The Lesser Known Sites of Greece

Day 137 - 140

After spending eight days in the Halkidiki area and on the northern coastline of Greece, we decided to start making our way west of the country and inland to some quite remarkable and lesser known sights of Greece.

Now that we've spent a bit of time in Greece, we've made a couple of observations that are worth sharing before you cycle through the photos below.

1. An abundance of Greek men sitting on their backsides drinking coffee (and a glass of water).

2. A multitude of stray dogs and cats. Some of the dogs are quite vicious (especially in packs) and we've had a few occasions where they have chased the van down the road.

3. An epidemic of rubbish. Most of it is not well hidden and dumped in some beautiful places. On saying that, the oceans are still clean and clear.

4. A plethora of petrol stations. You can travel a kilometre in Greece and pass a dozen stations in that short distance. Not only that, the price may vary by up to 20c although the competition can see each other. 

5. Except for black widows, there seems to be a lack of woman.

6. There doesn't seem to be too many road rules in Greece and it is perfectly fine to overtake on double white lines while sounding your horn. Double parking for an extended period of times with your hazards on is also common place.

7. Fresh water is not in short supply and you will often find a tap located in the most random of places.

8. With the crash of the economy, there is a huge amount of unfinished holiday apartments and resorts. Those places that are for sale, also seem to be hugely overpriced considering the number of empty places.

9. Overly affectionate Greek men. Of the few Greek men we have struck up conversations with, they all seem to like to fondle you and on one occasion a man by the name of Costas, put both of us in a headlock while stroking our faces - 'my special friends'. 

10. Greece is an amazing place, with some of the most spectacular scenery and welcoming people on the planet. They don't care too much for rules and regulations, but there is still a sense of order (Athenian riots aside), which also makes them extremely laid back.

Downtown Kalabaka, which looks up to the amazing monasteries of Meteora. Not a bad view while you're stopped at the lights.

A fairly common sight in Greece - although we're yet to see much lamb on restaurant menus.

A shepherds shack on one of our walks through the Meteora countryside.

Grand Meteora Monastery. Unfortunately this one was closed the day we arrived so we didn't get to go in.

With the steep mountainous roads, the bike was perfect to hop from one place to the next.

It's quite amazing that the Greeks struck up the motivation to build these architectural splendours, as we didn't see much other work being done by them.

The Pinnacles of Meteora. I'm not sure they're called that, but I'm going with it.

"Thank God for Lip Balm"

The monastery on the left is the Holy Trinity, which also featured in the James Bond movie 'For Your Eyes Only'. Not a bad bit of trivia that.

Finally getting the SuperDream out for a ride.

The Rossanou Monastery.

Looking back over the valley, with the Holy Trinity on the left and Kalabaka far off in the distance between the gorge.

Panoramic of the Meteora Pinnacles.

As part of local religious custom, woman must wear long dresses when entering the monasteries. It's a little hard to tell, but Claire is sporting the new Midnight Blue Religious Dress collection by Banana Republic.

With a little bit of bush bashing, we managed to find a decent spot to get a photo of Rossanou Monastery without the crowds.

Looking back down the valley to all the monasteries perched high up on the right hand side.

Janina Mosque in the town of Ionnina.

This is a store we came across in Greece which specialises in work safety equipment. Given the Greeks lack of safety in how they go about their day to day work, it's amazing that this shop is still open.

Inside the Ioannina Fortress. On the other side of the complex a whole series of work had been started and scaffolding erected to preserve the ancient settlement. However, like many major public works in Greece, it had been put on hold and much of the tools and materials continued to lay dormant.

Lake Ioannina - good from afar, but far from good.

From Meteora, we headed towards Vikos Gorge - the worlds largest according to the Guinness Book of Records 1997. This photo is taken crossing over the river and into the national park.

A well fed stray and quite obedient cat of Greece.

Making our way through the quiet town of Micro-Papingo to the trail.

All the roofs in this area were layered with local slate. None of it was nailed or glued in any way, just layered in such a way that it would hold for a long time.

Hiking up into the Vikos Gorge.

Looking down into one part of the gorge. Again this photo doesn't really give the picture justice, but this was an extremely steep and rocky part of the hike. Trying to get up these rocks was like running up an escalator going the wrong way.

Claire taking some time out for meditation in front of one of the mini churches the Greeks love to scatter around their  country - particularly on random parts of the roadside.

Looking back up a part of the gorge. Greece is renowned for it's seismic activity and we're glad there were no rumbles at this point in time, as much of that rock is pretty loose.

Aforementioned 'mini-church'. We inscribed our initials onto a black rock and put it on the inside left of the little box. If you ever go up there, let us know if it is still there ;)

Rugged mountains and rugged bloke.

Our wild camp spot in Papingo, which was a little bit bigger than Micro Papingo.

On our walk back to the van, we met up with a nice dog on the roadside and he showed us all the way back to the town and then waited outside the van for about 10 minutes to see that we were okay. He then wandered off marking his territory along the way.

If we had room in the van, we almost could have convinced Claire to keep him.

From Papingo, we made our way around to the town of Monadendri. Making our way further up the hill out of town, you come to probably the best viewing point of the gorge.

Claire peaking over the gorge wall, which rises up to 1600m in parts.

Thongs were such a bad choice for this stony path.

There is still a lot of debate about the difference between a Canyon and a Gorge and whether Vikos is actually the worlds biggest - but from here, I'm betting on Vikos.

As you made your way up to the gorge, you passed through some amazing rock formations, which were known as the 'Stone Forest'. Quite original naming there by the Greeks.

Here it is - the official sign saying it is the worlds deepest.....canyon? WTF?

Vikos Gorge - probably better than the Grand Canyon. Oh....controversial.

An amazing piece of civil engineering by the Greeks. This was a fairly new road and the local council obviously had a bit of an issue with the farmer who owns this shed. I guess the same farmer owned the piece of land on the right also and said they couldn't build the road on this piece of land either. So for a small portion of this road it goes to single lane as you dodge his ancient shack.