Orei to Skala Atalandis 31 May

Plan today is a 4 hour trip to a little fishing harbour Skala Atalantis. Not sure if we will find a berth there.

One of the numerous dogs on the quay in Orei. They are all quite harmless and actually seem to be accepted by the locals.

Leaving the Channel Orei on a beautiful wind free morning. Beautiful views on bothe sides of the Channel

Entering the northern Gulf of Evia. Even calmer waters and beautiful scenery Along the gulf. We saw only 5 sailing yachts the whole day of which two were anchored in the bay.

The afternoon ritual, the beach!

Dinner at the nearest taverna. Fish for Carl and lamb chops for leslie. Fish is always expensive, sometimes very nice and sometimes not so great. Tonight the fish was good. We are served Greek salad, chips (pommes frites) and toast with olive oil. Not sure if the chips are a snack, to be eaten with the salad or with the main course, because by the time the main course comes the chips are cold. So we eat the chips straight away. Homemade very goods chips.

The wind has come up and we hope that it will die down soon because Lellebelle is hopping around a bit. We have discovered that we have quite a tough day tomorrow when we reach the town of Kalkis. Kalkis is situated on the narrowest part of the Gulf of Evia and we have to pass under a bridge. As far as we understand we have to wait for neap tide. The bridge only opens at night. Hope we have wrong information and that this will not be so bad. The first bridge was built here in 411 BC.

Skiathos to Orei, 30 May

Leaving Skitaloss for a  much bigger island Evia. Went through the Trikeri Channel. This is apparently where the Athenian triremes, ancient vessels, had their first brush with the Persians under Xerxes. Here the Persian fleet  was wrecked by a gale. Do unfortunately not know anything about Xerxes and the Persians.

The Island Evia is long and very close to the main land. We will follow the channel for a couple of days. It is like going the inner route of Orust and Tjorn. First stop in the little town Orei on the north coast of Evia. 

But first a last look at Skiathos, a great place and especially pleasant for us for having met our Malmö friends there.

After a mostly calm ride over quite a flat sea we arrived in a delightful little village, Orei, on the northern coast of the island Evia. Made our own Greek salad for brunch. Delicious salad with such  tasty tomatoes, could live on it. We are berthed right next to all the tavernas.

Lellebelle in the little harbour in Orei.

The beach is 10 metres away and that's where we spent the afternoon. 

Travelled from Skiathos through the Trikeri channel, and entered the Orei channel. We are heading for the Gulf of Evia to Khalkis and eventually to Athens.

Met Karin from Helsingborg and her husband Aimilios on the quay. Fun unexpected meeting with Swedish Karin. Karin has been living outside Athens for 27 years.

One quite amazing discovery we made was the Bull of Oreon. This charging full size bull statue dates back to 400 BC. It was found in the harbour in 1965 and is now on display in a glass box next to the church. After a bit of googling we found out more about the historical importance of this today little Greek summer holiday place. It never stop surprising us the fantastic history there is behind all these quite ordinary places we come across. 

Leslie is a Taurus and has a special affinity to the Bull.

From our taverna we have this fantastic view. 

Skiathos 29 May

Lellebelle waiting for the weather to change.

Rain and wind should stop by midday.

Hired a car and drove up to a town Kastro.

Fantastic views. Carl brought swimming gear in case the wheather improved. But no. 

The people of Skiathos moved to this quite inaccessible peninsula when they were threatened by invaders 1360. They built a whole village on this narrow peninsula. Remains of the houses can still be seen, as well as some churches and a mosque. All quite small.

One could only enter the village, Kastro, by a wooden drawbridge. The village was abandoned in the 1800's This is a wonderful place to visit.

View of the town Skiathos from Panorama café,on the way back from Kastro.

A break at the Panorama café.

Carl testing his first real Greek Frapppe!

Great time together with the Malmögang. After a few drinks on board LB it is time for dinner at a taverna. 

Platamonas to Skiathos, 27 May

We set course for Skitaloss at 0550

The Marina office and cafe shine brightly in the night. 

We decided to travel the whole way to Skiathos today, 8-10 hours because according to the weather report bad weather is heading our way on Thursday. Started off quite fine. Could just pick out Mt Athos on the horizon..

After about 2 hours, tomorrow's weather arrived early. The clouds were hanging low, black and cigar shaped, filled with lightning, rain an wind. The mountain range Pillion on our starboard with peaks up to 1500 m creates this type of local weather. 

It must be noted that this is a very beautiful and dramatic coastline.

At last, Skiathos in sight!

What a wonderful surprise meeting up with friends ( ex colleague) from Malmö.

Platamonos 26 May

At last, Olympus in the early morning with no clouds

Hired a car and drove up up to Priona, a station on Mt Olympus at 1 100 m. Fantastic windy steep road with wonderful views over to the Kassandra peninsula. 

Carl is certain he could just see Mt Athos, on the  Akti peninsula in the distance

Beautiful nature, birds and flowers and of course the Gods!

We have read up about the gods and found out that archaeological excavations revealed findings from settlements dating back to the Iron Age. These first settlers on the foot of Mt Olympus created the legends that would later give rise to the Twelve Greek Gods. 

The 12 gods live in ravines " the mysterious folds of Olympus" according to Homer. They have their palaces there.Pantheon is their meeting place. Their discussions are overheard by the God of all gods, Zeus, sitting on his imposing throne (stefani). From there he unleashes his thunderbolts to show his "godly wrath"

We took a 20 minute hike up the mountain. but be warned! And in fact, in many places along the drive up the mountain there are numerous rock fall.

