Day 39

Kaliméra,

The plan today was to visit Mount Olympus. This is the highest mountain in Greece, and the birthplace of the Greek gods. Zeus is said to live right at the top of the mountain.

You have to be careful where you ask Google Maps to take you, because it always takes you to exactly where you want to go. In this case we asked for Mount Olympus. So Google Maps showed the way.

It was a beautiful autumn day, and the drive was relaxed and easy. No crazy Italians tailgating us.

As we approached a very high mountain the road became narrower and steeper. The landscape was very dry, with only low shrubs growing, and the ground was very rocky.

Eventually the road became a gravel road, and we were suddenly very high up with a spectacular view. Google Maps said we had 18km left to go, but it would take us over an hour. That’s when we realised that Google Maps was taking us right to the summit of Mount Olympus. We didn’t even know you could just drive up to the top.

The road by this stage was very rough, and we didn’t want to take the

little Audi any further. It is too low slung and some of the rocks were very large. We stopped and took some pictures, and were happy we were actually standing on Mount Olympus.

We were sitting in the car, planning how to get to our hotel for our overnight stop, and suddenly a huge gust of wind came along. It was very strong, blowing dust everywhere and rocking and shaking the car.

It was almost as if the Gods of Mount Olympus were sending us a warning, that if we had thoughts of going any further, they would make it difficult for us.

We turned the car around, drove down until we had cell phone service again, and headed to our hotel in Plaka, a town by the seaside and about 90 minutes drive.

This area seems to be a bit of a seaside resort. The houses all look to be weekend holiday homes. The beach is very ordinary, just a narrow strip of rocks.

Our hotel is very flash, it is basically a self contained resort. Two restaurants, two swimming pools (one indoor), a gym, sauna and “wellness centre”. It is very modern and the restaurant has beautiful food. But the price was amazing, only €100. When we first drove up and walked in, Koro was worried he had misread the location of the decimal point in the price.

We are enjoying our room very much, and Grandma is already planning changes she would like to make to our en-suite at home. Even Buzzy Bee has found a comfortable place to sit.

Best of all, they have proper, high speed WiFi.

We will enjoy Cavo Olympo before driving back to Athens for the night and the next stage of our adventures in Greece.

Love to you all from Grandma and Koro and Olympian Bee. XXX OOO.