Friday 25th April 2008

I went to reception again this morning only to find it closed again so I went to see one of the campers. Needless to say, they are all Greek but I luckily chose one who spoke a little English. He told me that the campsite was closed and only people who had permanent pitches were there! There were no office staff but there was a caretaker who was often around the site. Fortunately, whilst we were talking, he spotted the caretaker and I ran over to intercept him. He spoke less English but I think that he understood that we would be away for three days, returning on Monday. With a bit of luck there will be somebody to pay then as he thinks that the office staff may be there.
We packed far too much into a suitcase and had lunch before Glenn arrived at two o'clock. It was easy to spot him in the car with the English numberplate and we greeted each other with broad smiles. After picking up Jane and the heavy suitcase, we gave Glenn the obligatory and quick guided tour of our palatial temporary home and then set off. We passed through Tyros Beach and climbed up the hill to Sapounakeika – we had a quick lesson on the pronunciation and I am sure that we will get the hang of it before we go. The road became narrower and narrower until it was just an alleyway and I was glad that Jane was in the back of the car, probably with her eyes closed. Glenn guided the car expertly round bends and passed steps with only an inch or two on either side before reaching the house and dropping us off. Venice was there to welcome us, along with Sam the black Labrador and the 31 year old parrot, Rosie.
The house is in a spectacular position, high on a hill with breathtaking views over Tyros Beach and the sea to the Akte Peninsular and the island of Spetses. It is everything that I would want if I ever bought a house in Greece – an old house in a small village, renovated in traditional style but with all mod cons and, of course, that view. Built into the hillside, one enters on the top floor with its kitchen and living rooms and then descend to the bedrooms. The original alcoves and wall cupboards had been preserved and the whitewashed walls and blue painted window frames gave that wonderful clean and light appearance so typical of Greek houses.
Glenn and Venice had seen the old abandoned house when they visited their old friends Nigel and Wendy in Sapounakeika last year for Greek Easter and fell in love with it and its position. Within the space of just a few days before they had to return to England, they had the house inspected by a builder, got an estimate of the building costs, agreed a price with the seller, opened a bank account and signed contracts. Quite some achievement! Then came the small matter of sorting out everything at home as they intended to sell their house in Somerset and move out to Greece. After 20 odd years of living in the same house, there was much to sort out and many trips to the local tip. In August, Glenn drove to Greece with the car stuffed full of possessions and arrived in Sapounakeika with only two night stops on the way. They had rented the house above theirs for the short time before the house would be ready. This meant that they were able to sit on the balcony and watch the work on the house. That was the theory but they often found themselves watching nothing happening. The original deadline of the end of August came and went, then September, October and November. As Christmas approached, they took decisive action. To the builder's disbelief, they carried out their threat and moved into the house that had no doors and windows. Glenn rigged up a temporary front door and covered the windows to keep the worst of the weather out. The builder was shamed into action and carpenters, plumbers and electricians galore appeared and the house finally started to take shape. It was worth the hassle – they have a beautiful house.
One of the big advantages of an old house is that it has established grounds. Their house had vines, olive trees, lemon trees (too many!), orange trees and a family tree (an orange tree with a lemon grafted on so that the tree has both fruits). Glenn had created a number of vegetable patches with all manner of plants – french beans, broccoli, aubergines, courgettes, potatoes, okra, potatoes, tomatoes, beetroot, celery, carrots and squash, to name but a few. It was great chatting to them and hearing about their plans for the future. Venice has been finding recipes for lemons as they have so many that they cannot possibly use them all. They can't give them away as all of the neighbours are inundated with them. We have already been told that we can take as many as we want with us when we go. The Lemon Pickle and Lemon Curd are especially good and we are attempting to eat as much of them as possible whilst they are still available!
Photos: The Reunion – Glenn, Venice and us.

