In transit in Greece 29 March

Today was a travel day. 

Still raining in Santorini (apparently this is very unusual), with the help of Panayotis we hauled our bags up the steep and flooded steps, then we were out to the airport to drop off the hire car and catch the short hop flight back to Athens.

While not raining in Athens, it was very windy but we managed to get our hire car sorted and before long we were in our fancy Peugout and on the motorway to Corinth.The motorway was an excellent road which made for easy driving and allowed us to bypass of Athens city and race along at 130km/hr for much of the journey.

 

We stopped at the Isthmia Bridge Cafe on the edge of the Corinth Canal. We thought this sounded like a nice spot for a late lunch and to enjoy the views…. wrong! It was a pretty run down establishment that had definitely seen better days, but the food was ok and in generous proportions although the coffee was the worst we had had in Greece. We walked across the bridge after lunch and did get some good views down the Canal - impressive.

Now on the Peloponnese Peninsula, we stayed on the motorway via Tripoli, for a couple of hundred kilometres; easy driving with views of snow capped mountains, which surprised us as we had though of Greece as a fairly warm and dry country. The easy driving had its price, as we passed through seven toll booths; it didn't take us long to realise that each time we drove though one of the many long tunnels through the mountains that there would be a lady in a toll booth waiting for us not much further down the road. We “donated” 14.85€ in tolls.

Turning off the motorway a bit before Kalamata, the country roads made for more challenging driving. More narrow and rough, and speed limit unclear, Kerryn did a great job unlike her navigator, who didn't know his right from left. Our host in Olympia later told us that all Greek drivers are crazy and “in Greece you drive by feeling not by the speed signs”, so most drivers must have been feeling a lot faster than us, as we were regularly overtaken! But the scenery was as you'd imagine rural Greece - large villas, in various states of disrepair, surrounded by groves of gnarly olive trees and occasionally similarly gnarled citrus and grape vine.

With the much needed help of the maps app, we navigated the backroads into Olympia, which is really only a small village, and met enthusiastically our host, Kostas, near the village square. We had a room in the centre of the village, which was handy, but Kostas is a real character and a local identity, being the son-in-law of the mayor, and a bit of a raconteur. He showed us to our room, then gave us a 45 minute lesson on Ancient Greek and the significance of Olympia - it was very entertaining but we are not sure if we will take up his recommendation to read all of Plato! He was very passionate about and proud of his village. Kostas then walked us around the village to show us where things were. A great host (who we kept bumping into during our time in Olympia - as he said to us when we said our good-byes on our last day, “we came as guests but left as friends”).

Dinner was at a local seafood restaurant (recommended by Kostas, of course), the Taverna Orestis, where we had this amazing fried feta with honey followed by grilled stuffed squid (for Andrew) and the “small” seafood platter (for Kerryn) which would have been more than enough for both of us! All delicious and incredibly cheap compared to Santorini and Athens.

Some days just aren't like the postcard…. 28 March

We woke to grey skies over the caldera and the gentle patter of rain on the patio out front of our cave-house. A quick check of the weather app did not give much hope for sunnier skies later in the day either….

In need of some indoor options, we visited the Museum of Prehistoric Thira, which had a number of ancient artefacts, many in excellent condition, from the various archeological excavations around Santorini. The sophistication and complexity of the people's living on Santorini over 4000 years ago, was remarkable. We viewed the range of decorated pottery and other artefacts, but what was most impressive was the fragments of wall murals and painted flooring. With such wealth, this must have been one of the significant commercial areas, along with Crete, in the ancient Mediterranean.

With some Greek coffee and lemon cake, we sat in a cliff top cafe and watched the rain spoil the views of the caldera, glad that we had chosen to do the walk to Oia on the previous sunny day, as this pretty village was now lost from view in the gloomy weather.

Despite the persistent rain, we were still keen to explore the island, so set out in our hire car for an afternoon drive. On the way we noticed that there are lots of vineyards on the island, but the grape vines aren't grown in upright rows (as we are more familiar with) rather in low circular bundles on the stony ground. We think this helps protect the grapes from the hot summer sun.

On our drive, we passed through Pyrgos and visited the black beach at Perissa, then stopped off at a 24 hour (!) bakery where we purchased some Greek biscuits (sold by the kilo, which seems to be the custom here for cakes and biscuits) and coffees. We then tried to find the archeological site at Akrotia, which challenged our navigation (and was closed when we finally found it), and had a brief stop at the nearby red beach. With better weather it would have been nice to do some walking at these locations, but the rain had really set in now and was quite heavy.

So no chance of a Santorini sunset for us; in fact the cloud had settled on the Fira cliff top and the rain was so heavy that streams of water were now pouring down the staired pathways of the Fira caldera. Nonetheless, we donned our wet-weather gear and set off in search of some dinner. We found nice looking taverna, Pernea, on the cliff top terrace and went in, hopeful for some good food but mostly glad to be out of the rain. As it turned out, it was a good choice. The service was friendly and fast and the food delicious - cheese  croquettes were amazing and tasty souvlaki. But a special shoutout to the poor waiter who carried the meals (covered) up to the terrace from the down stairs kitchen - what a legend! The views from the terrace dining area must be amazing but the cloud and rain didn't allow us to enjoy this tonight.