The Many Faces of Greece

“Greece – The feeling of being lost in time and geography with months and years hazily sparkling ahead in a prospect of unconjecturable magic.” – Patrick Leigh Fermor

As we traveled through Greece, our tour manager Sofia did a fantastic job of bringing the country alive for us. She regaled us with the history associated with each place, the myths and legends that I had read, came alive as we talked about the Odyssey, the Iliad, Homer, Socrates and the Greek Gods amongst other things.

Hades’ kidnapping Persephone

From Thessaloniki we headed to Vergina to visit the Royal Macedonian tombs. Imagine the excitement of the archeologist who discovered this intact burial mound full of gold, silver, precious paintings, dogs, armor, that were buried with King Phillip the II of Macedonia.

The armor and shield of the King which was buried in the burial chamber with the embalmed body.

As we left Vergina and headed for Kalambaka, my excitement was mounting. Meteora was one of the highlights that I had been looking forward to visiting ever since I had seen pictures of the monasteries on the top of mountains.

The first sight as we drove into town heading towards our hotel just continued to build on the excitement. Dinner that night was at a tavern nestled at the foot of these columns with a wonderful view of the town spread out below.

Originally the monks settled in this area in the caverns nestled in the rocks. It wasn’t until the 14th century that the monasteries were built. It is mindboggling to imagine how these vast buildings with icons and art were created since access to these mountain tops was by removable ladders or ropes.

It was only after 1920 that steps were carved into the rock face to allow access. At one we also saw a cable car though tourist access is not allowed by cable car, these are used to deliver supplies to the monks. Of the original 24 only 6 monasteries survive today, and all are inhabited.

Visitors are welcome though a strict dress code is necessary. Dresses for women below the knees with sleeves and pants for men. It was interesting to see women wearing pants with scarves tied around their waist to make it appear like a dress.

After our visit to the monasteries, it was time for a quick lunch in the town square and then a short ride to the ferry boat that would take us to the island of Corfu. On approach to dock in Corfu the old town and the Venetian fort are spread out in front of the boat.

On our way to our hotel, we stopped at this lookout to see these two islands, I believe one is called Mouse Island and was a leper colony at one point.

Sunset over the Ionian, the narrow strip of land in the middle of the water is the runway. Since my room faced in this direction, I got to watch airplanes come in to land and take off far into the night.

This is a Ficus tree like none I’ve seen before, so I had to make a record of it.

While we wandered down the Esplanade and the main promenade of the old town, I had the most fun visiting all these quaint shops, tasting, trying and smelling all manner of goods.

Corfu is a very musically inclined island. Coincidentally my taxi driver in Athens was from Corfu and he was telling me how everyone either sings or plays an instrument and while he wasn’t good enough to be invited to be a part of his town’s group his sisters were both very talented.

On the day we were supposed to leave Corfu, the seamen went on strike and there were no ferries operating. However, we had a schedule to keep so our enterprising tour manager found alternatives to have us stealthily leave Corfu in a charter fishing boat.

We left our hotel at Oh dark hundred and were driven an hour and a half to a small obscure port at some distance from the main port on Corfu. Here we boarded the fishing boat and made our way to the mainland, again another obscure port. It’s pretty interesting when the boat doesn’t really tie up to the shore and you embark and disembark with one of the seamen holding the ropes to keep the boat at the shore. This was definitely an adventure that bears recording.

While the hotel did give us coffee and bread and fruit before we left, we stopped at the quaint fishing village of Parga for a second breakfast and coffee and to stretch our legs and kill time.

Then we were heading out again towards the town of Preveza where we made a quick stop to visit the archeological site before heading to the quaint town for lunch.

Since we were still a bit early for lunch, we took a quick guided tour of the old town and wandered along these cobblestone streets full of taverns and cafes including one called Wakanda.

Our lunch stop was cute, the cafe had a host of musical instruments including an old-fashioned gramophone that actually worked.

We made landfall at our home for the next two nights; Nafpaktos. Our hotel was right on the beach, so while I wasn’t hungry for dinner, I stepped out to enjoy a walk and then a sit down with a hot cup of tea and a tranquil evening enjoying the lights to relax after an interesting day, dreaming of what adventures still lie ahead on this wonderful journey.