of stuff on the beach. theHammer enjoyed skipping rocks. He found the smoothened terra cotta pieces skipped especially well.

There were lots of shells washed up on the beach.

This is a fishing village, so there are lots of boats around here in the harbour.

I think we saw Santa’s fishing boat in the harbour. Don’t be surprised if you get a fish in your stocking this year!

The view looking back along the beach towards our hotel.

Afterwards we walked back to our hotel through town and stopped in a couple of shops. This was the first time I have seen any stores open on Sunday in Greece.

The kids are having a great time so far. It is a nice change to have two rooms in our hotel again!

We are staying here until the 27th. Unfortunately, our hotel doesn’t have Internet. There is an Internet cafe down the road, so we will try it out. Not sure if it will be open on Christmas day, though, to call home, so our families may or may not hear from us then.

We have rented a car for the next 3 days, so we will be touring around the area.

So, theHammer rented a car last night so that we would be off bright and early (actually, it was still dark out when we left this morning). We had everyone in the car and took off at 7am (which is quite unusual for us these past couple of months lol). We drove through Trikala and Larissa on fairly straight roads to get to the “national road” freeway. We thought once we hit that, we would be sailing past Mt Olympus and to Thessaloniki in a short time. That freeway, however, is not quite up to the same standards as the one we took the other day. No matter. We thought it would be worthwhile on this path anyways. However, once we got to where Mt. Olympus was supposed to be, we could see this…

but looking towards the mountains, we could only see this…

The fog was so thick, we couldn’t even *pretend* to see a mountain. I really tried to make out even a faint line or something so I could say that I saw it, but there was nothing to be seen!

So, on we went to Thessaloniki.

We found a parking spot and got out to walk along the waterfront towards the White Tower.

And we stopped in for a treat at Starbucks. Everything is so expensive in Greece that we have figured that per amount of coffee given, Starbucks isn’t that expensive for a cafe.

In one of the squares, there was this light-up boat and they were still putting up the nativity set. We have seen several nativity scenes in the cities we have visited, which the kids love.

The White Tower was fun, as we got to climb the 6 flights inside while looking at some exhibits inside about the history of Thessaloniki. The tower is so named because an inmate was given his freedom in exchange for whitewashing the tower.

Looking out at the waterfront.

After that, we went shopping. We didn’t run around to all the ancient ruins in the short time that we were there. Me and the kids looking in the window at a hand-made toy shop.

We passed some “catacombs of St. John ???” on the way to the market area.

Looking for the market area… Lots of this kind of stuff again…

An old monastery…

Yes…the door beam says it was built in AD 837, and it was probably built on the ruins of something even older… this is where the Apostle Paul visited and started one of the first churches, after all. (written by theHammer)

Apparently, the Apostle Paul took the Via Egnatia to get from Philippi to Thessalonika. The road is still there and goes right into the heart of the city, where the ruins of the Roman Agora are. BTW, the new highway that we used a few days ago is sentimentally named the Egnatia Freeway. (written by theHammer)

It took us awhile to find the markets but we did at last and it was fun to look around. We ended our time there at Goody’s Restaurant, which the kids were extremely happy about (apparently it was the high point of their day lol). Lucky for us, the Goody’s hadn’t been looted. The lobby and outside area of the bank that was kitty-corner to the Goody’s had quite obviously been destroyed by rioters in the last couple of weeks. We didn’t see any demonstrations or anything, though. But, we didn’t go near the university area, where there is possibly still things going on.

On the way back home, we thought we would stop in Larissa and look around. However… we ended up having to take a detour that cost us an extra hour or so, so we didn’t have much time in Larissa. We did get a very scenic drive by the sea in exchange, though.

The Red Water River where we had to start our detour.

The kids were exhausted and fell asleep very quickly tonight! They did great, considering it took us 3.5 hours to drive there (and 4.5 to get back!).

Ooops. Forgot to actually write a post about our day touring the other monasteries on the 8th. We both thought the other had written about it. 

John, the hotel owner, had told us about a path that he used to take as a kid all the time that had been overgrown and recently re-established. He thought it might be too difficult for our kids, though, so theHammer took a trip to scout it out and thought it was fine for them to do. We headed up the same path we did the other day, and then veered left instead of right. TheHammer had made some cairns along the path so we would know where to go exactly. The kids loved that.

I thought it was a bit difficult for the kids, but they are certainly going to be prepared to go on hiking trips in the Rockies next summer!

 
Looking back between Alsos Rock on the right and Holy Trinity rock on the left. 

What is Alsos Rock anyways, you may be wondering… well, Alsos means St. Peter’s belt. I don’t know how that translates exactly but … that is what we were told lol.

At the first peak on our path.

Then we descended into the “Oak Forest”. Everything was covered in oak leaves. I have never gone through a forest like that before. It was a bit slippery, but no major wipeouts.

At the end of the Oak Forest, we met up with the road. Yes, there is a road to all these monasteries, but we walked up to each of them. At the end of this day, however, we opted to taxi home… sooo much faster!

Some sites along the way…

Here are the 3 monasteries we visited this day… We emerged from the forest at the bottom right of the pic and walked up. It was kind of windy, but the kids did great! The bottom right one is Rosseneau, the top-middle one is Varlaam, and the top-left one is the Great Meteora.