Thursday 24th April 2008

We didn't have far to go to get to the campsite identified by Glenn at Ziritsi Beach but we wanted to stop at an interesting site on the way. We stopped at the Champion supermarket as I wanted to buy some bread and meat. Jane stayed in the van (“supermarketed out”) and she thought that she had lost me! I joined a queue at the butcher but I was third, so I knew that it wouldn't take too long. The couple of ladies at the front of the queue had a brief discussion with the lady butcher and she got some pork from the cold room. She deftly cut this up into chops – lots of them, then she got some more out and did the same, then she took the chops from the display, then she got more from the cold room and then more again. Each time we thought that she had finished, but it was just to give us false hope! To amuse myself, I started counting how much they were buying – 45 kg of pork chops – and tried to avoid the eyes of the prettily displayed sheep heads. With that over, it was the turn of the couple in front of me and the butcher got a whole lamb from the cold room . For a moment I thought that she was going to cut it into portions but, fortunately, she just put it in a giant plastic bag and handed it to the couple with the back legs sticking out of the end. They were going to have a lovely spit-roasted lamb on Easter Sunday. And then it was my turn – two chicken breasts. After half an hour, I emerged from the supermarket – I would not have waited if I had realised how long it was going to take.
On then through Nafplio to the House of Tiles at Mili (one of the few fairly obvious Greek town names - Mills). As our guidebook says, this sounds like a shop but it actually a site that was occupied from the Neolithic (6,000 BC) up to Roman times and was even occupied during the Second World War when the Germans built pillboxes there, damaging much of the Roman remains. However, the most interesting aspect of the site concerns the time around 2,200 BC when the pre-Greek speaking people built a very large building (82ft by 40ft) close to a large number of other dwellings. This building is unique for this period, not only because of its size but also its sophistication. It was a two storey house with a stone-built first storey and a mud brick second storey with a roof covered with square tiles, many of which were found during the excavation (hence the name of the site). Walls were plastered and prepared for frescoes but these were never completed as the house was burned down. At this time other sites were also burned and it has been deduced that they were attacked, possibly by a people from Troy who may have been have also been the first Greek speaking settlers. The next people who occupied the site did something rather strange, they covered the collapsed house with a large mound of earth. This was a lot of effort to go to and meant that they could not use the land for building nor could they reuse the stone from the building, the common practice when building over an existing site. Why did they do this? Did it have some sacred significance or was it in respect of the previous settlers? Nobody knows!
We drove on down the coast and were treated to spectacular views over the sea (it was even clearer today) to the Akte Peninsular on which sits the mountains of Didimo and Aderes. We stopped at the small settlement of Paralio Astros (Astros Beach) and parked the motorhome, flanked by palm trees, and had lunch looking at that lovely view.
Arriving at the campsite, down a long road that turned into a dirt track, there were plenty of people in their caravans but nobody in reception. This is often the case in the middle of the afternoon so we parked up and waited until 17:00. Reception was still unmanned, as it was also at 18:00 – we gave up and decided to find them in the morning. Glenn had kindly offered to pick us up at 14:00 tomorrow, so that gave us plenty of time to find the owners and explain that we were going to be away for the next few days.
Photos: The House of tiles – the main door into the building (on the left) could only be reached down the long corridor (on the right) and round the bend (subsequently cut by a Mycenaean tomb. It is thought that this was a precursor to the labyrinthine entrances to Mycenaean palaces; A wild flower at the House of Tiles; View over to the Akte Peninsular; Chapels are everywhere in Greece. I decided that this one, at Astros Beach, must be dedicated to the patron saint of quarrymen. Given the safety standards of Greek quarries that I have seen, they need some protection!

Wednesday 23rd April 2008

We decided to stay another day at Tolo and started by having breakfast outside. We had been doing this ever since the weather became hot and today was going to be very warm, at 08:30 it was over 20°C and very pleasant sat in the sun. Over the last two days we had been watching a pair of tits ferrying supplies of wriggling bugs to their nest in the olive tree next to our pitch. Surprisingly, the nest was very low, less than a metre above ground but it was deep in a natural cleft in the tree. When the parents were away, I went up to the tree and could hear the extremely faint chirping of at least three tiny chicks. They must have been very young but were well protected – I couldn't see them and the gap was so small that even a cat's paw wouldn't fit in. This was fortunate because there were at least four campsite cats and one was almost invariably sat by the motorhome, hoping that we would feed it. Today there were no cats, so I set up the camera on a tripod at a distance from the tree and waited. Keeping very still, my patience was rewarded when the parents returned. Although originally concerned that the scene had changed, they soon returned to their normal routine and posed nicely at the entrance to the nest.
When we walked into Tolo yesterday it was quite hazy in the distance but today was much clearer. We were heading for an Internet café with Wifi. We had spent a hour on the Internet at the campsite yesterday but were unable to get the laptop to recognise their wireless network and had to use their computer. This has happened once before on the Odyssey and must be due to some incompatibility between the laptop wireless adaptor and the wireless router. However, trying to have a technical discussion about wireless protocols with a Greek in a campsite is a non-starter, so it will have to remain a mystery. We got to the Internet café only to find that it was closed for another hour and a half but we had other things to do and had promised ourselves an ice cream from the scrumptious collection offered at a shop at the other end of the main street. On the way we discovered another Internet café that was open – no Wifi but we were able to plug the laptop into their network. We updated the virus protection and Microsoft security patches, downloaded many BBC podcasts and wrote lots of emails. Two and a half hours later, we were dying for an ice cream and the 'cream and sour cherry' did not disappoint!
Back to Henrietta then for homemade 'Soutzoukakia Smyrneika' (spicy sausages from Smyrna) a lovely dish made from minced beef, breadcrumbs, a beaten egg, garlic and cumin, rolled into sausage shapes and baked in a hot oven (or fried, if preferred). They are served with a thick tomato sauce and we had them with rice and fresh flat green beans.
Photos: Our pitch at Tolo with the Tit's olive tree in the foreground; The Tit at the entrance to its nest that is deep down inside the hole.

