As
ever, it was difficult to leave Meteora, it is such a beautiful place
and I always want to stay longer. We were still given presents when
we left the campsite. Only a small icon this time (we had only stayed
one night), a copy of an old drawing of Meteora, a campsite sticker,
a 15% off voucher (I am sure that we had one of those before but
didn't bring it) and a lovely A3 photograph showing two of the
monasteries. The latter is now on Henrietta's wall and the icon will
join the other two larger icons, also from Kastraki Camping.
The
journey today was across the Plain of Thessaly, a huge and very
fertile agricultural area. The main crops were wheat and cotton,
although there were many others that we couldn't identify. There was
also a much more modern crop, solar power, with many fields of solar
panels using the abundant supply of the sun's powerful rays.
We
saw evidence of the economic cutbacks when we came across a major
road improvement had been halted. In some cases only the white lines
were missing from the closed carriageways but in others the open
carriageway was like a rough sea where they has slapped a thin layer
of asphalt on the bare ground. This went on for many miles and the
Greek authorities had done what they always do and had set a 50 km/hr
(30 mph) limit on the whole stretch. The Greek drivers did what they
always do, totally ignored it and drove through most of it at 90
km/hr. I ignored it too. Most of the time the road was as straight as
a Roman road, totally flat and in perfect condition.
Jane
read the excellent Blue Guide to Greece and found a number of
archaeological sites close to Volos, the most interesting of which
were in Nea Anchialos. We did follow earlier signs to a prehistoric
site but when we found ourselves driving up a hill through an almond
grove on a dirt track, we gave up. The lady who was picking the
almonds gave us a bemused look as we passed her but didn't seem at
all surprised when we came back the other way.
After
that experience, we decided to stick to sites that we could see from
the road and as we drove through Nea Anchialos, we saw one. It was
closed to the public but could be viewed from the streets that
surrounded it. It was an early Christian churc
It
was lunchtime and we had parked outside a small café so we decided
to eat there. We had two different shapes of tyropitta (Greek cheese
pie) - I had the plain shape whilst Jane had the fancy spiral shape.
They were very good, stuffed full with cheese. We washed those down
with the best frappe (cold coffee) that we have had and all of that
cost €5.70 (£5).
Just
along the street we could see another tourist sign and walking to it
we found another site but this was open to the public for another 20
minutes. The sign on the gate read 'Entrance €2, Cash Price €1' -
we paid €2 each. We did a lightning tour of the site and read the
accompanying English leaflet that told us about this and other early
Christian (and other) sites in the area. Annoyingly, it didn't have a
map to show the locations of the sites. Al of the churches that we
saw dated to the 5th or 6th centuries and were richly decorated with
mosaics, pillars and beautifully carved capitols. Ritual bathing
seems to have been very important and there were many baths.
On
then to Volos where we purchased some ferry tickets before heading
for Kato Gatzea and Sykia Camping on the Pelion Peninsula.
Photos: A
column capitol from the 5th century basilica of St.
Dimitri in Nea Anchialos; This caravan seemed to have been at the
campsite for some time!
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