First we walked up to Rosseneau (or St. Barbaras – they often have multiple names for things here). This is it, looking up. I don’t know how they aren’t worried that that whole chunk of rock won’t go hurtling down one day… especially when they were jackhammering around there!

This is it from further along on our walk. It is a nunnery that is still in use. We crossed that wood bridge and went up into that top part. There is a huge bell in there and a small chapel. The walls/ceilings are covered with frescoes. Here we noticed the trend of pictures of martyrs (beheadings, hangings, …) all over, rather than the Bible stories we had noticed more often in previous churches. Perhaps this is due to the history of these monasteries, with people heading here to find safety from attacks.

Next was Varlaam. This one was started by two brothers who scaled the rock and built a monastery. Later on, they had to jump from bridge to bridge to get up to the top. I’m not sure which monastery was previously the most treacherous to climb… this one or the one where you got into a rope sac and were hauled up – the ropes were only changed when they actually broke! They definitely wanted to be left alone, anyways! I have often wondered how those men would feel about us being able to access the tops of the mountains so easily.

Looking back at Rosseneau.

Looking down at the road in the valley and the town of Kastraki.

While at Varlaam, there was a busload of tourists from Bulgaria. While we were walking around, we saw their bus going to the next monastery… backwards up this narrow road! It made us laugh, especially since it was quite a short walk… not worth risking one’s life over!

The last monastery we visited is called The Great Meteora. It is the largest and definitely had the most things displayed for us to see.

A close up of the ladder out the window. Um. Did someone really use this?

A tunnel that we walked through near the base of the stairs.

Looking back at Varlaam.

Some of the rooms in the Great Meteora. 

A cellar… 

A carpenter’s workbench.

And if you don’t know what an ossuary is, I can assure you it has nothing to do with birds. (what on earth was I thinking???) They believe that the bones of saints give off a fragrant smell and have healing qualities. Here they have a whole room of them. If you really don’t want to see it, avert your eyes for this last picture! The kids both thought it was fascinating, though.

I said it looks like it… not that we actually are.

This morning we woke up, saw that it was a somewhat sunny day (meaning, it wasn’t raining for the moment) and decided to rent a car and get OUT of the hotel for a day. TheHammer said he wanted to first go to a town called Metsovo (known for it’s skiing, according to a local guy we met in a yarn shop… note to self… don’t listen to guys hanging out in yarn shops). Anyways, it was a ways off the direct route to the freeway, where we ultimately wanted to travel on to Verea and perhaps Thessaloniki. We figured it was just an extra hour or so of driving, so we headed west. About 45 minutes later, we saw some of the white stuff on the ground. Soon, it was everywhere and with poor visibility. No need to feel jealous of us here any more. I felt like we had just crossed the US/Canada border into Canada.

We figured we were pretty close to Metsovo, so we kept going and finally stopped for lunch at a “truck stop”. 

TheHammer thought it was great fun. I wasn’t impressed. 

Oh, and the great ski hill seems to be … this spot.

I don’t know. Maybe we missed it in the poor visibility, but it just didn’t live up to the hype. We didn’t even quite make it to the town, but we saw it as we were driving away.

We are probably one of very few tourists to Greece who have seen snow, let alone their snowplows!

 

One thing that made it feel more like spring was the fact that there was water running everywhere. Seems like there must be a lot of rock in those mountains and no where to drain??

I was glad when we got off the wet hairpin roads.

 

Back in the non-snowy countryside

Once on the freeway, we saw a few interesting things.

Nuclear power plants – 3 sets of these along the way.

Lots of tunnels

Suddenly there was tons of fog – it was a strange sensation. We pretended we were on Mt. Olympus, which we didn’t necessarily see, but knew that it wasn’t far away anyways. (I don’t see how Hercules could just wear that toga up on Mt. Olympus. It was pretty chilly today. I’m wondering how accurate that cartoon really was.)

In Berea (or Verea, as it is now known), we found what was called an Altar to Paul, but it didn’t seem to be something that was a way to worship Paul, so I’m not sure why they called it that. There were a few mosaics. The Greeks do tend to kiss the icons here, so there were steps up to the mosaic.

We parked there and walked around some ruins and a square.

We found a nice bakery and had a treat.

Then we decided to drive thru the city center… which turns out to be a nice walking street area, big enough for our little car to fit through. It was siesta time, though, so nothing was open.

Apparently there are a lot of Byzantine churches in Verea. We saw several of them just on our short drive around the town.

And then we somehow ended up again in front of the bakery we had our snack at.

We headed back for Kalambaka. We are hoping to do another trip next week back to Thessaloniki and Mt. Olympus etc. if the rioting continues to slow down. On Thursday, I read somewhere that they had protests planned for Friday and Monday. I guess they take the weekends off .

theHammer tried to get our car up to 130, but it was a’shakin’, so we had to be slowpokes on the freeway.

Back in Kalambaka, we had a nice supper at “our” restaurant after dropping off the car. The moon is beautiful tonight, so I took a couple of pictures of some of the Meteora from our hotel.

So, we’re not planning on coming home early, but it sure felt like we had this morning!