Tuesday 22nd April 2008

Our plot at the campsite is on a terraced hill with a view of the acropolis of Ancient Asine that is positioned on the neighbouring hill between us and the sea. We walked down to the site entrance, beside the hill of the acropolis and on into Tolo. Two kilometres later we arrived at the small port of Tolo and the Hotel Minoa that we stayed in 25 years ago on our first visit here. It hadn't changed much, still up-market although more pretentious with its columned entrance and elaborate dining table and chair coverings. The charm however was still there with the entrance literally on the beach and nothing to spoil the view of the boats and the islands in the bay. We took a last minute holiday here when I desperately needed a break from working all hours (day, night and weekends) at Foster Yeoman. My very supportive director suggested that I took a break and it did me the power of good. Simon was still a baby and we have happy memories of sitting out on chairs on the beach in the evening directly below our open bedroom window, listening for any cries from Simon. He was a very good sleeper (once you could get him to sleep) and, although we checked him regularly, we were very rarely required. The Minoa was one of very few hotels in Tolo at the time but the town is much bigger now with many hotels and hundreds of rooms to rent. It was outside the Minoa that we saw an intriguing sight. A family drove on to the beach in their car (this was and is a common sight in Tolo where the beach is used as a road, providing the only access to some of the buildings), the father of the family got out and extracted a net from the boot. The net was circular with weights around the edge and, after inspecting the sea for a few minutes, he spun the net around and threw it into the sea. As it flew, it opened into a perfect circle and landed on the water. The man then waded out into the sea, which was very shallow, retrieved the net and emptied its contents into a bucket. He did this three times and with a considerable catch of small fish, he got back into the car and drove off. We decided that they were going off for a picnic and he had just caught their lunch in the space of less than 15 minutes. Very impressive.
We walked for a while along the beach and picked up supplies from a butcher, a small supermarket and a grocer. On returning to Henrietta, I put the pork in a marinade of lemon juice, oil, garlic and herbs – Souvlaki Hirini (Pork Kebabs) for dinner.
Photos: Tolo beach with a very over to one of the many islands in the bay; The fondly-remembered Hotel Minoa.