We are sure that with the next shake this one will come tumbling down, it is only held up by two small rocks! Definitely walked quickly passed that one.

Have checked the names of the twelve gods. Different sources have different gods but these are the ones we found: Zeus, Hera, Poseidon,Dementer, Athena, Apollo, Artemis, Ares, Aphrodite, Herphaestus, Hermes and Hestia or Dionysus. 

 

They all have Roman names as well. Then ther are some Other gods for example, Hades, Hercules, Eros and about 30 minor resident gods of Mt Olympus.

On our way up to the top we heard some cowbells klonking. Carl the curious went to explore and found a gang of mules guarded by a viscous dog. At least the barking was frightening. We guess the mules are for transporting wine and other supplies up to the four refuges. 

The monestry of Dionysus, about 13 th century was damaged by earthquakes and finally destroyed by the Germans in WWII.

At the foot of the mountain and situated 5 km from the sea, lies the Macedonian city of Dion, dedicated to Zeus and the twelve gods. It is estimated that the city flourished between 5th century BC and the 5 th century AD. 

The ancient inhabitants of Dion built a sanctuary devoted to Aphrodite as goddess of the foothills of Olympus, and Artemis the goddess of childbirth.

Artemis was succeeded by the Egyptian goddess, Isis. Alexander the Great held her in highest esteem and he greatly honoured her by personally designating the location of her sanctuary.

The Isis festival took place every spring and autumn. Only initiated pilgrims could enter the sanctuary where they spent the night waiting for the great goddess to visit their dreams and listen to their prayers.

Dion flourished during the Hellenistic and imperial times. After the 4 th century AD it declined with the forced leaving of the inhabitants due to numerous earthquakes.

The sanctuary of Isis.

Sanctuary of Zeus

About 100 oxen were sacrificed in honour of Zeus before Alexander the Great set out for increasing his empire.  My own reflection is that it was a proper offering to ensure a successful campaign and enough meat to have a giant braai (barbecue) for the soldiers. 

Worshipped together with Zeus were the Muses, who had been born on the slopes of Mt Olympus. To honour them the annual celebration, the Olympia of Dion was held. Dion was visited frequently by the Macedonian Kings. They came to sacrifice to Zeus Olympios for the ceremonial purification of their army, to take oaths of alliance before the gods, and to celebrate with the army and the people. 

We heard there was wine for sale from the local vineyards in a place called Rafshina. We thought it was a good idea to stock up on the Macedonian wine. The drive took us through the district Piera which is the centre for wine growing. 

Beautiful landscape. And we bought a case of a very good white wine. A change from the daily Malamatina, "the key to a healthy life".

All in all this has been a fantastic eventful day. We have been exposed to so much history the past few weeks, from Iron Age settlements, the Macedonians, the Persians, the battles at Galopoli, the WW II, it takes time to absorb all the information and to put it into some kind of perspective. A good reason to sit over a bottle of Retsina late into the night reasoning about The Meaning Of Life! Starting to think that the meaning of life is that there is no meaning, well my change our minds tomorrow!

Carl thinks there is no other meaning but to enjoy!

Nea Moudhania to Platamonas, 25 May

We left Nea Moudhania at 6 am to start the 4-5 hour trip to Platamonas. According to our guide it is a small harbour town where we could find a berth among the fishing boats, no electricity. We decided on Platomonos because we realised that the town is very close to Mount Olympus, highest mountain in Greece, 2 900 m.

Leaving Nea Moudhania before sunrise. On a scale of 1to 10 the sea was about 3, with 0 being the perfect flat sea, according to me.

Spotted Mount Olympus in the distance, sticking out of the cloud. Just as well to have a point to stare at because the sea turned from 3 to 6, according to me.

What a surprise! Arrived in the wonderful little Marina in Platamonas where there is water, electricity, bathrooms, a very friendly and helpful harbour master. We decided on the spot to stay for two days. Still trying to snap a photo of Mount Olympus which keeps hiding behind a cloud.

In the Marina, Mount Olympus peak just to the right of the Greek flag. 

Sunset behind Mount Olympus. If the weather is good we are going to climb the mountain tomorrow. That means far up as the car will take us. The top of the mountain has big patches of snow on it and the guide warns that it can be bitterly cold up there. But down here in the harbour everything is warm and calm and we are happy that the season has just started. We have more than 100 inviting tavernas to choose from.

On Dimitry the harbour masters recommendation we went to Diamant Taverna for a fantastic Gyros and Souvlaki. The proprietor and mother to the twins served us. 

Porto Carras to Nea Moudhania, 24 May

Left luxury behind, travelling across the Kassandra straits to the other side of the peninsula

The pretty, hilly town/city of Nea Marmaras waving us off on our journey.

While I am hard at work getting us across the Kassandra strait, the captain is taking a break.

Wonderful smooth sea most of the way.

Entering the Porto canal, a canal on the northern part of the Kassandra peninsula. Like Falsterbokanalen but without lock.

The Porto Canal is 1 km long. After 30 minutes arrived in the town of Nea Moudhania. Apparently a working as opposed to a tourist town. Lively tavernas along the harbour and in the town. Not much to do here so had a light lunch, Greek salad, what else, and spend the afternoon resting and reading on LelleBelle. A bit choppy.

The main attraction seems to be this beautifully decorated church.

A glass of wine and free wifi before a supper of two sausages,two eggs and two tomatoes on board. Supermarkets closed on Sundays.

Captain at work.