One of the worries we had about this adventure; was it sensible to get into a cramped plane with 150 other potentially infected people and spend 3 hours breathing the same stale air.
That was two weeks ago so I guess we did not pick up covid 19 on the flight as we are both feeling well. The Greeks are fairly reckless with most health and safety measures, the only people who wear crash helmets on bikes are tourists (the Greeks have them in a box at the back or hanging from the handlebars as it is compulsory to have one, they just don’t wear them) and seatbelts in cars are rarely worn, they actually sell seat belt blanks so you can con the car into thinking you are strapped in. But somehow they have embraced the covid precautions in spirit as well as to the letter. When you enter a restaurant you are chastised if you are not wearing a face mask until you are sitting down, all the waiters wear them and everyone in the shops has one on.
Hand sanitizer is everywhere and we have noticed any food we don’t eat such as bread rolls or meats on the breakfast table, go straight in the bin. So we have been feeling safe until today at the motorway toll booth the lady taking our money did not have a mask or gloves, she must meet 1000 people a day. We sprayed ourselves liberally as we moved on only to find exactly the same issue at the next toll booth.
We have now left Thessalonica and are in a tourist hub at the foot of Mount Olympus, on the way we spent an enjoyable few hours at the Roman site of Dion, probably our last ancient site of the holiday you may be pleased to hear.
Apart from the usual bath houses, marble statues and grave goods there were three amazing artefacts (at least to a sad old bloke like me).
An Organ: The archaeologists had seen pictures (mosaics) of Romans playing something that looked like an organ, a few years ago here in Dion they found one. It used air compressed by water to play notes through 24 pipes of different lengths like a small church organ, it seemed to have a keyboard – Rick Wakeman eat your heart out! It is pictured above.
Preformed Well: If we were to build a well today we would dig a big hole, drop a 1m diameter plastic pipe with holes down it and back fill round the pipe with gravel or stones. The water seeps through the gravel, through the holes and fills the well.
Go back 2000 years, the Romans made 1m diameter clay pipe sections with holes in them, they stack together down the hole to make a long pipe, back fill with gravel and hey presto, you have a well.
Gill is pictured with her fingers in a 2000 year orifice, they must have had a seriously large kiln to make such an object.
Plumbing: They had lead pipes in Roman times of course but they were ready made items with the makers name stamped on them, just get your slave to nip down the buildings supplies and pick up what you need.
The picture shows a stop cock in a 2 inch diameter pipe.