Monday 21st April 2008

We arrived at the car park at Mycenae to find four coaches and quite a few cars but there was plenty of room for Henrietta. This was our fifth visit to Mycenae but it has never lost its charm and the first view of it, the ruins crowded on a low hill surrounded by mountains, is quite magical. The depth of history here is incredible, occupied from 3,000 BC and with evidence from that date through many centuries. In 1350 BC the Cyclopean Walls (so called because later peoples believed that only a giant like Cyclops could have built them) were raised but a palace existed well before then. The walls are constructed of huge stones averaging 6 tonnes and remain very impressive to this day.
It seems that each time that we visit, more of the site is cordoned off and this time, being out of season, they were doing much work on the site. Walls were being consolidated by removing the rocks of the drystone wall and replacing them with mortar between. This was done using detailed photographs so that the walls were put back exactly as they had been. In another area the grass was being cut and the Grave Circle and the Megaron on the acropolis were both roped off for reasons known only to the guardians. Although this was initially a disappointment, in some ways it was an advantage as the constant stream of coaches were depositing a huge number of visitors who would have been climbing all over these areas. The nature of the site means that it is possible to look down on almost all of the roped-off areas and we were able to see them without them being covered in people.
Being a Monday, the museum didn't open until noon, but we were able to walk to the 'Treasury of Atreus' (dated to 1300 BC), also known as 'Agamemmon's Tomb'. Both of these are incorrect and it is actually the tomb of Atreus, the treasury tag was added because it was thought that King Atreus kept his treasure there. The tomb has a huge 120 foot dromos (entrance) leading to the beehive shaped tholos tomb that is 48 feet high and over 47 feet in diameter. There are nine such tombs at Mycenae but this is the largest and is the one that attracts all of the visitors, especially all of the coach trips. There are two other tholos tombs just inside the entrance to the main site but hardly any visitors find their way there.
We had noticed on the way to the tomb that there were now so many coaches in the car park that Henrietta was completely blocked in and when we passed by again on the way to the museum, even more coaches had crammed in. Despite the crowds, the museum was very good, well presented with good information boards in English. It is easy to think of Mycenae just as the acropolis and the Treasury of Atreus but the museum makes it clear that there were houses out side of the city walls and many of the finds come from cemeteries on the hills all around the city.
We drove on to Nafplio and stopped at the harbour for lunch, overlooking the sea and the island fort in the bay. Given the temperature (nearly 30°C again), we decided to drive on the few miles to Tolo and Camping Sunset. Here we got out our table and chairs and relaxed in the shade.
Photos: View of Mycenae with new excavations at the foot of the acropolis hill; Mycenae Grave Circle A; The golden death mask from the grave circle, part of the more than 14 kg of gold found there; The 'Treasury of Artreus' – you need to imagine the doorway with two green columns (in the Athens museum), two huge wooden doors and the triangle (a device for spreading the weight above the door to the sides) covered with a red marble plaque with spiral patterns (fragments in the British Museum). The stone slab over the doorway is huge and is estimated to weigh 119 tonnes.

Sunday 20th April 2008

I was woken at 07:00 by the sound of chiming from a local chapel. Before the churches could afford bells, the faithful were called to prayer by striking a suspended wooden plank with two wooden mallets. This is done in a rhythmic way and by hitting the plank in different areas, it produces different notes. The sound is very pleasant and it carries for a long distance. Later, the wooden plank was replaced with a metal plate and finally, when funds allowed, bells were installed. Monasteries and some rural village churches still use the old devices and it was the metal plate of a local chapel that we heard this morning sending out its rhythmic call. Jane slept through that but heard the second chiming from a different chapel at 07:30. At 08:30 the bells of the church singled the start of the Palm Sunday (or Greek Orthodox equivalent) service. Thoughtfully, for those that are unable to attend, loudspeakers are mounted outside the church and important services are broadcast on these to the whole of the village. I am tempted to say that the sound was of a dirge suitable for Holy Week but Greek Orthodox chanting always sounds like that, although it is actually quite pleasant and relaxing. So in this way we were treated to an hour of chanting over our breakfast.
