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It was finally time to leave Athens so we checked out of the Hotel and took a taxi to the hire car company. Picking up a little Toyota we made our way out of the city onto a freeway to clear the Metro area. We noticed a lot of abandoned buildings that are falling derilict - the finacial crisis has hit hard with many construction projects just stopped midway, 4 years ago.
Soon we started climbing into the mountains, Greece has huge mountains and the views are like nothing we have back home. The trip up, winds through beautiful little villages that have extremely narrow streets & lots of people! Interestingly, every village has a main tree in the main street under which four or five of the older men in the village sit all day & drink beer - we have since seen this countless times, it has become a joke between Liz & I at each village to spot them first!!
We arrived at the bustling town of Livadia which is said to have some wonderful springs to see, but as there was no signs indicating anything (typical of Greece we have found) we drove around the river area for some time looking. Eventually we decided to ask in the town square, so, squeezing our car into a 2 inch car park between endless little cars lined down narrow little streets, we walked a block into the shopping area. Very few people understood english & those that did, didn't seem to have any idea what we were talking about. So we decided the best answer was to sit & have a coffee!
We continued to look after our coffee, eventually asking at a video store where the lady told us to turn left & go about 200 metres to the turn where we would see it.... :-(
This was in the opposite direction to where we had been looking, located in the base of the mountain & it was totally worth looking for. What a lovely picture we found, an old Ottoman bridge & water gushing out from everywhere! The water was crystal clear, set in a lovely setting that we marvelled at. Walking along this delightful area we left the village behind, walking into the base of the mountain. From there we could see some ruins of an old Roman theatre and looking up high into the side of the mountain we could see a tiny building in a cave like section - likely to be a small monastery. This site was lovely, no one was around so we felt like we had discovered the place ourselves!
Finally leaving this town we travelled further into the mountains. Unfortunately our GPS decided to send us on a 'short cut', a road that wound up an impossible mountain side with constant twists & hairpin bends. The road was one lane wide with no barrier on the edges, in fact some edges were crumbling away so we could only average about 40km per hour especially as it was so steep. As a result, our short cut took a lot longer! We got to the top of the mountain (boy is it high - and what a view!) when we joined the main highway again. I was so glad to get off that road, although Liz kept saying it was fun...
On we went to the Moni Osios Loukas monastery, a good distance drive & even higher than before. Again, the road twisted & turned endlessly - meeting tour buses coming the other way is always interesting as they dont move foranyone....
The monastery is on the edge of a clff hundreds of metres up, looking over a beautiful secluded farming valley that stretched for miles below. We went in and explored as this was a large monastery with a lot to see. Afterward we sat under the 600 year old tree on the lawn at small tables & chairs with the amazing view in front of us. We ordered coffees (you always have to explain you want hot coffee not cold coffee which is their favourite & it seems, the national drink) which also came with a small plate of Greek yoghurt covered in a fruit nectar with fruit in it. Almost everywhere you go, they serve something extra with the coffee. you always get glasses of water & maybe a home made cheese pie or some other Greek specialty - all very yum!
Finally it was time to drive to Delphi, our over night stay. Winding higher into the mountains (was that possible?) we were stunned by the scenery below. Just short of Delphi we came to a village that seemed to have the roads hanging over the cliffs, dropping literally thousands of metres below. It just took our breath away, we stopped & took photo after photo but they probably wont do it justice. Driving a little further we came to Delphi, this was situated similar to the previous town but had sweeping views across the plain of Corinth to the sea inlet many miles below and in the distance. This inlet is a Northern section of the Mediterranean sea where it comes right in, so we got our first view of the Mediterranean ocean north of Athens. Our hotel room looked directly out over this view, once checked in we walked the narrow winding streets of this town looking for somewhere to eat. We settled on a restaurant that, like our room, allowed us to sit on a large balcony looking over this huge plain of Corinth as the sun slowly set (about 9.30pm here) & lights began twinkling in the distance. The food here was awesome - I had croquettes just like Mum makes them! I was so delighted, they even came with the mustard!!
Anyway, enough raving for one day, tell you more tomorrow, God willing
- comments
amanda clover Sounds amazing. Sounds like you are enjoying yourselves :) love to you both xO Amanda