We drove inland from Mt. Olympia some distance to pay a visit to the famous 13th century Monasteries of Meteora. Like everyone that comes to admire these treasures perched atop sky -high rocky outcroppings we were duly impressed. Some of the dozen or so ancient monasteries and convents are still in use and inaccessible to the general public but we managed to tour three that were open for viewing. From Meteora we drove to the “Centre of the Earth”, Delphi. This ancient sanctuary dates back to the 6th century BC and is located in a strikingly beautiful location high on the side of a mountain overlooking a carpet of olive trees to the distant ocean. From our campsite on a cliff we sat back with a glass in hand and enjoyed the view and the stars until midnight. Delphi is the home of Apollo and for much of it’s colourful history has played a significant religious, social, and political role in the Greek and Roman worlds. The ruins are in great condition and you can almost imagine yourself dressed in a toga and strolling along the “Sacred Way” past thousands of statues and treasures on your way to the amphitheatre or Athletic Stadium. But, with all the hot weather we needed to treat ourselves to some beach time, so we headed for the famous beach area south of Volos. Good decision as the campground we found was one of the best sites so far with great facilities, great restaurant on a sandy beach and really warm water. We planned on spending two nights and pushed ourselves away after four. Since entering Greece the weather has been very hot and on most days the thermometer approaches the forties range so walking about and exploring things during the day has been a thermo challenge. Luckily we’ve had a few great campgrounds with good beach access to the warm Mediterranean to help us bring the body temperatures back to normal. Not that we’re complaining, it cools at night for a good sleep and I don’t think I’ve had a tan like this since I was 12 years old. After driving south (on some pricy tollroads) and checking out the Temple of Poseidon at Sounio, we drove on into Athens. How does one describe Athens?… Historical treasures like the spectacular Acropolis with it’s Parthenon as a crown and the Temple of Zeus with Hadrian’s Gate nearby are truly outstanding in every possible way and combined provide enough reason for making Athens a must see.
But, unfortunately Athens has two sides and outside of the main tourist areas the extreme beauty of the city is tarnished by signs of poverty and urban decay. In fact, in many parts of Greece we were surprised at the amount of unsightly garbage just thrown about and left at the side of roads and highways. Compounding this problem is the vast amounts of unsightly graffiti on just about everything, even in the most remote areas. All of this left us with the impression that Greece could do a much better job in presenting itself and is desperately in need of a national cleanup campaign. In parts of Athens this problem is even more exaggerated and combined with a few other social factors, it can actually become concerning and uncomfortable for a couple of wayward tourists. Certainly we have met many, many wonderful people in Greece and have visited some strikingly beautiful places along the way but overall I would say that Greece has a serious social environmental issue that needs to be addressed and when it does, this country will be even more amazing. Perhaps the person in charge of the Metro in Athens could assume a leadership position for this national task. If the few Metro stations that we used were typical, they could act as a perfect starting point for a positive cleanup campaign as they were completely graffiti clear, were the cleanest we’ve seen in all of Europe, and felt very safe to be in… Go figure!

Note: I was just reviewing the blog and discovered that the chronological order of the photos has been somewhat scrambled during the downloading process. This has happened before and can make things be a bit confusing to follow. I don’t know why this is happening but I’d bet it has something to do with slow and questionable wifi. Sorry!