5 May - Farewell to Mainland Greece

OK... I know it has been a while since an update... but we have been busy!! Here it goes...

Theview from Platamon

Our mainland tour of Greece was coming to an end.  We drove from Katerini to Athens.  We stopped again at Platamon Castle.  This time we got to have a look inside. The castle has seen a couple of lives.  As is common (in Greece), the early castle was built over with a later castle (a Venetian Castle of circa 14^th /15^th  century).  The castle’s purpose was warning/protection against pirates in the Aegean Sea.  The view is fantastic (would have been more fantastic if not for poor weather).

Platamon Castle... up close.

Back on the road!  A few hours driving interspersed with a couple of comfort stops.

Thermopylae

Then we stopped at a section of coastal plain.  Many centuries ago it was very narrow but now it has broadened because of silting from the river to the north.  We were at Thermopylae!  There is a statue of King Leonidas, commemorating the defence of the 300 Spartans (and a couple of thousand other Greeks) against the million strong Persian army of Xerxes.  The site is very simple, there is no museum just the statue and a second monument to the other Greeks, and a storyboard that gives the basic facts.  Regardless, it was still ‘special’ to be at Thermopylae knowing the history and the now iconic status.

 

Farewell to Anthony!

On the bus!!  Last leg to Athens.  We went to a restaurant (not far from Piraeus… the port of Athens).  Some more great food! And time to farewell our bus driver, Anthony. There are a few protective rules about who works on Crete and therefore we would get a new Cretan driver.  Anthony, was an excellent bus driver… he could get the bus into locations, park and turn around when most of us ‘back seat drivers’ thought it impossible.  In addition to that, he was a great guy who was prepared to help… and he had become a friend!  So it was a sad moment.

The ferry to Crete.

Anthony’s last task was to take us to the pier to catch the ferry.  The ferry was a monster: several hundred people, semi-trailers, and hundreds of cars.  Our tour group were booked into cabins.  It was a case of a couple of nightcaps and off to bed… we would wake up at the port of Hania in Crete!