We wanted to take a minor road over the mountains and past two archaeological sites but our map showed that part of the road was not asphalted and we were concerned that it would not be suitable for Henrietta. I asked about this at the taverna last night and they were very helpful, finding someone else who spoke English and also knew the road. He explained that it was all “good road” and gave us directions as to where to turn.
We drove back to the main road and, on our way to our first turning we passed a war memorial for 1940-48 erected in 1991 by Greek ex-patriots from Sydney, Australia. At the bottom of the memorial was a bomb stuck in the earth with a sign in Greek and English stating “This bomb is worthy of your spitting and if you have any sense at all don't use it”.
We were surrounded by mountains and soon after we turned off the main road, we started climbing. We soon arrived at Likouria where Ancient Likouria was also sited. However, we saw no sign to it or of it, so we decided to continue and then we really started climbing. I hardly got Henrietta out of second gear until we reached the pass. All of the time we had excellent views down over modern Likouria and probably ancient Likouria, although we didn't know where it was. When we went through the pass we were presented with a spectacular view of a huge plain hundreds of metres below us. This was the Pheneos valley and like Stymfalia that we were to visit later, it has interesting geology that means that part of it floods in the Spring when the mountain snows melt, creating a lake but the water then disappears down sink holes. In the case of Pheneos, the lake is fairly short-lived and there was no water visible when we were there. However the valley is very fertile and it was a sea of green crops interlaced with reddy-brown ploughed soil. We wound our way down the zig-zag road to the valley floor and headed round the edge to the village of Ancient Pheneos and a sign directing us to the site (0.5 km) and the museum (1 km). We arrived at the museum without seeing the site and found that the museum closed on Sundays. We then retraced our route on foot to find the site – if it was there, it was very well hidden. We gave up and set off again, only to find a sign to the site some 2 km outside the village in the opposite direction to the original sign! The excavated part of the site was very small but had an interesting history being an important site for the worship of Hermes.
We moved on towards Stymfalia, crossing over another pass that provided views of both valleys. Stymfalia has a permanent lake but it increases significantly in Spring and, like Pheneos, much of the lake disappears down sink holes. If the sink holes become blocked (this has happened in living memory), it can cause serious floods. On the other hand, if there is little Winter rain, the lake can disappear. This happened for two years in 1997 and 1998, but when the lake returned, it had good-sized fish and marine life in it. This has lead scientists to the conclusion that there must be underground reservoirs of water that the fish were in but they have not been able to locate them. We stopped at a large lay-by overlooking the lake and, walking out on to the edge of the hill, we discovered that we were on the acropolis of Ancient Stymfalia. There were remains of a building (temple?) on the acropolis and evidence of the rest of the city lay on the hill and lower ground surrounding it. We had lunch looking over the lake, listening to the cacophony of frogs and birds in the lake. The ancient Greeks believed that the Gods controlled the flooding and that the people were being punished, for example by Artemis for not observing her worship properly. Now flooding is attributed to earthquakes or human error.
We drove on to Nemea only to find that it closed at 15:00 and we arrived at 16:00. Luckily, one of the custodians took pity on us and let us in to look at the site. Please keep this quiet, I don't want to get her into trouble!
After spending 15 minutes going in the wrong direction, we turned around and headed for Mycenae. We found the campsite (Camping Atreus) chose a plot and settled in. By chants (sic) we found ourselves near another church (not difficult in Greece) and the evening service started with the loudspeaker broadcast of the priest. It had been another glorious day and the temperature had reached 27-28°C and, with the evening temperature a very pleasant 22-23°C, we decided to cook and eat outside. Whilst we dined on barbecued pork chops, we listened to the chanting from the the church mixed with the sound of the little owls hunting – amazingly atmospheric.
Photos: Beehives near Stymfalia – honey is very important to the Greeks and mountain honey is particularly prized. This is honey production on a large scale!; Stymfalia lake from the acropolis of ancient Stymfalia.

