June 8th
Our plan for the next few days was fairly loose. Take the boat to Volos, find a rental car and start driving around the Pelion Peninsula. That’s it. When we boarded the boat in Skopelos bright and early we thought Kat and Julie were going with us. But on the boat ride, Julie started really thinking about the fact that they had not seen Kat’s passport since they arrived in Skiathos the previous Sunday. Today was Thursday and we had plans to board a sailboat on Sunday. So we spent a frantic hour or two in a cafe in Volos evaluating options. Eventually they were able to get an appointment at the US Embassy in Athens for the following day at 9:30am. We dropped them off outside the Volos bus station where they were able to catch the express bus that was just getting ready to leave. Things got more messed up for them as the night wore on. There were no hotel rooms to be had in Athens, at least not for a reasonable price. They stayed one night in a twin bed at Hotel Nefeli, another sleepless night at a sketchy airbnb apartment and then finally a restful night at a nice hotel in Plaka. The passport was replaced and we met them at the Alimos Marina in Athens on Sunday to join our charter.
In the meantime Bill and I headed to the Pelion Peninsula which I’ve read about for years. It’s a mountainous area with many traditional villages, surrounded by the sea. The area is very lush with huge plane trees in the village plateias, thick forests, cherry trees, apple trees and miles of olive groves. This peninsula is a hidden treasure of Greece. At this time of year (early June), it was not crowded and temps are wonderful. Cool at night and warm during the day. We are making the loop of the area.
The architecture in the villages is not what you see on the other islands – more European and less Turkish. Though some of the old buildings in the less wealthy villages are the old style. This car we rented has a little more horsepower for managing the winding steep roads and Bill is enjoying the driving.
I learned a couple of new words on this trip. Kalderimi are the stone-paved paths that linked the upper settlements to the villages and ports, long before there were roads along the coast. These are great hiking trails now and are found throughout the Pelion and the Sporades islands. Another couple of words are archontiki which is an old mansion home and calemi which are the simple farm homes.
Our first stop out of Volos was Makrinitsa, a popular destination in Pelion. Not just because it is only 14KM from the city of Volos but also because it is a beautiful traditional village. The houses are a traditional Pelion architecture which looks more like something you would find in Germany, built up the mountain with wood and stone. The plateia is breathtaking with its views of the Gulf, St. John the Baptist church and at least five huge plane trees. We didn’t stay long but would like to go back and we might on this trip.
We drove on, stopping occasionally to take some pictures but not to do any serious exploring. We ended up in the village of Tsagarandes on the Northeast side of the peninsula. I had seen a guest house online that looked nice – Amalthia. This place turned out to be so much better than expected. It is perched up high with views over the Gulf all the way to Skiathos and Skopelos. The driveway up to the house is very steep – for walking and driving. The house has a pool, lots of vegetation and flowers, and is built of stone and wood. Each room has a king size bed and a fireplace. We were glad to arrive and get some rest. With only 4 hours of sleep, a 2 hour boat ride, the passport fiasco and another few hours of driving, we were tired. We had a fabulous late afternoon dinner at Agnandi in the Plateia of Tsagarnandos, then home to sleep and rest till morning. The plane tree (platanos) in the plateia is supposed to be eight hundred years old. The four sided fountain in the plateia runs fresh mountain water continuously and is used by the restaurants to fill their water pitchers for the tables.
Both evenings we ate at Agnandi restuarant in the Plateia. My favorite new local dish is Spetsofai, grilled spicy sausages cooked with peppers. The temperature in the moutains was much cooler and there was fresh water running through all the villages. You can fill your water bottles from any of the many fountains built into roadside walls.
Friday June 9th, 2017
The sun was out on Friday so we could do some more driving and exploring. We’ve decided to stay another night at this guest house. Breakfast isn’t served until 9am so we took a hike down to the village to look for coffee but everything was closed up at 8:30 am. We found a little path going up through the woods. It was a bit challenging that early in the morning but it brought us right next to our guest house. Later in the evening we took that same path down and back up for our evening dinner.
Our first driving stop was at the monastery of Panagia Lampidona located in the an area with the same name, Lampidona. It was a quiet little monastery. We found one young nun tending the flowers. She opened up the church and let us in and answered some questions. In Greek she tried to explain the history of this monastery. Apparently it had been built in 1725 but had been closed recently for almost 100 years. It is dedicated to a Greek sailor on a distressed Turkish ship who was rescued at sea after praying to Virgin Mary who supposedly shone a light to guide the ship and its crew to safety. The nearby beach and village have the same name – Lampidona which means light or lantern in Greek. The beach was beautiful and deserted except for proprietor of the snack shop. The village itself looked anything but enlightened. All the buildings around the plateia were shuttered up with no tavern or shops. The houses looked run down. Not much is happening in Lampinou.
