We'd had a lovely time in Macedonia and were now driving into
Greece, aiming for Ioannina.
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| Road to Ioannina |
After crossing yet another border and driving through several small
towns, we hit a big motorway. We have tried to avoid these because we like to
see small towns and villages, which are usually on the minor roads. However, we
had a destination to reach before it got too late, so it was useful.
This road is a major piece of engineering, and it crosses the mountains
through at least 25 tunnels of varying lengths.
We finally reached the small, winding and picturesque streets of Ioannina, and the only campsite in town, Camping Limnopoula, right on Lake Pamvotida, and only 1 km from Ioannina township.
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| Marg enjoying Lake Pamvotida, Ioannina |
It was lovely, so we kicked back and relaxed for a while. We read a lot,
gave our motorhome Vanni, a thorough clean, and caught up on emails and blogs. We stayed
there for six nights and it was a good break.
The lake was full of fish plopping in and out of the water, and there
were little families of shags catching food for their babies.
We visited the old town of Ioannina and roamed around the narrow little
streets which had all sorts of interesting small shops. Ioannina is known for
its silverwork, and there were countless narrow shops where you could see the
silver being fashioned, and buy jewellery or decorative items.
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| Ottoman relics at Ioannina Castle Museum |
We found a lovely bakery nearby, and bought some donuts filled with
delicious marmalade – a nice morning tea.
We also walked up to the impressive castle of Ioannina. Built in the 6th
century, it is the oldest Byzantine fortress in Greece. There is a village
inside the castle, where we visited a mosque dating from the Ottoman times, and
had a good look around the fascinating museum, as well as other places.
After a lovely break in Ioannina, we moved on.
On our way out of Ioannina we stopped at Perama to see an amazing cave
system that is reputedly one of the oldest in the world. We had a 45 minute
guided trip down through the caves full of incredible stalagmite and stalactite
formations.
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| View over Meteora and the plains of Thessaly |
Before going in, we met two lovely gay guys from Torquay in
England, one of who was a geologist and very knowledgeable - we had lots of fun
in their company.
Then we moved on toward Meteora. Our trip took us over an amazing mountain pass; the road was steep and
twisting, but a reasonable width most of the way. It is known as one of the best
drives in Greece.
Coming out of the mountains, the view over the plains of Thessaly, was
wonderful.
We found a lovely welcoming camping ground, Camping Vrachos Kastráki,
under the shadow of the incredible rocky crags of the Meteora hills, and with a
great view of them.
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| Varlaam Monastery, Meteora |
The next day, we took a taxi up to the Great Meteoron Monastery which
was one of six religious buildings perched on the top of the rugged
crags. Collectively, these are a UNESCO world heritage site.
They suit the name of Meteora because meteoros is the Greek word for
“suspended in air” – and that’s just what it seems. How they ever managed to
build such significant structures in these seemingly inaccessible places, is
truly amazing.
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| Marg at the ruins of Delphi |
We walked in the heat down to the next two of these mountain sites - Roussanou (an
active nunnery and our favourite due to its feeling of intimacy) and
Varlaam. We could see other monasteries defying gravity on the clifftops nearby.
Later, we had a meal at a local tavern and ate dolmades, suvlaki,
tzasliki, mousaka, and other Greek staples – yum. Leigh ordered fried potatoes
and we thought we would get potatoes that were grilled/fried with some kind of
dip – turns out they were just good old-fashioned potato chips.
Delphi was our next stop and we drove over more amazing mountains to get
there.
Delphi was the holiest site in the world for the ancient Greeks, and the ruins of Ancient Delphi range in date from Mycenean times to the early Christian era. We enjoyed walking through the ruins - even though it was raining!
Delphi was the holiest site in the world for the ancient Greeks, and the ruins of Ancient Delphi range in date from Mycenean times to the early Christian era. We enjoyed walking through the ruins - even though it was raining!
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| The pretty hilltop village of Delphi |
After that, we found Apollon Camping, which is about 1.5 km from Delphi
village. It had lovely shade and great swimming pool.
We loved the constant melodic
ringing of the bells from the local goat herd, which
echoed through the campsite.
While in this area, we spent a couple of days exploring other small
villages. We had originally hoped to do this by local bus.
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| Bumble bee picture for Leigh from grandson Luke |
We went to Itea and Kirra which are fishing villages on the edge of
the Gulf of Corinth. We had dinner in Itea and while Marg’s fish was great,
Leigh ended up with food poisoning!!!
After being violently sick all night, the kindly German couple in the
campervan next to ours, offered us tablets based on egg-white, that help to
curb nausea etc. Happily, they worked!
Recovery was helped by a beautiful picture of a bumble bee drawn by
grandson Luke, and sent by email.
We stayed on here longer than planned until Leigh improved and felt able
to move on again. When we did move on, we headed to the Isthmus of Corinth.