Saturday 19th April 2008

Happy Birthday to me
Happy Birthday to me
Martin is fifty three
Happy Birthday to me
Just think yourselves lucky that you don't have to listen to me singing it!
We woke and I was greeted by “Happy Birthday Martin – you are as old as me now” from Jane. I think that it should have been “as young as me”, but there we go.
The saying is that one should “beware Greeks baring gifts” but I have rarely found this to be the case. Tackling Manolis, the campsite owner, and asking him whether he wanted any money for our stay, he insisted that he didn't and wished us a good stay in Greece. In return we wished him good luck for the completion of his work and for his first major test of the season, Easter, next weekend.
We took the old national road West along the coast, turning inland on the road to Kalavrita and started the long climb up into the mountains. The scenery was spectacular and we started to see shepherds and flocks of sheep and goats. When we stopped to admire the view, the sound of their bells drifted over the mountain and also the sound of the shepherd whistling. Some of the shepherds had dogs to control the sheep and goats but most didn't, just using whistles to direct the flock. Having read 'Driving over Lemons' by Chris Stewart, it appears that Spanish (or at least Alpajuran) shepherds do exactly the same. It makes me wonder how long it takes the sheep and goats to learn the meaning of the whistles. I don't think of them being as intelligent as a dog and there are a lot to train. Back on the road, driving through the flocks became quite common, with some proving quite difficult to move. Mind you, I didn't try whistling, perhaps that would have worked?
Our first stop was the oldest monastery in Greece, Mega Spileo (Big Cave). The monastery was founded in 362 AD at the spot where a shepherdess (Saint Efrosyni) noticed that one of her goats disappeared and returned later with a wet beard. She was directed by the voice of the Virgin Mary and discovered the holy spring in the cave and next to it an icon of the Virgin Mary and Jesus. We were told that the icon, in wax and mastic, was 2,000 years old, which is interesting as it meant that, as experts tell us that Jesus was actually born in 4 AD, that would make Jesus 4 years old! However, we read later that tradition says that it dates from 40 AD, is the work of the disciple Luke and is the first icon showing the Virgin Mary. It is also said that the Virgin Mary actually blessed the icon. You can imagine that all of this makes the monastery very important in the Greek Orthodox world. It is a fascinating place with beautiful views over the mountains and valley. We didn't have to pay an entrance fee, so I decided that we should buy something from the shop. We chose a tiny copy of the famous icon for €1.50 (for Jane to stick on the wall of the motorhome) and, as it was my birthday and Jane couldn't object, I bought an incredibly naff and very roughly made mug. It was either made in the monastery or the local asylum – the quality of the pottery is terrible and the painting on the mug is just awful. A great Greek souvenir!
The story of a discovered spring and a miraculous icon is a recurrent theme in Greece. Springs were often sacred sites in ancient Greek times, being a source of life-sustaining water that appears mysteriously from the ground. With the spread of Christianity, it was necessary to remove pagan worship whilst maintaining some continuity. Therefore at many such sacred sites, springs were (re-)discovered and icons miraculously appeared allowing them to become sites for Christian worship. This is also the reason why many Greek mountain and hill tops have a white Christian chapel perched on the top, normally named Profitis Ilias, an adaptation of Helios, the sun god.
There appeared to be some interesting marked walks in the area but we decided to move on to our next stop, the village of Kalavrita. This was the site of a appalling massacre in the Second World War when on December 13th 1943, in revenge for the death of 4 German soldiers, the Nazis gathered the entire male population of the village together and shot them. Over 1,200 men and boys died and it was only the actions of an Austrian soldier that saved the women and children. The Nazis had locked them in the church and set it on fire but when the troops were leaving the village, the soldier broke ranks and went back to unlock the church. Kalavrita, together with many other villages in the area where other massacres of men took place, became a village of widows and children. One can imagine the hardship and poverty that this caused. There is now a museum in the village dedicated to the horrors of war and we visited the memorial to the dead that is sited on the hillside above the village. It is a very moving memorial with the names and ages of the dead listed and a shrine full of brass lamps dedicated to them.
After visiting the Internet café in the town and collecting many 'happy birthday' emails, we drove on past the signs to the ski resort but decided to change our original plan of reaching Lake Stymfalia – this would have meant rushing the journey and we wanted to enjoy it. Jane had read about an interesting village called Planitero, which was only a short distance off our route. Planitero has a generous supply of fast flowing water and trout and this has lead to a number of restaurants being established. There were no campsites in the area and we needed somewhere to stay. There were places to wild camp but I decided to throw ourselves on the mercy of a restaurant owner on the basis of 'we will have a meal here if you allow us to park overnight'. We selected the nicest looking restaurant with space to park Henrietta and I asked the question. It worked a treat, we parked up close to the river on the edge of the village and went off to investigate it. We passed a working watermill where the miller showed us the two millstones and a place for cleaning rugs (as the guidebook said) or perhaps, more likely, fulling where the water shot down a metal pipe into a wood-lined hole. The mill wheels are mounted horizontally under the millstones and the water falling at force from above hits the blades of the wheel that are set at an oblique angle. The direct connection of the wheel to the stones allows for no gearing and must require a considerable force of water. The miller spoke no English but I was able to ask for some flour after checking that it was suitable for bread. All I have to do now is find time to use it!
After watching a dozen herds of goats and sheep returning to the village with their shepherds – young, old, male and female – we decide that it was time to eat. The taverna that we had chosen had its own trout ponds and, as we sat on a balcony overlooking them and the river, we watched locals coming to buy trout. They would be fished out of the pond with a net, put onto the scales and then into a blue carrier bag. The purchaser would then walk off with the wriggling plastic bag slung over his shoulder. Meanwhile we chose our food, sipped at the litre of local white wine and drank glasses of clear mountain water. I chose one of my all-time favourite Greek dishes – Gigantes – giant white beans cooked in a tomato sauce. Jane chose Tzatziki (yoghurt, cucumber and garlic dip) and we both dug into each other's dishes. For the main course it had to be trout – Jane chose it fried with mountains of almonds whilst I had it baked in a hot oven with peppers, horta (mountain greens), onions, carrots, courgettes and lots of olive oil. The Greek salad that came with it had no olives (unusual in Greece) but had lashings of olive oil. We chatted to the waitress after the meal and she told us that it was traditional in the village to serve all dishes with lots of olive oil – a real luxury these days given the high price of the oil. A fantastic meal in a lovely location and overnight parking and all for £24! We walked the 20 metres back to Henrietta and fell asleep to the sound of the bubbling mountain stream and the low rumble of the water cascading into the trout ponds.
This was the first birthday that I can remember having without any birthday cards or formal presents. However, I can't think of a better present than what I had today – on the Odyssey with Jane, in a Greek mountain village, enjoying a lovely meal on a gloriously warm Spring evening. Simply magical.
Photos: Mega Spelio Monastery in its dramatic setting; Goats on the route; Kalavrita – the shrine to those murdered by the Nazis; The miller at Planitaro.