I hope you did not find yesterdays ramblings too long winded, I will try to waffle less today.
We have how spent three full days on the Pilion peninsular, the sun has shone, the sea has been calm and a lovely shade of turquoise, all the villages have looked splendid and the views in all directions stunning. The picture above shows the view over the city of Volos.
Every Pilion mountain village has a wide square with two or three huge plane trees giving shade to tables and seating for the local taverna which will be situated right next door to the church and a war memorial many of which record the number of villagers killed by the Germans in the war. Three examples are shown below.
Between the villages are ancient cobbled paths called kalderimi which are fine going up but are quite treacherous when going down. Not many seem to be level but perhaps that is just that we don’t remember those so well.
Most of the hillsides are covered with fairly low oak and olive trees. Right at the top of the mountain ridge is a ski resort with five lifts which seems to operate from Christmas to the end of March.
The east coast is quite difficult to reach but has some smashing unspoilt bays including Mylopotamos, pictured, which has the all important taverna (it has two), three small bays and a chapel. There are quite a few holiday homes but none of the package operators venture that far.
On the west coast there are few hills so the beaches are longer. There are a number of low key resorts each with around 10 tavernas and a number of small hotels / apartment blocks. A good example is Kala Nera shown below. None of the beaches have much sand.
Tomorrow we have a long drive to the Gulf of Corinth, expect lots of warm words about the Corinthians in our next blog.