Mount Olympus

Mount Olympus, home of the 12 Gods of Greek mythology, and the highest mountain in Greece towering at over 2900m. How could we not hike it? Many hike all the way to the summit, with an overnight stay at the refuge on the way up before completing their hike the next day. We opted for the "cheat" version of the E4 hike, only doing the bottom 12km and hiking down the mountain rather than up. We were so glad we did because even then we were exhausted by the end of it!

Our hotel provided a nice spread for breakfast right on 0730. By 0800 we were in a taxi making our way up towards Prionia. The windy drive took about 30 minutes, with the friendly driver offering us tips for a shorter hike which we readily agreed to. Was it really that obvious that we were amateurs?! Perhaps our snack choice of mini croissants filled with chocolate bits gave us away. He dropped us off at the Monastery of St Dionysios rather than Prionia, which cut our hike short by about 1 hour. He gave us instructions to head right on the path for about 10 minutes to see Enipeas Falls before turning around and heading down the mountain. He advised us that the water of the Enipeas River is clean and good for drinking as it is the town's drinking water supply, and to remember to fill up our water bottles before the last river crossing as we will not be anywhere near the water after that. 

And so, after briefly visiting the Monastery, we set off. The river crossings were beautiful, with crystal clear water, majestic peaks in the background and pretty wooden bridges. However, every crossing meant traversing down the gorge and then heading back up again. The constant elevation changes were a leg killer. When Jonah asked for a break, you know that it was hard work. Somehow...we managed to get down to Litochoro in just over 4 hours which towards the end felt more like 8! We sat down at the closest cafe with the least number of smokers to rest our weary legs. Were we glad we did it? The answer probably depended on when the question was asked! During the hike there were momentary judgements on the sanity and wisdom of doing the hike. But at the end, there was definitely a big sense of achievement...and we can say we hiked Mount Olympus!

Monastery of St Dionysios, being restored

The sign right outside the monastery. To the right is the little path that will connect you to the E4, at which were instructed to turn right towards the waterfall

This is the way

Enipeas Falls

The first wooden bridge crossing the Enipeas River at the bottom of the Enipeas Gorge

The Holy Cave

The amazingly clear waters of the Enipeas River

Bridge no 2

Fortunately most of the walk was under the shade of the forest

Despite going DOWN the mountain, all the uphill bits added up to 1800m!

Our first rest stop

Mount Olympus National Park is also rich in flora

Admiring the stunning views

Rest stop number 2

Obviously still not tired enough...

There were many steep sections both up and down

Finally the end! If you were to start in Litochoro and hike up, you'd take the path up on the left

We couldn't stop for long as we had to move on. Stopping by Pyli Bridge for a quick snap, we drove to Kalambaka. Our next challenge was to tackle the monasteries of Meteora. We attempted to get some sunset photos after dinner, however, the clouds didn't quite cooperate and neither did the hordes of people who arrived before us. Content with a few quick snaps, we checked into our apartment rental. Another long hike awaited us tomorrow...

It was nice to have space! The apartment was spotless and very comfortable

Bedroom 1

Bathroom

The thoughtful owner had left us snacks, water, fruit and breakfast condiments

...and alcohol!

Our attempts at sunset pics of Meteora

Some of the monasteries on schedule for tomorrow

Portaria and the Centaur's Walk

To we began our drive up north towards Litochoro. It was not the best of starts and there were many things to whinge about so let me get those out of the way! None deal breaking except for maybe one...

• The first taxi driver we hailed refused to take us to the car rental place. He wanted a fare to the airport. 
• Said car rental place opened 30 minutes late because an employer no showed and no one else had a key apparently
• Car rental attendant rather then being apologetic, was difficult! She took forever to get our rental going despite not being anyone else there. She then insisted that we had to have a credit card for a hold in the driver's name that is NOT Amex. Later this turned out not to be true, she just didn't want to have to pay the Amex fees
• Once on the motorway, we discovered that the AC was not working! All it did was blow hot air even when off. All our googling, manual reading and pressing/twisting all the buttons we could did not help. This WAS a deal breaker.

We pulled into McDonald's for much needed food (we were hangry which probably didn't help). Upon calling the car rental company, we were given instructions to try for the AC, which sounded like performing a chicken dance. We were told to turn on all the lights, then leave only one on (I don't even know what that meant Mal did it), turn the AC onto full heat for 5 seconds, and then switch it to cold. It worked! They have obviously had this issue before...Oh in case I hadn't mentioned the name of the car rental place - Carwiz. It was half the price the next closest competitor...so make your choices with great consideration! 

Our stop in McDonald's did soothed some tempers, and a good chicken burger for breakfast was enough to change our disposition. Our long drive north was fortunately mostly on motorways which made it easier to adjust to driving a car on the other side of the road full of crazy drivers. Jonah noted with amusement a passenger on the back of a motorbike travelling at 120km/hr on her phone. We must have also paid a gajillion euros worth of tolls. I'm sure we went through at least 10 toll boths! There were ample rest stops though, which were clean and had petrol, toilets and cafes/restaurants. The petrol stations here were still serviced with attendants which was nice. 

How is it possible for only 1 employee and manager to have a key...the other employees were locked out as well

Ah the golden arches, a known comfort

Even the ordering system is the same

We didn't realise that Margarita was a celebrity chef, not a cocktail based burger

Finally off with a working AC!