The drive towards the Southern tip of Pelion varied between spectacular coastal vistas, soaring cliffs, rolling olive groves, thick forests and old villages. We only stopped in a town called Millina on the Western coast. Today it was very quiet but there were miles of tavernas and shops, mostly eateries across the street from a paralia (boardwalk/pedestrian sidewalk).
We drove all the way to Agia Kyriaki at the southern tip of Pelion. A lovely seafood lunch at an “ouzerie” looking over the village and fishing boats and beyond you could see the mainland of Greece.
Started our trip home around 4pm, stopping to swim on a western beach near Avra. Actually it wasn’t near anything – miles of road with very few cars and no one in or on the water. Clear, cool but not cold. Nice memorable stop.
Tomorrow we will hit some of the other “not to miss” villages as we head back towards Volos. Milies, Vizitsa, and some of the West coast beaches closer to Volos.
A herd of sheep in mid afternoon taking their siesta. The herd was gathered together under a shade tree with no sign of the shepherd. They were all facing the same direction with their heads down fast asleep. Amazing.
Saturday June 10th
Milopatomas (which means apple river) had some beautiful beaches. We hiked down past what looked like a private church, through the woods and up to Hotel Faros which sits at the top of an olive grove that tumbles down the mountain. The swimming was diving off the rocks and some kids were having a big time. Looked like a fun place to stay sometime for only 55 euros per night, breakfast included.
We drove through and stopped at several picturesque villages as we made our way to the South Coast. Millies, Vizitz and Agios Georgios – each unique and charming in their own way. In Millies, preparations were underway for a wedding and reception in the plateia. We popped into the church – Agios Taxiarchos which opens up into the plateia. I would have to say this was one of the most beautiful churches we’ve seen on this trip. It was built about 400 years ago during the Ottoman empire as a “secret” church. It only had a few windows up high, no bell tower or dome or exterior cross that would mark it as a Christian building. To make up for the austere exterior, the inside was painted with frescoes by a monk from Mount Athos who spent a lifetime painting the scenes. The Taxiarches are the archangels Michael and Gabriel. The church is supposed to have amazing acoustics because of ceramic vases place in the ceiling – which were only discovered after an earthquake damaged the roof. This village didn’t even exist until the 15th century when people from Evia migrated to the Pelion to escape the Turks. Milies was the site of an important library and a school for science in the 19th century. Greek literary tradition was kept alive in these Pelion villages by patriot-scholars and priests during the Turkish occupation. We visited a little museum with the history of the village. The exhibits and the explanation by the lady working there were all in Greek.
In Vizitsa we had lunch in their plateia. Spetsofai again with greens and a hortapita to go. Yum. All for 18 euros. It is a sweet village, fairly quiet today, with water running down the village. However, quiet it may be, Google Maps pops up and asks me if I’d like to upload the picture I just took for this restuarant to Google maps.
As we continued our drive to the South coast, we drove through Ano Lechnoia which was a trip tthrough old Greece. Most of the houses were the old style stone farm houses with little renovations. There were a few newer modern looking summer homes but very few signs that they got much of the tourism in the summer.
The beach towns on the Southern coast did not strike us as appealing. They were sprawling, over built, and looked rundown. We looked at a couple of rooms in Platanidea – they were dumps and had no views. The nearby town of Agria was lively and had the first ATM that we’d seen all weekend. So we went back to Makrinitsa, our first stop in this journey and the sweetest. We found a room in an archnotiki that looks down on the trees that hug the plateia. With our windows open we could hear all the talking, the bells ringing. It had a shared living area in the Turkish style with a small balcony that looked down the mountains to the sea. Perfect spot for 50e for the night.
Not everything in Greece is cute and charming like you see in these pictures. There are many old homes that are abandoned and falling apart. Even in the villages that are thriving. And some towns that aren’t on the tourist route look like ghost towns. With the current financial crisis, there are many taxes on properties that many just can’t afford.
From Conde Naste Traveler
“The Pelion peninsula pokes out into the Aegean and then bends back towards the mainland about halfway between Athens and Thessaloniki. The city of Volos and its port sit at the top of this huge bay, Mount Pelion towering above them. And a ridge of hills runs down from the mountain to the southernmost tip, its slopes as thick with chestnut forests and olive groves as they are with myths. Jason and his Argonauts sailed from Pagasae near Volos in search of the golden fleece. The forested hills were home to the centaurs, half-man, half-horse, and in a cave on the slopes of Mount Pelion, the semi-divine centaur Chiron instructed Achilles before the hero went to war. This was where gods and mortals feasted together: it was at one of these that Paris was asked to choose the most beautiful woman in all the world, a conversation that led to the Trojan War. More recently, but still long ago, Christian monks came in search of retreat. Like the more famous Mount Athos, on the other side of Thessaloniki, Pelion is dotted with monasteries, some still thriving, some dating to the time of the Crusades.”