Sunday 17th April 2022 – Kastraki, Greece

 

From Jane’s favourite site to my favourite place in Greece – Meteora. We woke to rain and the forecast for today and tomorrow is very poor with lots of rain and temperatures lower than the UK. We had intended to take the non-motorway route today over the mountains but we knew that the views were likely to be very poor and wet, slippery mountain roads did not seen sensible. We therefore decided to take the Egnatia-Odos (E90) toll road. However in a book that I had bought in the museum shop yesterday, I found reference to a site just north of close-by Veria – Mieza. We had plenty of time so we decided to take a look at it. We started at the Nymphaeum of Mieza where it is thought that Alexander the Great was taught mathematics and philosophy by Aristotle. Set by a strong spring where the nymphs played, there is not a lot to see but it does set the imagination racing. We drove the short distance to the ancient theatre via a tomb that was obviously permanently closed to the public. They had restored the theatre and had been excavating the area close by where there were the outlines of buildings. On then to a group of Macedonian tombs, the first of which, the Tomb of Judgement, had an open gate and two custodians. Unfortunately, they explained that the tomb itself was closed due to Covid restrictions but will probably be open again in May. Frustrating but, given the very confined conditions, understandable. None of the other tombs were open although the entrance way and façade of one was visible from the main road.
Despite the forecast of continuous rain, much our journey was done in the dry although the views were not ideal and low cloud often covered the hills. It was also cold and we had to have the van heating on. When we joined the E90 we passed a procession of snowploughs coming the other way, down from the mountains. They had obviously decided that it wasn’t going to snow any more – we weren’t so sure! A little further on there were signs indicating that we should be aware that bears might be on the road but, sadly, we didn’t see any.
We turned off the E90 near Grevena and headed south over high hills before finally descending towards Kalambaka. We started seeing large exposed rock at the side of the road and then we saw Meteora with its huge, towering pillars of rock. It had started to rain as we approached Meteora and low cloud obscured the top of some of the rocks but the sight was still very impressive.
Three nights of camping without waste emptying facilities meant that our grey water tank was full and the toilet cassette was very nearly full. Our first task at Camping Vrachos Kastraki was to empty both and fill up with fresh water – all done in the rain. We selected a pitch with a view of the rocks and later went to the campsite taverna – a welcome facility given that it was only a few steps from the van.

Photos: The Nymphaeum of Mieza – just imagine Aristotle and Alexander; Yet another ancient Greek theatre, this is at Mieza; The Macedonian Tomb of Kinch at Mieze; The view of a small part of the rock pillars of Meteora taken from the campsite.