Mountain Roads and a Lack of Cats

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Lousios Gorge and Olympia - Day 7

Saturday 14th September

I wrongly thought my alarm clock was switched on, so we both slept until until just gone 10am. We must have needed it. We had a quick dip in the pool, mainly because it was there and we saw a wide variety of interesting dead insects floating in it.

The plan was to go to Lousios Gorge and stay there. I thought the drive would be simple to start with, but we followed the satnav instead of the map. So thus I ended up driving on such narrow mountain roads that were so unnecessary! In some villages it was hard to tell which bits were road and which were going into houses. Some of the properties were really nice and it was hard to wonder why such lovely places were built on such terrible roads.

We decided to ignore the satnav as Glyn could see a major road near us on the map. It looked hopeful until we got to it and saw that maybe in a few months it will be an awesome road, but so far, it had not been finished. Sigh. So Glyn took the wheel for a while as we resigned ourselves to a long drive averaging in 3rd gear for a very long time.

We passed many memorials of a variety of sizes on the road to people who have died on them.

Eventually we arrived at Stemnitsa which was really bigged up in my guide book and yes, it was a pretty mountain village. We had some lunch in a cheap cafe surrounded by stray cats politely begging for food. We had thought of hiking into the gorge and staying there, but speaking to a waiter, a hike was a day long venture and if we were to do this, it would be tomorrow. But there was nothing to do in Stermnitsa, so we headed to Dimitsana which was meant to be even better! We drove through it, seeing nowhere to stop and not feeling particularly enticed into doing so.

So carrying on, we came out of the gorge and to Lagkadia which seemed to have more to it. We stopped for ice cream and the vendor was very friendly and spoke great English. She asked if we'd been into the gorge, and went on how great it was with rafting, great walks and old monasteries to see. Oh well, I still had no huge desire to go back - there'll be other gorges.

We drove on to Olympia which was tomorrow's original destination. The road looked really major on the map, but in reality, it was yet another winding, narrow mountainous road. The multiple hairpin bends look amusing on the satnav map to start with, but soon got boring!

Eventually we came upon the outskirts of Olympia and stopped at Hotel Hermes because we saw it was cheap in Glyn's guide book. And it is cheap. And we have no wifi which is not a problem, but the lack of aircon is! There is an aircon box but no remote control, Glyn has been down to the desk twice but can't get anyone. Grrrr.

We had a walk into the town, perhaps the most touristy we have seen. It is very small with a main pedestrianised area full of very expensive tourists tat shops, bars and restaurants. Hardly any cats either!

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