Blogs from Central Greece, Greece, Europe - page 2

“ Bees suck nectar from many different flowers”. (Here they have a great choice it is like a supermarket full of flowers) “One drop of honey cannot claim to come from one flower or another “ Greece has been a real eye-opener for us. We were not sure what to expect. We had read blogs from folks who overwinter in Greece and they love it and the people. We had read about three books on Greece and each gave a different view of the place and of places to visit. Sometimes we find ourselves staying on in places in Greece that we like. Normally we only stay one night in one place but for some reason we are falling in love with the sites and staying longer than usual. Greece is having a strange effect on ... read more

Setting off early we left our little piece of heaven so that we could get on the road to Thermopylae. The drive was quiet being a Sunday morning. The shops were firmly shut apart from the garden centres which looked as if they were going to be doing a roaring trade. Our stop was intended to be Thermpylae set in a valley between two wooded hills. The pass was the site of the famous heroic stand between the Spartan King Leonides, his 300 Spartan warriors against the Persian King Xerxes. In 480 BC an army of 7000 Greeks made up of simple soldiers with not much experience and 300 Spartans under the command of King Leonides met the overwhelming force of Xerxes and his 2,641, 610 Persian warriors. The number might be different depending what source ... read more

Geo: 38.4814, 22.5066The hotel at Delphi is in a wonderful location, but could do with some soundproofing (we could hear the neighbours far too clearly!) with dogs barking outside through the night, and the beds were very very firm! So we didn't get moving until almost 9am, and didn't finish breakfast until 10am.Luckily, we are one kilometer to the archaeological site. We enjoyed the wonderful museum (again, a lot of European money has been spent developing this museum!) with its wonderful Kouri, carvings etc. We saw the silver bull - 2.5m long, made of silver and the gift of Croesus (hence the saying "rich as Croesus"). It was the first large-scale statue made all from forged metal - the bull is made of sheets of silver.We also saw the wonderful charioteer - his 4 horses (or ... read more

Sunday: John was up early to say goodbye to Aggie and Roger as they took off for Iran and the Society of Asian Arts tour. Then we hung out at the hotel early morning with Memhet the owner, chatting about the states and his view of the economy. He very generously gave us presents as we departed for the airport. What a wonderful host and we look forward to hosting him in San Francisco later in the year. After some difficulties with getting through the airport we boarded our plane and were whisked 536 km to Athens where we were met by Spiros, our driver and guide for the next few days. Full of information and energized at every turn, we drove the two hours to Delphi and our hotel, the Nidimos. John took a walk ... read more

METEORA, THURSDAY/FRIDAY. 6/7 NOVEMBER, 2014. Will it happened again! We turned the lights out as we departed Delphi. The Inn owner was closing after our departure. We caught the train to KALAMBAKA the town servicing the tourism industry visiting the famed monasteries of Meteora, which are suspended off huge monolithic rock formations which loom over the town 800 metres below. The train arrived punctually and was reasonably comfortable. The ride was 3.5 hours through a mix of countryside. Greece is very barren and rocky. Having said that it has the tastiest and crispest tomatoes and cucumbers. Olives aren't everywhere, in fact you need to request them, otherwise you might not see them. Greece also has magnificent conifers, tall and straight. Delphi's hills were populated with them. KALAMBAKA is a very plain looking little town, full of ... read more