We stopped at the cliffside village of Portaria, with the Centaur's walk to mark the first of our "walks" in our next leg. Unfortunately it was all underwhelming. Parts of the walk was pretty but it was short and a big chunk was on road through a village which really was not that picturesque. We didn't feel that it was worth the 10km of winding road all the way up and then all the way down. However we didn't a stop somewhere to stretch the legs. 

From Portaria, it wasn't too long to Litochoro, a very pretty village at the at the base of Mount Olympus. We stayed at Xenios Dias Hotel for the night, which was fortunately close to the village's main carpark and right in the middle of the village. We bought ourselves some gyros for dinner and enjoyed it at the park accompanied by stray cats enjoying the views of the mountain. 

Nice cafe next to the start of the walk, but it was deserted like the rest of the village

The entrance to the Centaur's Path

The legend is that this was where Chiron walked

We were not sure if the water was drinkable

Occasional glimpses of nice views

Walking on the narrow winding roads

Tolls, tolls and more tolls!

Litochoro, our hotel is on ground floor of the shorter building. 

Mount Olympus

Our room. Compact but very clean

Again clean bathroom

The view from our balcony

Pork gyros

Pleasant end to the day

The Peloponnese

Private tours seems to be a theme of late...today's tour was one giving us a taster of The Peloponnese, the peninsula to the west of Athens on the Greek mainland. We had 10 hours to see as much as we could. Our enabler today was George, our driver guide. He was ready to go in the comfy Mercedes right on 0800 and we were off. 

First stop. Corinth Canal. Construction only began in the late 1880's and prior to this, people would carry their boats across the isthmus taking up to one month to do so. It was no Panama Canal but still pretty impressive. The nearby Ancient Corinth was a popular site for various reasons, one of them being where the Apostle Paul preached Christianity and was judged by the tribunal in the Agora. We got to the Temple of Apollo before the tour buses and was able to admire the Doric temple in peace. 

Corinth Canal linking the Corinthian Gulf to the Aegean Sea

The ruins of the Temple of Apollo at Ancient Corinth, with pillars made from a single slab of limestone

Examples of mosaics found at Ancient Corinth

Ancient Greek Bath House

Ancient Corinth with Acrocorinth in the background

Next up Mycenae from 2000BC. The mind boggles. This was where the stuff Homer wrote about happened. Achilles, Agamemnon, Helen of Troy...lucky we had our resident Ancient Greek expert in Jonah. By now it was getting hot and we weren't sure how people did this in summer! There were many struggling to make it up to see the site of Agamemnon's Palace, ourselves included.

Mycenae Cyclopean walls

The ancient Lion Gate of 1250BC

Walking around "Grave Circle A" and ancient royal cemetery

Entrance to a tholos tomb

Extremely spacious inside!

It was a relief to get to the port city of Nafplio, the capital of Greece until 1834. We were informed that the old city offered the unique architecture of Venetian, neoclassical and oriental elements. We saw a very pretty town which was pleasant to walk and wander. Our highlight was lunch at Buonos. George recommended a seafood restaurant and offered to order for us in Greek. He was however unable to get a parking spot nearby! Fortunately for us, this time the owner was very friendly and pleasant. We settled upon a whole seabass, prawn linguine (apparent the area known for its prawn) as well as razorclams cooked in garlic and white wine. The food was AMAZING! 

View from Acronafplia

So many restaurants! We would have been wandering around for a while if not for George

Our table and view for lunch

Razorclams with garlic and white wine

Looks ordinary but packs a punch!

Our whole sea bass

The streets of Nafplio

We had time to squeeze in a visit to the Theatre of Epidaurus dating from the 4th century BC. We were too afraid to test out the acoustics reportedly still excellent even to this day. By this stage, we were exhausted. George had to contend with our snores on the 2 hour drive back to Athens. George had some last minute driving tips to help us for our next leg. The first was to do with speed limits and his pearl of wisdom goes something along the lines of...If signed at 80km/hr, you can go at 100-120 comfortably but maybe not 130 because after all it is not the autobahn. And do be careful because the speeding fine is around 500-600 euros. But you should be fine because there are not many police outside of Athens. Um ok.

The second tip was to do with roundabouts. Once you are in the roundabout, you have to give way to traffic coming into the roundabout. UNLESS, there are stop signs going into the roundabout, in which case you use driving rules for roundabouts like in Australia. Eh?!?! Say what? Luckily for us, he says, there should not be too many roundabouts in Greece. And with that he dropped us back at our hotel!

Getting ready to enter stage left! or is it right?!

So many steps up...

They desperately needed a rest...

The impressive theatre of Epidaurus. Did you know that ancient Greek "hospitals" were always next to a theatre?

We had just enough time for a quick rest before we farewelled Athens at the Point A restaurant. We've saved fine dining for last and it didn't disappoint. It had been a whirlwind visit to Athens and 2.5 days was just about right for us. We were ready to explore the rest of Greece.

We were seated at a great table!

Beef tartare

Tomato balls. I know, sounds rather odd, but oh so tasty

Malcolm "I don't want dessert" ended eating half of mine and Jonah's!

The Acropolis lit up at night