Day 40

Kaliméra,

Cavo Olympo Luxury Hotel and Spa is a fantastic place to stay. It is large and very luxurious. We have thoroughly enjoyed it. The food in the restaurant has also been exceptional.

Best of all, check out is not until 12:00pm, so we spent the morning in the sunshine sitting by the pool. It was nice to be able to spend a few hours relaxing, reading, catching up on our travel stories and taking advantage of proper high speed WiFi.

The drive back to Athens was very easy and straight forward, as it was motorway the whole way. The distance was a little over 400 kilometres, and we covered it in four hours of driving time. You could never hope to cover such a distance so quickly on New Zealand roads.

Speed limits varied between 100km/h and 130km/h, most of the time was 120km/h. The drivers in Greece mostly stick to the limit, perhaps 10km/h faster. Nothing as crazy as the speed obsessed Italians.

It has been nice to see some of the Greek countryside. The pictures we see of Greece are usually of sun drenched beaches and islands like Santorini. Mainland Greece is actually very mountainous. It is very hot in summer, and snow in the high country in winter. So, it is very dry and rocky soil.

We saw herds of goats as often as you see sheep in New Zealand. Sometimes what looked like goats and sheep in a mixed herd. The goats are used to produce milk, which is used to make cheeses.

As in Sicily, in Greece there are wild cats everywhere in cities and towns. It is not usual to sit down at an outdoor restaurant or café, and within a few minutes there’s a polite meow and a pair of pleading eyes looking up for a morsel.

In Greece we have been surprised by the number of stray dogs that roam the town streets and even the countryside. Kalabaka had a lot of dogs, big dogs, wandering the streets. They were the size of a labrador or a border collie, and of very mixed breed. We are a bit wary of them, although none of them seemed to be aggressive. There does not seem to be any sort of animal control to keep them under control.

Yesterday’s drive from Kalabaka to Mt Olympus was via country roads, not the motorway. Often we would see a large dog sleeping in the sun on the warm road. Or a group of dogs rummaging through a field.

This afternoon we had lunch at a a motorway rest stop, and there was a large dog there to greet us as we left the car. Grandma gave him a bit of a pat, and from then on he was following Grandma everywhere.

The last ten kilometres were by far the slowest, as we arrived in Athens at four o’clock on a Friday afternoon. We had to drop the car off in the middle of the city, so we had to deal with the very busy downtown traffic.

What has impressed Koro about Athens is the number of taxis that are Skodas. In Germany and Italy the dominant brand of taxi is Mercedes Benz. In Greece it seems to be Skoda. No surprises really, as the mighty Skoda offers more rear leg room, rock solid reliability and represents great value for money.

We checked into our hotel, then headed out into the city. We had some shopping we wanted to do. A t-shirt for Koro, some perfume for Grandma.

We bought some wooden spoons for the kitchen that are made from the wood of the olive tree, a very hard wood. The man at the shop said if we look after then and keep them oiled, they will last 200 years, “I guarantee it!”.

Koro also liked the weight and sturdy construction of these wooden spoons; they will make perfect bottom smackers for use on noisy children.

We had dinner at our favourite place. The nice man there remembered us, and we had a delicious dinner of grilled lamb chops.

The Greeks certainly love their lamb, just as we do in New Zealand. Their preferred method of serving lamb chops it to cook them on the grill, just as we would cook them on the BBQ. Perhaps a very light sprinkle of mild paprika, and a wedge of lemon to serve them with. A salad and some chippies to round out the meal. As in New Zealand, lamb is not the cheapest dish on the menu, but the portions are generous.

Afterwards we were treated to a digestive on the house; a Greek dessert wine, sweetened with honey and just a hint of cinnamon.

Something we have noticed in Italia and Greece is their appreciation for local produce. If an item on the menu is produced locally the wait staff will point this out, be it wine, cheese, olive oil, the meat or a craft beer. It feels like people take an interest in where their food comes from, something we are just starting to do in New Zealand.

This is a our last night in Athens, we are off to explore a couple of Greek islands early tomorrow morning.

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